Ishveena Singh is a versatile journalist and writer with a passion for drones and location technologies. She has been named as one of the 50 Rising Stars of the geospatial industry for the year 2021 by Geospatial World magazine.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has invested another $4.4 million in drone research through its Alliance for System Safety of UAS through Research Excellence (ASSURE) program. The grants – focusing on the areas of electromagnetic compatibility, UAS detect and avoid classifications, and cybersecurity oversight – have been awarded to seven US universities.
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As the new and improved United States Football League (USFL) began its inaugural season on Saturday night, every attempt was made to give fans as much access to the teams and players as possible. One technology that had many viewers talking about it was the use of drones during gameplay.
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Editor’s note: This article has been updated with new high-resolution photos of the DJI Mini 3 drone that were leaked during the weekend.
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So, you use DroneDeploy to visualize and analyze your Skydio drone data? You can now upload imagery captured on any Skydio drone directly to the DroneDeploy cloud platform without ever touching your SD card!
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Freefly Systems’ all-electric Alta X drone has become the second drone to be approved under the Blue sUAS 2.0 program.
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The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection is funding a new three-year research project on the use of passenger-grade air taxis and cargo drones to complement helicopter and ship deployments when servicing offshore wind farms. The idea is to fly technicians and materials out to sea using drones, and reduce the time and cost it takes to service a wind turbine.
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Inkonova, a Stockholm-based underground drone mapping specialist, has been acquired by mining consultancy firm RAMJACK. While the terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed by the companies, Japan’s Terra Drone Corporation had also announced in 2018 that it had picked up a “significant stake” in Inkonova.
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Wisk Aero, a California-based manufacturer of passenger-grade air taxis, has joined forces with UK vertiport developer Skyports to explore how autonomous eVTOL operations can be safely integrated into the national airspace system (NAS). The two firms have released a novel Concept of Operations (ConOps) that outlines the upgrades, retrofits, and procedure changes that will be required for the safe transport of passengers in an autonomous eVTOL aircraft.
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The rumored DJI Mini 3 is expected to launch later this month. Following a massive video leak that has revealed at least four major features of the highly-awaited drone, a DJI tipster has shared the pricing for the entire Mini 3 and Mini 3 Pro series. And according to this leak, the Mini 3’s price tag is going to be anything but “mini.”
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It’s no secret: GoPro is the first choice for most in the First-Person-View (FPV) drone world. But pilots don’t just strap on a GoPro camera to their small, cinewhoop-style drones. They strip down as much weight as they can, sometimes going as far as sawing the GoPro apart to engineer a better solution.
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The Inspire line has been a powerhouse for DJI. With Inspire 2 continuing to be one of the most popular drones around for aerial cinematography, it’s easy to see why the tech giant has not felt the need to refresh the range sooner. But the Inspire 3 is definitely coming. And it’s hopefully coming soon. Here’s everything we know from rumors and leaks so far.
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EHang, a specialist in passenger-grade drones and urban air mobility (UAM) solutions, says it has received a pre-order for 100 units of its EH216 air taxis from an Indonesian aviation company. This is the largest pre-order EHang has received so far for its passenger-grade drone taxis in Asia.
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After months of delay, DJI has finally made its first audio recording product, DJI Mic, available to buy. But don’t count on creating spring content with the wireless microphone just yet. Most US states won’t see a DJI Mic actually being delivered until the last week of May.
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The UK Department of Transport has just released a report that details how a police officer lost control of his DJI Matrice 210 (M210) V1 drone before it crashed into the first-floor balcony of a house. Although no one was hurt, the report warns that “people could have been seriously injured by the propeller blades” if the balcony had been occupied.
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Gremsy, one of the most popular developers of camera gimbal stabilizers for drones, is launching a new product for open drone ecosystems. The Vietnamese gimbal manufacturer recently joined forces with autonomous mobility platform Auterion. And the result is Gremsy PE: a gimbal series that has been purpose-built for an effortless integration with Auterion and MAVLink compliant drones.
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Counter-drone specialist DroneShield is joining forces with location intelligence firm Nearmap to make its DroneSentry-C2 Command-and-Control software more precise than ever. An upgrade adds a layer of high-resolution aerial imagery to DroneShield’s existing mapping service, so users have more precise information while responding to drone threats.
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After achieving similar feats in the United States, Australia, and Israel, drone-in-a-box solutions provider Percepto has received its first Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) waiver under the new European drone regulations. This waiver for Percepto drones comes from the Dutch civil aviation authority (ILT), while Germany and Belgium are expected to follow suit.
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The FAA has granted Iris Automation a second waiver for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) autonomous drone operations on behalf of the City of Reno. But while the previous waiver required the use of Iris Automation’s advanced detect and avoid solution Casia X, this one utilizes the company’s Casia G ground-based solution (pictured above).
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Autel Robotics’ Dragonfish Lite and Pro drones are finally available in the US. The new drones join the standard version of the Dragonfish VTOL, providing enterprise pilots with multiple endurance options that suit diverse budgets.
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Israel-based autonomous drone software company vHive has scooped up $25 million in Series B funding to digitize enterprise assets and expand operations globally. vHive’s drone-agnostic solution enables readily-available commercial, off-the-shelf drones to follow flight paths autonomously and inspect field assets, such as cell towers, with uncanny precision to build accurate digital twins.
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After reviewing over 800 stunning entries, the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has announced four winners for its drone photography competition: #ShotOnMyDrone. Here are the amazing drone photos that showcase the beautiful towns, cities, and countryside of the UK in all their glory.
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Switzerland-based INVOLI has announced the availability of a new 4G drone tracking device, LEMAN RemoteID. Compatible with Remote ID requirements set by aviation authorities in both the United States and Europe, the INVOLI drone tracker comes with its own GPS and battery to broadcast drone information directly over a Wi-Fi frequency (Remote ID Broadcast) or a 4G network (Network Remote ID).
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After weeks of leaks, rumors, and speculations that didn’t give away much, the DJI Mini 3 hype train is finally gaining momentum with new photos and videos of the highly-awaited drone showing up online Saturday. Interestingly, the drone shown in the video appears to have been activated in early March – indicating that DJI has been officially testing the product for at least a month and that its release date could be imminent.
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The DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced (M2EA) drone has received its latest firmware update, complete with new capabilities for mission flights and a ton of neat improvements.
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