After weeks of resisting, Florida governor Ron DeSantis issued a COVID-19 stay-at-home order last week. Now police in Daytona Beach are using loudspeaker-equipped drones to warn residents about park closures.
Expand
Expanding
Close
We’ve recently seen several cities and countries use drones to spray liquid disinfectant on outdoor spaces. It’s a fast and economical way to destroy the virus that causes COVID-19. But what about inside buildings, where liquid would make a mess and damage property? A new disinfectant drone uses ultraviolet light to kill the virus as it flies autonomously within buildings.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Drones don’t enjoy the best reputation with the public, who often see them as a noisy, snooping annoyance. But a drone may have been a lifesaver for a hiker who got lost in frigid conditions outside Anchorage, Alaska.
As the UK works to slow the coronavirus with methods such as mandatory social distancing, the country’s police forces are using drones to shame people indoors. But whether, like Spain, Britain wants to use them to disinfect is under debate.
Researchers at the University of South Australia are working on coronavirus detection drones capable of detecting temperature, heart, and respiratory rates, as well as detecting people sneezing and coughing in crowds. The “pandemic drone” is being created in partnership with Draganfly Inc, one of the largest enterprise drone companies to date.
In Australia, the Westpac Life Saver Rescue Drone program has commissioned a number of dye-dropping DJI Mavic 2 drones, that can drop sea marker dye into the ocean that allows lifesavers on the beach to more easily spot riptides and help stop drownings.
The UK government is trying to get people out of cars and use different means of transportation such as electric scooters. Medical drones are also being looked at to help reduce congestion.
In our latest piece of news in which drones are used for good we go to the New Zealand wilderness. Here pests such as rats, stoats and possums are now hunted with poison-laden drones. The unmanned aircraft will be used to drop baits in the path of these pests.
In this short video, we learn that mothers have started to use DJI Phantom drones to search for missing children in the ‘killing fields’ of Mexico. In the municipality, Salinas Victoria in Northern Mexico, Laticia Hildalgo has been looking for her missing son, Roy for almost a decade and has yet to find him.
DJI tracks the number of people that have been saved with the help of drones and the last time I have heard that number it was well over 300 people. To help spread the news of drones doing good and helping our society a new Facebook group has recently been launched by L. Donauer. DroneDJ was one of the first members to come on board and help push this initiative. Throughout the year stories of drones doing good will be posted on this page and once a year a special event will be organized to promote Drones for GOOD. This year that day will be June 7th. Please be sure to check out, like, share and follow this page on Facebook and support it if you feel the same way we do, that drones can make a difference for the better and make our world a better place!
In Enfield, Connecticut, police used a drone to find a blind man who had walked away from home and became disoriented. The police said they were contacted by a family member of the man on Saturday morning around 8:45 am. Family members told the police that they were unable to make contact with the man which was uncommon.
Are you going to the beach this summer and happen to be in Australia? Look up, you might see a drone flying around keeping an eye on swimmers, looking out for sharks, or helping out with rescue efforts. The drone will be yellow and red — the colors of lifesaving — to make sure it stands out.
Nokia, along with the City of Sendai, Japan has worked together to create a brand new tsunami warning system using Nokia’s drone network. The drones will be deployed with a loudspeaker and lights to get the attention of the public and let them know a tsunami is likely to make landfall.
Rady Children’s Institute for Genomic Medicine (GCIGM) has partnered with Deloitte to take a closer look into drone delivery as a means of transport for genomic samples. The partnership is still in the testing and funding stage to ensure samples make it through the delivery.
Animal rescue group WIRES has partnered with Australian UAV to get drones into the air to measure and track the wildlife that managed to survive the devastating Australian bushfires. The Ripper Rescue Alliance has also been created and has deployed its drones to help with the massive task ahead.
Mauritania will soon be testing drones to fight back against the swarms of desert locusts damaging farmers’ crops and livelihoods. The test is thanks to the United Nations, which is hoping to minimize the damages caused by the desert locusts.
Canadian company Flash Forest is hoping to plant 1 billion trees using drones by 2028, a large task we want to see happen! The company hopes to use autonomous drones to plant seeds from above as well as monitor the seeds, ensuring they grow correctly and are able to survive.
Zipline has been saving lives for the last few years with its long distance drones delivering life-saving medical equipment and materials to hard to reach villages throughout Rwanda and Ghana. Today we are taking a look at an everyday flight one of Zipline’s drones makes to save another life.
Drone photos show the location of bodies after the volcanic eruption that took place on New Zealand‘s White Island on Monday. According to reports, at least 47 people were on the island at the time of the eruption. 13 people are believed to have died. Five deaths have been confirmed, the remaining eight missing persons are presumed to be dead.
Update: The Independent reports that at least 16 people are now confirmed dead. A military rescue team successfully recovered six bodies, which had been located the night before by drones. “The operation was not without risk but thanks to sound planning and the skills of the specialist team involved we have recovered the six bodies,” New Zealand police commissioner Mike Bush said in a statement.
We’re waiting for DJI to release their latest update for the number of people that have been rescued around the world with the help of drones. That number must be getting close to 300 hundred now. It was 279 during the DJI Airworks event that took place in October in Los Angeles. This story was shared by Romeo Durscher, DJI’s Senior Director of Public Safety Integration, and it is about an 84-year-old man who had been lost for more than 48 hours but luckily was found with help of a DJI Inspire 2 drone (DJI, Amazon). As the fall season in Estonia tends to get pretty cold, we are happy to report that the gentleman is safely back home now.
More than 100 pilots lift off from Jim R. Miller Park during a two-day GEMA and FEMA drone training event, participating in exercises ranging from obstacle courses to barricaded gunmen scenarios.
Retired Fire Chief, Wayne Baker joins DJI as the new Director of Public Safety Integration. If that leaves you wondering where Romeo Durscher went. Well, don’t worry, Romeo has earned himself a well-deserved promotion and he is now DJI’s Senior Director of Public Safety Integration. Congratulations to both Wayne and Romeo!
A hiker and dog became disoriented and lost in a terrain laden with swamps and marshes in Canada on Thursday night. A drone from the Renfrew County Paramedic team played a key part in the dramatic rescue of the duo.
Updated with drone video footage of the actual rescue.