DroneDJ

Canadian diversified drone hardware and services company Volatus says it has secured a year-long contract in the UK to perform aerial monitoring of water treatment facilities for leaks of methane gas – a major contributor to global warming.

Nottinghamshire Police in the UK say 2022 was the busiest year to date for its drone operators, with more deployments, arrests, and interventions than ever before.

Ground-breaking autonomous drone systems developer Percepto says it has attained another unprecedented Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) authorization, this time for its nested UAVs to be used at a solar power plant in Texas to perform highly automated inspections at high altitudes.

Between the fanfare of initial announcements of intent, network planning, testing, regulatory approval, community consultation, and recurring teasers of looming launches, it can be a little difficult keeping current on the actual state of play in drone delivery activity – a haziness Walmart is now endeavoring to dissipate.

Designer and manufacturer of security and defense drones, Teal, says it has signed an agreement to use sensors produced by Canadian optical products specialist Immervision to provide its UAVs with low-light vision capabilities for aerial data collection operations.

In a first, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) has approved the use of a drone-based solution to detect methane leaks at municipal solid waste landfill sites.

Airspace security specialist Dedrone is again moving to expand its business to keep pace with growing US and international demand for UAV detection and mitigation solutions with its acquisition of Arizona’s drone detection company Aerial Armor.

The latest from CES 2023 is that Mitsubishi Electric is putting together a drone-based logistics operations management platform called AnyMile. This open marketplace, we are told, will bring together shippers, drone manufacturers, drone operators, and ancillary service providers onto a single platform, allowing them to easily schedule and manage cargo deliveries via drones.

Today at CES, Autel announced its newest drone to its lineup with the EVO Max 4T – a compact drone with a thermal zoom camera and a range finder all in one package for first responders.

Sony Electronics has developed a new battery charging station for the Airpeak S1 drone. Available later this month at a suggested retail price of $2,900, the battery station will provide convenient storage and transportation of up to 10 Airpeak S1 battery packs, while offering fast charging for eight battery packs (four at a time).

Supernal, the advanced air mobility (AAM) unit of South Korean automotive giant Hyundai, has struck a partnership Microsoft to create cloud-based tools for use in craft design and flight simulation, and eventually in the manufacturing and maintenance of planes.  

Next-generation electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft manufacturer Archer has announced a significant deepening of its industrial and strategic partnership with European automotive giant Stellantis, under which the producer of Chrysler, Fiat, Peugeot, and other car brands will contribute advanced manufacturing technology, expertise, and capital to the operation of the air taxi company’s future Covington, Georgia, Midnight plane factory.

During the eleven months it has been battling Russia’s invasion, Ukraine has demonstrated remarkably effective military deployment of consumer, enterprise, and even DYI-built drones for a variety of purposes, including reconnaissance, intelligence collection, and munition drops. Now officials say the country will take that aerial innovation to another level by developing a UAV created to intercept and destroy the explosives-laden craft Moscow has relied on in its unrelenting attacks.

Federal law enforcement officials at Sunday’s inauguration ceremony for Brazil’s president-elect, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, say they used an anti-drone gun to bring down four “suspicious” aircraft heading toward the president.

UK companies BT and unified traffic management (UTM) specialist Altitude Angel have struck a deal, combining their work building the nation’s 165-mile drone superhighway based on an agreement that gives the telecom giant an equity stake in the start-up.

DJI’s Mavic lineup has always held the coveted flagship title from the company, and this year we have not one, not two, but three options for consumers to choose from. So let’s look at the two more popular ones and see which you should get, the Mavic 3 vs. Mavic 3 Classic.

DJI has dropped the teaser for a new product launch – its first for 2023 – set to take place next week. Here’s what we know…

All evidence indicates that 2022 was a veritable boom year in the increasing traffic of drones flown to drop contraband into prisons around the world, with December closing out with reports of another suspected UAV delivery to a jail in Canada.

If such a thing can exist in a merciless and escalating military onslaught, the good news out of bomb-rocked Kyiv today is its forces shot down 44 of the Iran-made Shaded-136 drones that Russia launched overnight in its ongoing New Year’s aerial attacks on Ukraine.

The United Arab Emirates has welcomed 2023 in style with a record-breaking drone show. A dazzling 12-minute display of over 670 drones, covering 4.7 km of beachfront and reaching a height of 1,100 meters, smashed two Guinness World Records titles as Ras Al Khaimah, the northernmost emirate of the UAE, ushered in the New Year.

The year 2022 was a busy one for DJI with the company doing everything from redefining what’s possible with a sub-250-gram drone to peppering its enterprise product line with a slew of new releases.

The profile of smaller drones is rapidly expanding in both the planning and execution of global conflicts, and in reaction defense and security company BAE Systems has continued adaptation and testing of less costly munitions to battle mid-sized UAVs as an option to larger and more sophisticated anti-air systems. 

Newspapers worldwide have been decimated to near extinction by various disruptive technologies over the past decade, but a Finnish company is preparing to give local dailies a lift by assuring prompt delivery of papers to subscribers on secluded lake islands south of the city of Tampere.

They’re immersive, they’re exciting, and done right, they get the adrenaline rushing. No wonder we can’t get enough of first-person view (FPV) drone videos! As the year ends, here’s a look back at FPV drone footage that was all about immaculate planning, perfect timing and coordination, clever sound editing, and of course, next-level flying skills.