DroneDJ

DJI is upping its gimbal game with the release of new RS 3 and RS 3 Pro models for mirrorless and cinema cameras. New features include an automated axis lock system, a third-generation RS stabilization algorithm that improves performance by 20%, and one-tap calibration.

Researchers at Imperial College London have developed a shape-shifting drone that can both fly through the air and float on a water surface. This Multi-Environment Dual robot for Underwater Sample Acquisition, aka MEDUSA, drone can also extend its “tentacles” underwater to collect samples and monitor water quality.

Pennsylvania-based security company Asylan has been granted three beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) waivers by the FAA. The waivers would allow Asylan to leverage its automated security drone-in-a-box system to conduct operations over people and moving vehicles even during nighttime at various sites in the US, including logistics customer GXO’s new facility in Clayton, Indiana.

Call it purely anecdotal if you must, but recent images are offering another example of the contrasting ways Ukraine and Russian troops are adapting consumer drones for combat against one another – and distinguishing the latter as at times remarkably bumbling, low-tech innovators.

Overair, developer of an electric takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft with significantly reduced noise output, has received $145 million in additional funding to support its push to test fly a prototype of its Butterfly plane next year.

Wearing its increasingly large hat as a next-generation advanced air mobility (AAM) infrastructure builder, Skyports has struck a partnership with French air industry IT specialist SITA to outfit its future vertiports with digital services facilitating passenger use of air taxi transportation.

Ahead of the expected demand by operators of eVTOL aircraft, autonomous drone charging station hardware manufacturer Heisha has unveiled a new dock, V200, that can charge a vertical takeoff and landing drone in 120 minutes.

Shield AI, an artificial intelligence company focusing on drones and other autonomous aircraft, is on a mission to build “the world’s best AI pilot.” To that end, the San Diego startup has raised $90 million in equity and $75 million in debt as part of a Series E fundraising round. The funding values Shield AI at $2.3 billion.

Construction and mining companies now have an additional mapping asset for faster and more effective surveying of worksites with the announcement that Propeller Aero’s data visualization and analytics tech is now compatible with Quantum-Systems’ top-drawer drone.

The US Department of State has filed a request to initiate a project that – if carried out – would deploy commercial drones to spray poison on illegal coca crops in Colombia at the base of the country’s booming cocaine production.

Specialized radar company Echodyne has raised $135 million in new funding it needs to keep pace with client demand and to continue anti-drone tech development, receiving the largest boost from backers Bill Gates and Scotland’s Baillie Gifford Group.

Ukraine’s 47th Motorized Infantry Battalion has released a video that shows Ukrainian troops using a drone armed with thermal cameras and bombs to hunt down Russian soldiers at night.

Don’t look now, but Amazon’s beleaguered drone delivery program, Prime Air, is finally beginning to show signs of life. The company announced today that customers in Lockeford, California, will be among the first in the US to see Amazon drones delivering packages in their backyards.

A pair of ground-breaking startups are pooling their tech capacities, hardware, and experience in an effort to develop drones specially designed for deployment by firefighters, using heat resistant materials and 3D printing power to speed production and lower costs.

Researchers in Denmark have developed tech that may well prove revolutionary in power grid surveys – and for UAV flight capacity generally: a drone that can tap into the same power lines it is inspecting to recharge its batteries, then continue on with its mission.

Next-generation aircraft manufacturer Wisk Aero is expanding its preparations for autonomous air taxi services beyond the US in cooperation with officials in Australia’s Queensland to bring advance air mobility (AAM) transport to the state.

With Father’s Day approaching, Autel Robotics is offering a discount of up to $170 on its new drones, the EVO Nano+ and EVO Lite+. The discount will vary depending on which bundle you choose (Standard or Premium), but if your tech-savvy dad doesn’t already own a drone, this deal may be worth checking out.

Broadly grown on 600,000 hectares of farmland in the country, cassava cultivation provides employment to thousands of rural workers in Cambodia. But cultivating a crop that can grow higher than one meter, and sometimes even surpass the average height of farmers, is not the easiest thing to do. So now, to meet the growing demand for cassava-based products such as food, flour, paper, and alcohol, farmers are looking at agricultural drones that bring with them the promise of increased productivity.

Sony Airpeak S1, the world’s smallest drone that can carry a full-frame Alpha series mirrorless camera, has received a major firmware update through which a previously flown path can be repeated immediately offline, without having to connect to the cloud.

It is a partnership that’s both timely and, sadly, increasingly necessary. Artificial intelligence-powered ZeroEyes gun detection technology is being integrated into automated drones and robotic ground assets produced by Asylon Robotics to avert, and when necessary, respond to active shooter situations.

French transport, defense, and aerospace giant Thales has been contracted by Airservices Australia to operate a trial run of its drone detection, monitoring, and identification platform at the Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport.

The topic most likely to provoke heated disputes between surfers (apart from whether anybody else has the right to be out at their spot) is just how big the waves they’ve ridden were – a most subjective and disputatious appreciation that two practitioners of the sport are using drones to perfect.

In these increasingly fraught times, and as debate rages over the future of legal abortion and whether to tighten gun regulations, four US legislators have demonstrated a truly bizarre sense of priority by introducing a bill that would outlaw using drones for acts already defined as crimes or otherwise prohibited.