DroneDJ

The killer whale whose deteriorating health in the fresh waters of the Seine River led officials in Normandy to deploy a drone in their efforts to lure it back to sea. The whale has been euthanized after it was determined the creature’s state had declined too greatly to survive.

Officials in France’s Normandy region are to deploy a drone as likely their best and probably last chance to save a killer whale that has strayed far up into the fresh waters of the Seine River.

Autonomous drone charging station hardware manufacturer Heisha has launched its smallest drone dock yet, the D50. The new drone-in-a-box solution is compatible with a wide variety of aircraft that use 2S-4S batteries, such as the DJI Mavic and Phantom drones as well as Autel, Skydio, and Parrot products.

Pursuing a similar strategy it introduced in the US, vertiport infrastructure specialist Skyports is teaming up with Japan’s largest parking lot and car sharing operator, PARK24 CO., to adapt existing structures as hosts of future air taxi and other advance air mobility (AAM) services.

China’s EHang, a pioneer in passenger-grade drones and urban air mobility solutions, is gearing up to offer air taxi services in Thailand through a joint venture with one of the country’s largest conglomerates CP Group.

In a first for Japan, renewable energy firm afterFIT has received approval to fly autonomous drones beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) at night. The approval has been granted by the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism.

California startup Realtime Robotics is introducing a portable, relatively heavy-lift drone called Hera that the company says beats rivals as a situational awareness asset for first responders, as well as a munitions delivery device for security and defense forces. As such it also sounds like something likely to find numerous takers in Ukraine just now.

Developer of electric takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxis Joby Aviation says it has obtained its Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate nearly a half year ahead of schedule. The company will now use the permit to operate traditional aircraft to prepare the launch of services with next-generation vehicles in 2024.

US researchers are building a drone-based communication network that would leverage the laws of quantum physics to make information exchange ultra-secure. While this system can prove beneficial in several scenarios, one prominent use case is warfare wherein quantum drones could provide one-time crypto-keys to relay critical messages that spies and enemies would not be able to intercept.

Auterion, the company providing enterprise and government clients open-source software-defined systems for drones, payloads, and apps, has introduced its AI Node designed to infuse supercomputing power to the company’s Skynode avionics product.

Leading drone show conceptualization and performing company, SKYMAGIC, will be at work this Sunday for the return of the Vivid Sydney creative festival, where a record 600 UAVs will light up the sky in a choreographed spectacle.

Having a drone in flight to video first-person view footage of football hero Tom Brady’s against-the-odds hole-in-one golf shot seems too serendipitous to be real. And that’s because it is – not real, that is – according to about half of the online viewers now panning it as a fraud.

Ocean acidification is a serious threat to marine ecosystems. When carbon dioxide (CO2) is absorbed by seawater, chemical reactions occur that reduce seawater pH. This affects the ability of marine organisms such as corals and crabs to build and maintain their shells. The Gulf of Alaska’s cold waters naturally hold more carbon dioxide. And in an era of climate change, it’s always at risk of reaching a tipping point. This is why researchers are now hoping that a 7-foot-long, bright pink underwater drone will help them get a deeper understanding of the ocean’s chemistry.

There’s no question that the brains inside Skydio drones are rather impressive. These things are masters of AI and autonomy, capable of carrying out tasks that can prove challenging for other drones. The team, naturally, knows everything there’s to know about building autonomous robots at scale. And now, it’s ready to share its learnings with the wider robotics community by making public SymForce – the library that powers the motion planner and computer vision systems used by Skydio drones.

Bulgaria’s Dronamics has taken a major step toward its goal of launching middle-mile automated drone delivery service later this year by obtaining what it says is the first operational certificate by a UAV airline for activity across the European Union (EU).

People involved in an effort to procure over 200 Parrot Anafi USA drones for Ukraine forces battling Russian troops fear they’ve been bilked by intermediaries in Poland who delivered only six of the UAVs, and have failed to return over half a million dollars after the order was canceled.

We’re working toward a future where passenger air taxis and drone deliveries are to become a part of everyday mobility. But how will these autonomous systems access important information, such as deteriorating weather conditions, to complete each flight safely? To address this issue, NASA researchers are exploring the creation of a decentralized data and reasoning hub that would help autonomous aircraft to make critical safety decisions rapidly.

Drone services and urban air mobility (UAM) vertiport specialist Skyports has signed an agreement with the operators of Singapore’s Jurong Port – the only facility in the city-state serving as a multi-purpose cargo platform – to oversee development of infrastructure for planned ship-to-shore UAV deliveries.

Insta360, the Shenzhen 360° camera powerhouse, has released a new camera. It’s made to work with two popular DJI drones – opening up possibilities for your aerial videos and stills that simply could not be achieved without it.

Retailing giant Walmart is shifting its aerial partnership with DroneUp into higher gear with its announcement today of expanded drone delivery services to a potential of 4 million households across six US states.

Snap’s new pocket-sized Pixy selfie drone, which is available for purchase only in the US and France, comes with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) “Open” category CE C0 class identification label stamped on its battery compartment.

Parrot says its new ANAFI Ai 4G drone will be accessible from the cloud for mission planning, real-time video streaming, and fully remote management of the fleet. This capability is being enabled through the joint efforts of the drone maker and French software company UAVIA.

Skydio and Axon’s strategic partnership is coming along rather nicely. Public safety agencies flying Skydio drones and using Axon Respond real-time operations platform can now access live video feeds from their Skydio 2 and Skydio X2 aircraft for better situational awareness.