DroneDJ

Australian air taxi infrastructure company Skyportz is moving to secure use of prime urban real estate for future electric takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOL) air taxi operation by – somewhat like the fast-moving homophonic UK drone group Skyports – working with large parking lot businesses to serve as heliports.

Switzerland-based drone mission planning platform Drone Harmony has raised $1.6 million to fast-track innovation in its full-3D flight planning products and stake out strategic partnerships with drone and infrastructure digitalization companies.

The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) has announced new additions to its advocacy staff. The expansion will allow the association to expand its work on beyond visual line of sight policy development, building a roadmap towards trusted autonomy in both commercial and defense drone sectors.

DJI Mini SE, the tech giant’s cheapest drone yet, is finally available to buy in the UK and the European Union.

Swedish authorities are investigating multiple reports of rogue drones being spotted over the country’s nuclear power plants, including one that provides 14% of Sweden’s total electricity output.

The Dallas Police Department has said it will be increasing its use of drones in response to certain emergencies and criminal situations, as well as in investigations of open cases.

We had the opportunity to speak with Autel’s owner and general manager Maxwell Lee while at CES. At the company’s booth, he walked us through what Autel went through to bring its newest drones, the Nano and Lite, to market.

Santa Monica-based aerial imaging and data processing specialist DroneBase is strengthening its services to solar energy clients with piloted airplane surveys to provide annual audits of infrastructure supplementing the company’s routine drone inspections.

When Maxwell Lee took over as the general manager of Autel Robotics, his family-owned business, in 2020, he knew there would be challenges. What he didn’t expect was that he would be navigating a period of historic tech innovation, speckled by a pandemic, major leadership changes, and supply chain crisis.

If imitation is indeed the highest form of flattery, developers at Wingtra will feel praised by the Thailand-produced Vetal, a similar-looking and -operating vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) drone hoping to give its Swiss predecessor some competition.

If you’re a drone pilot, you likely know there are certain risks you take on when flying through a fog. In some circumstances, the fog may trigger the drone’s obstacle avoidance sensors or prevent it from descending because the aircraft starts to think of the fog as a landing spot. Then, why on earth are NASA engineers flying drones in fog so thick, you can’t see three feet in front of you?

Canadian drone services specialist Volatus Aerospace is partnering with a US company to provide fully integrated mobile command centers to first responders and other UAV operators in public safety missions. 

London-based navigation tech company Neuron has offered details on trials it completed in the UK last year, demonstrating its ability to successfully track drones operating beyond visual line of site (BVLOS) missions using its data secured traffic management platform.

DJI Mic, which was announced in October 2021 alongside the Action 2 camera with a shipping date set for this month, would not hit the shelves until early March 2022.

A new commercial drone, dubbed “Sea-Air Integrated Drone”, can both fly in the air and perform operations underwater. The breakthrough innovation was recently showcased at a marine amusement park in Japan.

Aerospace group Embraer’s urban air mobility unit, Eve, has announced its plans to create a global network of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles and services, in partnership with UK-based airline leasing company Falko Regional Aircraft Limited.

A unit of Raytheon Technologies has not only developed a system allowing a single operator to control a swarm of 130 drones, but did so using off-the-shelf hardware and a focus on making the platform as easy to use as it is efficient.

Videos have emerged showing what reports describe as a notorious Mexican drug cartel’s drone dropping several bombs on human targets. The footage comes in the wake of escalating violence – and increasing sophistication of aerial attacks – in Mexico as gangs seek to dominate illegal but extremely lucrative narcotics trafficking.

Is UPS abandoning its previously all-in, gung-ho enthusiasm for drones as the delivery vehicle of the future? Probably not, but recent comments about the tech by its CEO do seem to indicate a certain toning down of executive expectations of how fast UAVs will revolutionize the company’s business.

Convergence in the high-end mapping and 3D-modeling drone services segment is afoot with the acquisition of LiDAR tech specialist GeoCue by the mdGroup, owner of Germany-based Microdrones.

AI Clearing, a business intelligence (BI) solutions provider that uses drone data to track construction progress, says it has trained its artificial intelligence models to recognize key objects installed during solar farm construction.

Researchers in Wales are using a mix of tech assets including drones to monitor the erosion of the country’s coastline, which has accelerated from rising sea levels produced by global warming.

The UAV manufacturing and service provider Aquiline Drone Corp. says it has become the sector’s first company to provide insurance coverage – initially for its own activities and partners before extending that to other clients.