sUAS News

The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), in collaboration with the Air Vehicle Intelligence and Autonomy (AVIA) Lab at Pennsylvania State University (PSU), completed testing of cooperative autonomous soaring algorithms used to keep unmanned sailplanes aloft for sustained flight durations—demonstrating the concept of shared soaring data between two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in flight. During the…The post NRL Tests Cooperative Soaring Concept for Sustained Flight of UAV Sailplanes appeared first on sUAS News.

The AMA has updated its Government Regulations blog details below. They were telling members to hold off but now seem to have capitulated. I can’t but help feel the USA is cutting down all the young innovators that might invent the next big thing. The FAA really don’t seem to be watching the rest of…The post AMA changes position on registration. appeared first on sUAS News.

At least six IT professionals and two students who allegedly took aerial visuals of the Tiruvannamalai hill using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) were arrested by the police on Sunday. The UAV was seized by the Tiruvannamalai Taluk police who released the accused on bail. Flying UAV without prior permission of the competent authority is…The post Six techies held for flying UAV over hill appeared first on sUAS News.

This CES, UAVs have become one of the highlights of the show’s many sectors, with DJI, FLYPRO UAV exhibiting its most innovative UAV products. At a press conference at CES, FLYPRO released a smart flying drone controlled by mouth, that is voice control, – the XEagle, a “smartwatch UAV” with one key control, quick automatic obstacle avoidance, intelligent gimbal follow recording and multiple intelligent security protection. According…The post FLYPRO launches XEagle UAV controlled by mouth appeared first on sUAS News.

Its in the title really our first guide is being put to bed and for those of you that have not yet submitted now is the time! We will happily include any interesting content! Just so long as its not pure advertising. Have a great project on the go then tell us about it! Please…The post Last chance to submit white papers appeared first on sUAS News.

Co-operating with T-Motor, reaching for Maximum Flight Time with best material and radical design Presenting the Storm Drone AntiGravity NAZA V2 GPS in Ready to Fly Package Do you want something that can fly longer (at least 30 minutes) yet it is still very easy to transport? The Storm Drone AntiGravity is a light weight, portable 640…The post Storm Drone AntiGravity appeared first on sUAS News.

by Thierry Dubois Helicopter operators continue to voice concern about sharing airspace with remotely piloted aircraft systems (aka RPAS/UAS/drones), highlighting the danger of a midair and stressing the need for better regulation of and more research into RPAS operations. Drones present a particular danger to helicopters because they occupy the same lower airspace, Thomas Rüder, an…The post AINOnline – Euro Helo Operators Again Voice Concern about Drones appeared first on sUAS News.

Aeryon Labs Inc., the premier manufacturer of small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS), announced today that it has opened a second office in Waterloo Region. The additional 30,000 sq. ft. office space, in Waterloo, ON, enables the company to continue to scale all aspects of its operations, including, R&D, manufacturing, and sales and marketing. “We remain…The post Aeryon Labs Inc. Opens Additional Office Location to Meet Increasing Demand for Aeryon sUAS appeared first on sUAS News.

BY MICHAEL MCKAY mmckay@herald-leader.com After a four-month legal battle, the University of Kentucky law student whose drone crashed in Commonwealth Stadium during a UK football game said he feels exploited by officials looking to make an example out of him. “In my opinion it’s just an overzealous prosecution,” Peyton Wilson said. “… You know we’re in…The post University of Kentucky student speaks out about crashing drone in football stadium appeared first on sUAS News.

China’s civil aviation regulator has issued its first-ever “traffic rules” for the operation of light-duty civilian unmanned aircraft. The guidelines have been issued on a trial basis, as the country has witnessed remarkable growth in the number of civilian drones. CRI’s Wang Mengzhen has the details. Li Bin started learning how to fly drones just…The post China Issues First “Traffic Rules” for Civilian Drones appeared first on sUAS News.

For the first time in Australia, IAG has used drones to view damage caused by the devastating bushfires in the Great Ocean Road area, fast-tracking the assessment process for customer claims. IAG mobilised the drone technology through a property repair partner enabling the insurer to inspect properties before physical access was granted by authorities and start…The post Drones take flight to assess damage in Australian insurer first appeared first on sUAS News.

Colin Guinn 3DR We designed Solo so the drone you buy today will just get better. This latest software release is a big one, and it does what we want all of our releases to do: It makes every Solo out there a better Solo. The new Smart Shot functionality in this release — Multipoint…The post New Solo Features: Multipoint Cable Cam and Follow w/ Free Look appeared first on sUAS News.

I was surprised when Lily won an innovation award this week at CES, I am even more surprised at the amount of money they have to burn down. Forbes reporter Aeron Tilly reveals the numbers here Thirty four million dollars in pre orders! Some 45% of that coming from the USA alone. You can be…The post Lily takes $34 million in pre orders. appeared first on sUAS News.

The DC Area Drone User Group (a member organization of the Drone User Group Network) is raising funds to support legal challenges to the FAA’s recently announced drone registration rules, and other policies that are deeply concerning to users and prospective users of small drones. The Challenge In December 2015, the Federal Aviation Administration announced…The post DC area drone user group mount fund raising campaign. appeared first on sUAS News.

Jim Moore AOPA RC grounded in DC, federal court weighs cases The nation’s second highest court now has two cases before it challenging recent actions taken by the FAA to regulate aircraft weighing less than 55 pounds and flown by hobbyists. The legal tug of war between the FAA and enthusiasts (including the world’s largest…The post Drones vs. FAA appeared first on sUAS News.

Yet again, well done AscTec and Ars Electronica what is there not to like! Hey America, see whats possible! With 100 dancing drones Intel and Ars Electronica set a Guinness World Record for “Most Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) airborne simultaneously” – using 100 AscTec Hummingbirds. Dubbed Drone 100, the spectacle set a Guinness World Record…The post AscTec and Ars Electronica set new record 100 RPA fly in formation together! appeared first on sUAS News.

LAS VEGAS, CES 2016 – January 6, 2016 – ProDrone, the leading consumer drone manufacturer focusing on power and portability, today announced the introduction of their new Ultimate Flying Platform line with a static mount capable of lifting and integrating with several of the world’s most popular DLSR cameras. This marks the first time a … … Continue reading →The post ProDrone Introduces Ultimate Flying Platform with DSLR Capability on BYRD Drone appeared first on sUAS News.

LAS VEGAS—As hordes of hobbyists take to the skies with unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, the small pilot-less flyers have some defence experts worried—and others working on countermeasures. The Defense and Space division of aerospace firm, Airbus Group, has developed a counter-UAV system designed to detect and marginalize invasive drones. “All over the world, incidents…The post Drone pilots beware: Airbus introduces new anti-UAV system appeared first on sUAS News.

SkyPixel, the world’s most-popular aerial photography community run in cooperation with DJI, on Thursday announced the top aerial and drone images of 2015 to conclude a two-month global competition. The 2015 SkyPixel Photo of the Year went to “Surge,” a photograph of a lone swimmer shot by Kirk Hille. SkyPixel’s blue-ribbon judging panel selected his…The post SkyPixel Picks Best Aerial & Drone Imagery of 2015 appeared first on sUAS News.

From the no surprise here dept, flying over our show site as well!! (ed) By Simon Bradley What next for Solar Impulse if the plane completes its round-the-world flight this year? One idea is to develop solar drones to replace satellites, joining Facebook and Google in this experimental field. Solar Impulse pilot André Borschberg touched … … Continue reading →The post Solar Impulse may turn into stratospheric drone appeared first on sUAS News.

For 2016 Antonelli Law have lowered our legal fees for most FAA Section 333 petitions to $1,500. Custom manufactured UAVs and special airspace permissions are additional fees but are still very fair. For most Section 333 petitions, our accumulated databases of research from September 2014 when we filed our first petition is allowing us to…The post Section 333 petition fees lowered by Antonelli Law appeared first on sUAS News.

The team behind UgCS is working on helping in making controlling drones with software easier and more intuitive. One of the recently implemented features in UgCS is the Click and Go mode. All the user needs to do is click on the map, place a point and the drone will automatically fly to it without…The post Click & Go Mode in UgCS appeared first on sUAS News.

Lets not quite loose our heads (see what I did there) over the eHang184. Its a fun diversion lacking in performance. A quick glance at Trade a Plane shows me I can purchase an R22 with 685 hours of life remaining for $85k this would allow me to take a friend at least 380km at…The post eHang 184 manned multirotor appeared first on sUAS News.

Terra Imaging is pleased to announce an exciting 2016, focusing on their new technology for Autonomous UAS, UAV and Drone Flight Navigation Systems specifically targeting the challenges of 3D structural, 3D facilities and 3D object modeling. Ed Gambler, Senior 3D Engineer for Terra Imaging states: “The biggest issue in 3D modeling of physical objects is…The post Autonomous drone navigation and “SLAM”, geospatial data processing appeared first on sUAS News.

BY LEVI PULKKINEN, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF A man arrested at a Seattle airport on suspicion of smuggling military drone parts to China now faces federal charges. Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles claim Pei Qi “Paul” Ma worked with an American conspirator to smuggle unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) parts. He did so, prosecutors say, while flouting U.S.…The post Military drone parts smuggler nabbed at Sea-Tac appeared first on sUAS News.

Speaking at CES today FAA Administrator, Michael Huerta claims 181k model aircraft have already been registered. About 181,000 RPAS registered is an interesting number as it might be all the AMA membership plus about 40k. But of course the AMA is encouraging its members to hold off registering their systems. So it might be fair…The post Michael Huerta FAA Administrator 181k people have already registered RPA appeared first on sUAS News.

My gob is truly smacked. Lily have won an award! That’s an award for a system that has yet to demonstrate its claimed abilities in the real world. There are plenty of small business that are working hard and building platforms that are making money for their owners. They don’t have crowd sourced funds to…The post Lily wins CES 2016 Innovation Award appeared first on sUAS News.

DJI, the world leader in creative aerial technology, announced at CES the enhancement of its two flagship drone series, unveiling the Phantom 3 4K and the Inspire 1 Pro Black Edition. The newest model in DJI’s Phantom 3 flagship series combines the best from previous Phantom models and the most-popular features of more advanced models…The post DJI Price reductions:- Phantom 3 – 4K appeared first on sUAS News.

Montreal, Canada: EnergyOr Technologies Inc., a leader in advanced PEM fuel cell systems for aerospace applications, has demonstrated the world’s longest multirotor drone flight in real-world operating conditions. On December 16th , 2015, EnergyOr’s H2Quad 400 flew for over two hours while recording 4K video, using a 3-axis stabilizing gimbal to control the camera. This…The post Energyor’s H2Quad 400 flies over 2 hours with 4K camera appeared first on sUAS News.

Qualcomm Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM), Tencent (HKG:0700) and ZEROTECH announced and demonstrated a commercial drone based on the Qualcomm® Snapdragon Flight™ platform. YING is an innovative drone that uses the Snapdragon 4K capture to “supersample” the video image, providing a stabilized, corrected video and picture recording at 1080P as well…The post Tencent and ZEROTECH Unveil Commercial Drone Based on Qualcomm Snapdragon Flight Platform appeared first on sUAS News.

TRACE Intelligent Systems, developer of The TRACEr1 – a visually intelligent camera capable of following its owner almost anywhere and live-streaming captured footage to the internet – announced today, a partnership with the leader in 360-degree panoramic imaging, ImmerVision. Shareable Captured Video Made Truly ‘Immersive’ TRACE will integrate 360-degree panomorph optics and ImmerVision Enables 2.0 fully immersive content…The post TRACE develops Immersive 360-Degree Video Applications for use in both Commercial and Consumer Quadcopter Drones appeared first on sUAS News.

Thalwil, Switzerland u-blox (SIX:UBXN), a global leader in wireless and positioning modules and chips, announces the release of the u-blox 8 GPS/GLONASS receiver platform. It complements the u-blox GNSS platform portfolio by addressing power sensitive usage, whereas the existing u-blox M8 platform continues to serve applications where navigation performance and highest accuracy are paramount. u-blox…The post u-blox releases u blox 8, a new GPS/GLONASS receiver platform for low-power devices appeared first on sUAS News.

Serious opposition to DJI, the Yuneec Typhoon H raises the bar in the prosumer drone market. Unveiled at CES by Intel Brian Krzanich it negotiated an obstacle course live on stage. To do that it uses Intels RealSense to map the area in which it is flying in real time. Also important, to me anyway as…The post Yuneec Typhoon H first mass market drone with Intel collision avoidance appeared first on sUAS News.

(Louisville, KY) – The first lawsuit regarding the rights of drone operators versus property owners has been filed in federal court. On Monday, Kentucky resident David Boggs filed a suit in The United States District Court of Western Kentucky asking the court to “define clearly the rights of aircraft operators and property owners” as they relate to unmanned…The post First Lawsuit to Clarify the Rights of Drone Operators and Property Owners Filed in Federal Court appeared first on sUAS News.

Northwest UAV (NWUAV), the largest manufacturer of UAV propulsion systems, announced today that it has formed a distributorship agreement with NASAM, a Greenwich Aerogroup Company. The agreement includes the distribution of NWUAV’s NW-44 UAV propulsion system, components, and services to the Japanese market. Under this agreement NASAM will be the primary provider of products, services,…The post NWUAV Signs Distributorship Agreement with NASAM appeared first on sUAS News.

LAS VEGAS – FAA Administrator Michael Huerta will discuss unmanned aircraft registration and provide updates on the agency’s work to safely integrate them into the National Airspace System (NAS). He will be joined by four key UAS Registration Task Force members. In moving ahead with safely integrating UAS into the world’s busiest and most complex…The post Administrator Huerta to Address Unmanned Aircraft Registration and Safe Integration at Consumer Electronics Show appeared first on sUAS News.

Ford and drone-maker DJI drive innovation in smart drone-to-vehicle software with DJI Developer Challenge DJI Developer Challenge designed to create a rapidly deployable surveying system for use by the United Nations in emergency zones; future applications could include agriculture, forestry, construction, bridge inspection and other work These types of mobility innovations are part of Ford…The post Ford Targets Drone-to-Vehicle Technology to Improve Emergency Services, Commercial Business Efficiency appeared first on sUAS News.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — PG&E is investigating what appears to be the first power outage in San Francisco caused by a drone on Sunday night. About three dozen homes in Bernal Heights lost power. “We heard a loud explosion,” Teresa Kennett said. Kennett said she and her neighbors believe a power pole at Peralta Avenue…The post Drone caused power outage in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights Neighbourhood appeared first on sUAS News.

Tiruvannamalai police have advised a foreigner, who had come to Sri Ramana Ashram, not to use an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that he had brought to the country. Police are also conducting inquiry to check his antecedents. A senior police officer said preliminary inquiry found nothing suspicious about him. Joseph Benjamin Murrel (27) of London…The post Police advise UK citizen not to use UAV appeared first on sUAS News.

Here we go with the CES announces. Parrot bring a new flying wing to the party which looks very promising. I think in the indoor flight testing shown briefly in the video below its tethered. If its not that bit is super impressive. Folks are saying Parrot have abandoned the quad whilst forgetting that they…The post Parrot Disco an FPV flying wing for all appeared first on sUAS News.

Congratulations to everyone at AscTec, a fantastic company that deserves every success. (ed) Exciting news! Intel has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the German drone developer and manufacturer Ascending Technologies –subject to customary closing conditions. Intel plans for the Ascending Technologies team to continue supporting their current customers while also collaborating with Intel’s Perceptual…The post Intel Acquires Ascending Technologies! appeared first on sUAS News.

BY KAZUAKI NAGATA The outlook for Japan’s drone market is promising and a recently enacted law to regulate flights of unmanned aerial vehicles will result in a safer user environment, according to the Japan chief of China-based drone-maker DJI. Allen Wu, who heads the Japan office of the world’s largest commercial drone-maker, said that as…The post Japan:- Key Chinese drone-maker sees promise in newly regulated Japan market appeared first on sUAS News.

In the past, someone wanting an aerial view of the Tri-State Mining District would have had to rent an airplane and hire a photographer. Kush Bhakta, a sophomore mechanical engineering major at Missouri Southern State University, has come up with a much more efficient way to monitor the ongoing cleanup at the region’s mining sites.…The post MSSU student using drone in mining district research appeared first on sUAS News.

COPENHAGEN, Phase One Industrial, a leading developer of aerial medium format camera equipment, today announced 100 MP CMOS-based medium format metric cameras available for aerial mapping and other demanding applications. The development of the Phase One iXU 1000 and the iXU-R 1000 camera systems marks a shift toward higher value for the aerial data acquisition…The post Phase One Industrial Announces 100 Megapixel Medium Format Metric Cameras for Aerial Data Acquisition appeared first on sUAS News.

DRONEWERX®, LLC. an Ohio manufacturer of advanced, high-quality unmanned aircraft systems for the first responder, public safety and infrastructure inspection markets, recently received a 333 Exemption (No. 13630) from the Federal Aviation Administration allowing the company to fly its entire product line of custom systems. One of the aircraft covered under this exemption is the…The post Dronewerx Receives 333 Exemption appeared first on sUAS News.

By Gerald Tenywa They are more associated with spying, but unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or drones), will soon be deployed in Uganda to help farmers increase agricultural output and enhance food security. A drone is operated using a remote control and flies using propellers. It can be fitted with a knapsack in case the operator…The post Uganda:- Gov’t to use drones to enhance food security appeared first on sUAS News.

By Sarah Leavitt, CBC News Students at Montreal’s École Polytechnique are hoping their drone will be the first to fly without a GPS or a human at the controls. The team is the only Canadian one still in the running for the top prize at the International Aerial Robotics Competition (IARC). Team Élikos has built a drone that is…The post Polytechnique students developing drone run by artificial intelligence appeared first on sUAS News.

The Ohio/Indiana Unmanned Aerial Systems Center in Springfield has received federal permission for projects ranging from scanning for invasive species near Akron to looking for ways to prevent rock slides in southern Ohio. The news comes at a time when interest in using drones for business and other purposes is expanding rapidly. The Federal Aviation…The post Springfield test center gets OK for drone projects appeared first on sUAS News.

Shenzhen, China –DJI, the world’s leading drone maker, Thursday launched a public beta version of its new geofencing system in North America and Europe. Geospatial Environment Online (GEO) will provide drone users with up-to-date guidance on locations where flight may be restricted by regulation or raise safety or security concerns. With this major upgrade to…The post DJI Launches Public Beta of New Geofencing System appeared first on sUAS News.

By Vickie Aldous Mail Tribune Mt. Ashland Ski Area officials have declared the area a “no drone zone.” Under a new policy that went into effect Dec. 23, people may not fly drones over the ski area without prior written permission from managers. “It’s not appropriate to have drones flying over crowds or chairlifts,” said Hiram…The post Mt. Ashland Ski Area bans most drone use appeared first on sUAS News.