The Federal Aviation Administration is facing significant problems with integrating UASinto US airspace. The AP reports that plans for modernizing air traffic control can’t cover the unique challenges posed by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), given that they were made years before UAVs were used for more than military missions. “It’s becoming painfully apparent that in order to get [drones] in there, there is going to have to be a fair amount of accommodation, at least in the beginning,” National Air Traffic Controllers Association representative Chris Stephenson is quoted as saying. Continue reading
Author Archives: The Editor
Nixie, the Quadcopter that Fits on your Wrist
Earlier this year, Intel kicked off its Make it Wearable challenge, a mission to take wearable technology and do things with it that haven’t yet been done — that, maybe, no one had even thought of yet. Team Nixie has begun developing a quadcopter that fits on your wrist. Continue reading
Smart Atoms Replace Spaxels
Smart Atoms are the latest enhanced and upgraded version of the spaxels, developed by Ars Electronica Futurelab. Instead of being equipped with LEDs, the quadcopters are interlinked as flying building blocks. This will make it possible not only to form visual likenesses but also to generate objects with material-virtual characteristics. Continue reading
AeroVironment Gets $22 M RQ-12 Wasp AE S Order for US Marine Corps
AeroVironment, Inc. announced it has received a firm fixed-price order valued at $21,779,408 for RQ-12 Wasp®AE small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and initial spares packages for the United States Marine Corps. Continue reading
Kirin Beer QuadCopters
Japanese brewery Kirin unveiled a new campaign for their Off White brand of imitation beer products known as happoshu. To help promote their cheaper beer substitute, Kirin will be dispatching six drones painted like pigeons to fly around and record the people of Taketa City in Oita Prefecture. Continue reading
FAA Exemptions for Commercial UAS Movie and TV Production
U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx announced on September 25th that the Federal Aviation Administration has granted regulatory exemptions to six aerial photo and video production companies, the first step to allowing the film and television industry the use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in the National Airspace System. Secretary Foxx made the announcement on a conference call with FAA Administrator Michael Huerta and Chris Dodd, chairman and chief executive officer of the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. Continue reading
German National Banned from Yellowstone After QuadCopter Crash
A German national who crashed a drone into Yellowstone National Park’s Lake Yellowstone has received one year of unsupervised probation as well as a one-year ban from the park. Continue reading
DroneDeploy Raises $2M in Seed Funding
DroneDeploy, a startup that makes it possible for just about anyone to fly small drones and analyze the images they capture using a tablet or smartphone, has raised $2 million in seed funding. Investors included SoftTech VC, Data Collective, Red Point Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and AngelPad.