A few weeks back, drones buzzed up to high-rises under construction in Singapore and dropped off cans of Coke to the migrant workers building the towers. Tucked into the care packages were 2,734 messages from Singaporeans thanking the tradesmen for their hard work. The idea was to link two communities that don’t often come into contact – Singaporean nationals and the migrant workers who travel far from their countries to build the city-state’s apartment buildings, offices and schools. Continue reading
Category Archives: Non-Military & Commercial UAS
Russia Begins UAS Patrols in Wildfire-Prone Areas
Russian UAS have started patrolling wildfire-prone areas in Western Siberia and the Far East to help combat the spread of fires, a spokesman for the Eastern Military District told RIA Novosti. Continue reading
Aerial Mapping with UAS
Surveying an open-pit mine can be a hazardous undertaking. To obtain accurate volume measurements, it is necessary to pick up edges, known in the industry as “toes and crests,” as well as heaps. These are important features, since they provide a way to verify the current shape of a mine; but in light of increasingly stringent safety regulations and penalties, some companies refuse to let the surveyor get too close to such areas. Surveying the site from the air is an effective solution to this challenge.
University of Tasmania UAS Maps Vegetation
The University of Tasmania’s Terra Luma project is using unmanned aircraft systems for environmental and agricultural remote sensing and aerial survey work.
UAS to Detect Fruit Tree Diseases in Flanders
Tree diseases can wreak havoc in fruit orchards, and the disease known as fire blight is notorious in Flanders. To detect this disease more quickly, the Fruit Test Centre in Sint-Truiden and the Flemish Institute for Technological Research (Vito) are working on a new detection system. Continue reading
UAS Video of Train Derailment in Virginia
ABC News is very proud of this video shot from a UAS. Viewers comments suggest that news helicopters are now a thing of the past. Continue reading
Aerial Advertising by UAS
DroneCast, a newly-formed high-flying advertising company, took its first flight in Philadelphia on Monday afternoon — launching from Eakins’s Oval along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Continue reading
Students Launch UAS Crowd-Funding Campaign
Cal State Fullerton is experimenting with crowdfunding to provide student groups and organizations with assistance in their major projects. University Advancement, which manages donation programs, has selected four projects as part of a pilot program that will serve as an experiment to see what funding goals can best attract potential donors. Continue reading