General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. announced that Predator-series aircraft have been involved in several high-profile search & rescue missions in recent months. Continue reading
Category Archives: Non-Military & Commercial UAS
Indestructible Quadcopter Airframe on Kickstarter
This quadcopter airframe from Game of Drones was createed by Eli Delia and Marque Cornblatt and features a virtually indestructible airframe. The Action Sports Airframe was rigorously tested for over a year. It was subjected to repeated 300 foot drops, exposed to fire, crashed through windows, and shot out of the sky with a shotgun. Continue reading
The Flying Donkey Challenge
The Flying Donkey Challenge is an escalating series of sub-challenges held annually in Africa. World-leading roboticists, engineers, regulators, entrepreneurs, logisticians, and designers will win substantial grants by advancing the safety, durability, legality, profitability and friendliness of cargo robots. Continue reading
UAS 3D Imagery to Hunt for North Sea Oil Reserves
Academics at the University of Aberdeen, in collaboration with a group at the University of Bergen in Norway, are using remotely operated flying machines to scan rock formations in remote areas in order to better understand what lies beneath the surface and improve understanding of subsurface reservoirs. Continue reading
Pocket Drone Kickstarter Campaign Raises $265K +
Hardware Battlefield entrant Pocket Drones blew past their initial goal of $35,000 after launching on the Tech Crunch stage at CES 2014. Billed as The Pocket Drone, the world’s smallest heavy lift micro-copter, the rotors fold back so that the entire machine can fit into a pocket. Continue reading
Draganfly’s New Shadow and Guardian Quadrotors
Draganfly Innovations has released two new multirotor helicopters, the Shadow and the Guardian. These quadrotor aircraft are built to carry high megapixel cameras and transmit the live video feed back to the operator. Both aircraft share the same frame, with the Guardian sporting more powerful motors and a larger battery, giving it a higher payload capacity. Continue reading
US Border-Patrol UAS Borrowed by Other Agencies
Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies are increasingly borrowing border-patrol UAS for domestic surveillance operations, newly released records show, a harbinger of what is expected to become the commonplace use of unmanned aircraft by police. Continue reading
Aeryon Labs Introduces Map Edition Bundles
Aeryon Labs has introduced Map Edition bundles for Aeryon small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). This new bundled option, available for both the Aeryon Scout and Aeryon SkyRanger, is designed for any application that requires survey-grade accuracy orthomosaics, Digital Surface Models (DSMs) and point clouds from aerial or oblique imagery – and seamless integration with GIS, CAD, and traditional photogrammetry software. Continue reading