At the University of Pennsylvania’s Vijay Kumar Lab, Dr. Kumar and his students have been developing advanced, autonomous drones that are assembled from off-the-shelf parts. The drone itself is bare bones: a frame, battery, four motors and props, and a motor controller. As for the phone they’re using, it’s not a special prototype or a developer-only device like Google’s Project Tango. It’s an ordinary Samsung Galaxy phone. Continue reading
China Sets Standard Frequency Ranges for UAS
The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has set standard frequency ranges for handling unmanned aircraft systems. Continue reading
Drone Delivering Asparagus to Dutch Restaurant Crashes and Bursts into Flames
A publicity stunt that involved using a consumer quadcopter to deliver vegetables to a restaurant in the Netherlands has literally crashed and burned. Continue reading
DJI Funding Talks Value Company at $1Billion
Chinese consumer drone maker DJI is in talks to raise funding at a valuation as high as $10 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, in what would be a sizeable bet by investors that flying robots will overcome looming regulation and safety concerns. Continue reading
Meet the Man Behind the 3DR Solo
3D Robotics is betting Solo will appeal to drone enthusiasts and novices alike — and that it can begin to chip away at the consumer drone market that the Phantom helped create. It is a critical time for 3DR, which has raised $85 million from investors.
ONR Demos LOCUST: Autonomous, Swarming UAVs
A new era in autonomy and unmanned systems for naval operations is on the horizon, as officials at the Office of Naval Research (ONR) announced a recent technology demonstrations of swarming unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — part of the Low-Cost UAV Swarming Technology (LOCUST) programme. Continue reading
Chile has Introduced Drone Regulations
Chile has introduced regulations making it the first country in Latin America to officially allow drone flights. The measure regulates both the public and private use of drones, remote-controlled aircraft whose use has skyrocketed in recent years for uses ranging from military airstrikes to delivering mail. Continue reading
French Anti-Drone Drone Spots Malicious Pilots in Under a Minute
Following several incidents of unauthorised flights over public monuments in France, ACE has developed a drone capable of tracking an offending drone and shooting it down. Continue reading