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DJI official defends company's data security policies

According to the World Bank's Food Security Update 2023, food insecurity is on the rise across the globe. Among the more promising solutions being proposed is better data analytics of crops and soil, which is also being tied to the rise in data collection done with drone technology.

Today marks another day of progress for hundreds of software engineers working worldwide on the challenge of how to create reliable and highly-flexible digital infrastructure for the coming eVTOL age.

The drone and advanced air mobility (AAM) industries will not succeed without having significantly more fidelity on low altitude weather. Current equipment, systems and standards do not provide this.

DRONEII's annual report ranking the top service providers and drone delivery players is out!

We've all seen the stories and updates about the forward-leaning work going on at the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (CNO). I have been eager to get out to the Daisy Ranch to see the results of years of hard work and leadership on the validating edge of AAM/UAS.

The growing market for autonomous drones presents a plethora of investment opportunities and trends that are poised to revolutionize various industries.

Today, innovators like Airbus, Volocopter GmbH, and Urban Aeronautics are making headlines with their unveiling of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and vertical take-off and landing vehicles (VTOLs). Although still in its infancy, the global urban air mobility (UAM) market is projected to reach $15.54 billion (USD) in revenue and achieve a 29.9% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) by 2030

Warrantless Drone Surveillance Case Will Be Heard at Michigan Supreme Court

Space Park Leicester has announced the successful launch of a drone making use of revolutionary AI equipment for use in spacecraft.

The Air Force Scientific Advisory Board aims to complete four studies in 2023, with two focused on a couple of Secretary Frank Kendall's operational imperatives. 

Drone Reality Show Follows Surveying of the Pearl River by Land, Water, and Air

Over the past few years I've been assessing the decarbonization of aviation, in large part because it's a hard target of high economic merit, and to a certain degree because there is so much overhyped nonsense in the space. Tens of billions of dollars of venture capital and retail investor money has been funneled through SPACs into electric vertical takeoff (EVTOL) and landing aircraft and urban air mobility (UAM) schemes that claim to be electrifying aviation, as an obvious example.

DJI, the world's leader in civilian drones and aerial imaging technology, today reinforces its commitment to customer data and privacy with the validation of the DJI Core Crypto Engine.

AURA Network Systems (AURA)  has closed a $30.9 million Series A funding round. "It is the latest milestone for the company, which operates the nation's only coast- to-coast network designed to solve one of aviation's most pressing problems: How to enable the commercial viability of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) market by providing secure and reliable voice and data communications," says the funding announcement.

The FAA invites interested people to take part in the development of proposed airworthiness criteria for the Joby Model JAS4-1 powered-lift by sending written comments, data, or views. Please identify the Joby Model JAS4-1 and Docket No. FAA-2021-0638 on all submitted correspondence. The most helpful comments reference a specific portion of the airworthiness criteria, explain the reason for a recommended change, and include supporting data.

Drones and similar small unmanned aerial vehicles (sUAVs) have seen a massive surge in popularity over the past few years due to their innovative applications, such as crop monitoring, search and rescue operations, and coast profiling. The potential of sUAVs in atmospheric science and meteorology has not gone unnoticed either as drones offer an efficient way to place various kinds of sensors up above in the lower atmosphere.

Drones are widely recognized as an indispensible tool in firefighting.  Now, researchers from George Mason University are working on a drone and wearable sensor solution that can locate each firefighter working in a burning building – and notify their team if they're in trouble.

Soaring Eagle Technologies, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) drone data collection company servicing critical infrastructure owners across the continental U.S., has obtained one of the first BVLOS Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) waivers to fly small Unmanned Aerial System (sUAS) commercial inspection missions under operational guidelines versus specific operations in restrained geographical areas.

TOPODRONE, a Swiss based designer and manufacturer of high-precision LiDAR equipment for installation on drones, vehicles and backpacks, launches AQUAMAPPER, a UAV-based solution for bathymetric surveying and marine construction. The new multitasking data collecting device and TOPODRONE LiDAR ULTRA equipment have been successfully used together for airborne surveying at a highway construction project in Romania, EU to deliver a full digital twin of a studied area. 

Drones are transforming the way the world operates, bringing efficiency, convenience, and automation into industries that would otherwise spend hundreds of hours gathering data needed for business analysis and crucial decisions.

Skydio pilots are leveraging Skydio 3D Scan for a vast number of applications. From close inspections of utility assets to digital twin capture of bridges to accident scene reconstruction, operators equipped with autonomous drones are capturing better data faster than they ever realized they could.

A group of 14 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University students took a service-learning trip to New Mexico and Arizona this summer to work with archeologists in mapping ancient cities.

Every day, 1800 radiosondes are sent into the atmosphere to collect data for weather forecasts. However, only 20% of these devices are retrieved worldwide, because they return to the ground at an unknown location. That means they are single-use.  

Vigilant Aerospace announced on Tuesday that it has provided a demonstration FlightHorizon COMMANDER airspace management system to the US Air Force in support of the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) 2022 exercise, currently going on in Hawaii and near Southern California.

Global Mapper Pro is a powerful geospatial data analysis program that contains tools for everything from raster image processing to photogrammetric point cloud creation with the Pixels to Points tool. Designed to work alongside Global Mapper Pro, the free iOS and Android Global Mapper Mobile app makes it easy for users to bring GIS data into the field for reference and GNSS data collection.

DRF aims to achieve the full potential of future air mobility through a self-sustaining decentralized ecosystem for data and reasoning service exchange. Data & reasoning service providers, infrastructure providers, and relevant local-to-federal government organizations can participate in DRF to exchange information necessary to support future air mobility.

ANRA Technologies will partner with RI&S and other program participants, including Virginia Tech, SkyGrid and Tomorrow.io, to test technologies that will support scalable, safe and compliant BVLOS drone operations at low altitudes.

ANRA Technologies was selected by Raytheon Intelligence & Space (RI&S) to provide its SmartSkies suite of technology solutions to support simulation and live drone flight operations at Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership UAS test site at Virginia Tech. The testing is part of a larger project to safely integrate Unmanned Aircraft Systems into the National Airspace System and advance Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations.

This action announces a public meeting of the UAS Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) Final Report.

Aerospace company Embraer recently finished conducting a series of experimental flight operations with its new autonomous system technologies, designed to enable safe autonomous operations in urban environments. The flights were carried out in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in order to observe how the new technologies performed under real flight conditions.

The Virginia Unmanned Systems Center at VIPC, and a coalition of public and private sector leaders from DroneUp, ATA, Ecodyne, and the City of Winchester conducted a demonstration "Fly-In" during the 95th annual Apple Blossom Festival. 

The Unmanned Aerial Systems industry has been clear that the #1 factor holding back growth is a lack of clarity. Through FAA programs like Data Exchange and UAS Service Suppliers (USSes), the federal government is meeting its commitments to support the industry with regulations addressing operations in controlled airspace. Now, Virginia is helping to provide clarity at the state and local levels.

Engineers at Caltech, ETH Zurich, and Harvard are developing artificial intelligence (AI) that will allow autonomous drones to use ocean currents to aid their navigation, rather than fighting their way through them.

San Francisco-based electric takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle and air taxi company Archer Aviation finished last year with a bang. Now, its co-founders and -CEOs Brett Adcock and Adam Goldstein tell DroneDJ why they think 2022 will be even more exciting.

Most small autonomous fixed-wing aircraft are guided by a commercial controller, which works well for simple paths. But high winds, for instance, can cause a pilotless aircraft to go off course and crash. Demanding paths for demanding applications require new innovations for suitable performance to expand uses of such drones.

Censys Technologies and Soaring Eagle Technologies, the leading commercial Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) service provider in the US, have secured their third BVLOS waiver, resulting in more efficient tech-enabled data acquisition. The waiver covers a 12-mile distance – the longest distance ever approved by the FAA.

The news is filled with stories about flying taxis and how these pilotless aircraft are ushering in a new era of aviation. A recent study commissioned by NASA defines this concept as "…the future of aviation includes Urban Air Mobility (UAM) — a concept involving aircraft, air traffic management, and new infrastructure."

Autonomous inspection leader Percepto has announced that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations for Delek US Holdings' refineries in Tyler, Texas and El Dorado, Arkansas. The facilities were inspected by Percepto drones, which provided visual data management and analysis. This BVLOS approval positions Delek US's refineries as the first to receive such an approval, as well as one of the first among US energy companies. This is only the latest of many operational approvals to be received by Percepto customers,such as Florida Power & Light, Verizon Skyward, and other industrial sites in Australia, Italy, Spain, Norway, Portugal and Israel.

Percepto, pioneering autonomous inspection by industrial robotics, announced today the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations for Delek US Holdings' refineries in Tyler, Texas and El Dorado, Arkansas. Percepto drones inspected its facilities and provided visual data management and analysis. The approval makes Delek US's refineries the first to receive such an approval, and one of the first among US energy companies as well. The operational approval is one of a number received by Percepto customers, including Florida Power & Light, Verizon Skyward and at other industrial sites in Australia, Italy, Spain, Norway, Portugal and Israel.

Teledyne FLIR's VUE TZ20-R is a game changer for commercial drones, for applications from search and rescue to solar inspection.  In a recent webinar, Teledyne FLIR's Kelly Brodbeck gives 4 reasons drone pilots need radiometric thermal zoom capabilities.

Traditionally, the documentation of As-Built construction surveys relied on conventional methods such as total stations and digital photogrammetry. However, the team at Spatial Data Consultants (SDC), an expert geospatial consulting firm in High Point, North Carolina, is using drone LiDAR technology to more efficiently create accurate and precise As-Built Surveys.

Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Vehicle Market report focused on the comprehensive analysis of current and future prospects of the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Vehicle industry. This report is a consolidation of primary and secondary research, which provides market size, share, dynamics, and forecast for various segments and sub-segments considering the macro and micro environmental factors. An in-depth analysis of past trends, future trends, demographics, technological advancements, and regulatory requirements for the Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Vehicle market has been done in order to calculate the growth rates for each segment and sub-segments.

Today, Percepto, the leading autonomous inspection and monitoring solution provider, announced the launch of its upgraded 2022 Autonomous Inspection & Monitoring (AIM) platform, as well as its new Air Mobile drone. Percepto, recently listed in TIME magazine's 100 Best Inventions of 2021, provides the only end-to-end AI-powered solution to collate and streamline all visual data for accurate actionable insights.

Allen Geomatics helps compare the differences between traditional and Drone LiDAR surveying methods

FlyNex and Pheno-Inspect combine their solutions to digitalize and automatize work processes in agriculture. AI-based image capturing with drones and analysis open up new opportunities for sustainable, digital farming with a simultaneous increase of yields.

Five universities will share $2.8 million in funding for drone research from the FAA, the agency announced Tuesday.
The universities that will share the funding are:
Mississippi State University
Wichita State University
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
University of Kansas
University of North Dakota
The money will be used for research, education, and training. The focus will be on:
Advanced material
Right-of-way rules
Flight data recorder requirements

HEISHA TECH recently released its second generation product HEISHA DNEST2 on 28th September, 2021. DNEST2 is a ready-to-use, fully automated, remote aerial flight data collection system. The product takes drone operation to a whole new level, fully eliminating the need for a pilot. DNEST2 is not only a drone charging station, but also a drone smart home.

UAS (unmanned aerial systems) service providers Soaring Eagle Imaging (SEI) from Brandon, Mississippi and Skynetwest from Chandler, Arizona, today announced a definitive agreement to become a leading drone data collection and processing company with the creation of Soaring Eagle Technologies (Soaring Eagle). The company, owned and operated by Houston-based Iapetus Holdings LLC (Iapetus), will lead the charge in markets such as critical infrastructure inspections and reporting.

UAS (unmanned aerial systems) service providers Soaring Eagle Imaging (SEI) from Brandon, Mississippi and Skynetwest from Chandler, Arizona, today announced a definitive agreement to become a leading drone data collection and processing company with the creation of Soaring Eagle Technologies (Soaring Eagle). The company, owned and operated by Houston-based Iapetus Holdings LLC (Iapetus), will lead the charge in markets such as critical infrastructure inspections and reporting. The Soaring Eagle team of experts including Army Veterans Noah Ruiz from Skynetwest and Will Paden from Soaring Eagle Imaging, will service a broad national footprint, combining resources to provide reliable utility, energy, and infrastructure inspections for hard-to-reach and complex structures with emerging technology solutions, including visual and infrared thermal imaging. Soaring Eagle's main office is in Houston, Texas. Will Paden will preside over the team of eight experts with 100 years of combined manned and unmanned aviation experience.