Tag Archives: Volocopter

417 UAV Tether in Heavy Seas

A UAV tether for choppy seas, four advanced (and expensive) drones, drones changing the way buildings are designed, a drone (and rover) for simulated Martian missions, the Army’s short-range reconnaissance program with Skydio, an Apple patent for pairing UAVs and controllers, kites that take down drones, Ukraine drones that take down Russian drones.

UAV News

Navy engineers test new slack tether for launching quadcopter from boats

The Naval Information Warfare Center in San Diego designed a smart winch tether system with an autonomous winch that keeps proper slack in the tether. A UAV can hover at a specific altitude while the ship pitches and rolls with the waves. The winch autonomously adjusts the spool motor by measuring the tether-departure angle. Adding a tethered quadcopter to the uncrewed Seahawk ship would allow it to elevate cameras and expand the line of sight.

4 of the most advanced drones and copters coming to our skies

The Aerwins Xturismo is a flying motorbike with a maximum range of 40km that can carry up to 100kg. The Airborne Drones’ Vanguard is a long-range surveillance drone with a 94-minute flight time and 4K video. The Lockheed Martin Indago 3 is rugged and “whisper quiet,” taking only two minutes to get airborne. The Volocopter 2X is a personal helicopter targeted to prospective air taxi operators.

Five ways drones will change the way buildings are designed

1. Creating 3D digital models of buildings with accuracy to within a centimeter. 2. Heritage simulations where drones help planners to visualize the final impact of restoration or construction work on a damaged or partially finished building. 3. Drone delivery including roof-top landing pads and recharging stations. 4. Drones mounted with 3D printers that could construct emergency shelters or repair buildings. 5. Agile surveillance with drone systems like biometric indicators and “face recognition.”

Skypersonic Delivers Drones, Rover, and Piloting Platform to NASA’s Simulated Mars Missions

The Skypersonic rover and drone system will be used by crew members to remotely explore Martian-like terrain. NASA’s Simulated Mars Missions will run for a year and operate from a 1,700-square-foot simulated Martian habitat at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The rover and drone will be controlled by the crew in the Habitat, but they’ll actually be exploring Martian-like terrain remotely on Earth.

Army Fields Its New RQ-28A Quadcopter Recon Drone

The Skydio RQ-28A is a short-range reconnaissance quadcopter UAS. It’s the Army’s first program-of-record quadcopter drone. Fielding of the RQ-28A was completed in early November 2022 by the Army’s Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Project Office with the 3rd Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment at Fort Benning in Georgia. The Army’s short-range reconnaissance (SRR) program seeks to develop an inexpensive, rucksack-portable, vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) small unmanned aircraft that provide rapidly deployable intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities.

Apple has Won a Patent for a Possible Future Drone Device that was originally filed in Singapore

Apple has been granted a patent for “a system and method for pairing/unpairing UAVs to/from UAV controllers.” Based on a triggering condition, a UAV or a controller may initiate a paring or unpairing of the UAV to or from a host controller and receive a configuration update from a network to confirm the paring or unpairing.

Apple initially filed the patent in Singapore in May 2020 (10202004252X). In November 2021, Apple filed the same patent in the U.S. and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Apple that patent on December 6, 2022. (US 11523323 B2, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle And Controller Association.)

Army trains kites to take down drones

Here, a “kite” refers to a bird of prey in the hawk family. The Indian and US Armies conducted an exercise to publicly demonstrate how birds of prey are being trained to attack drones. The program started in 2020 and training is continuing

Unmanned dogfight: Two drones have allegedly engaged in midair combat over Ukraine

Aerial footage from a Ukrainian drone shows what appears to be that drown taking down a Russian DJI Mavic. The video doesn’t show this with certainty, but it looks like the Ukrainian rammed the Russian Mavic, causing it to veer away suddenly. A few months ago, a video surfaced that shows a similar battle between Russian and Ukrainian quadcopters.

UAV Video of the Week

Drone: Snoqualmie Pass snow

Fly over a snow-covered Snoqualmie Pass, a mountain pass for Interstate 90 through the Cascade Range in Washington state.

383 Heavy-Lift UAS

A heavy-lift UAS from BAE Systems, NOAA collects data from drones, drones cover motorsports events, bad weather affects delivery drones, Drone Racing League scores a sponsorship deal, Leonardo and Northrop Grumman working together, smuggling contraband, Volocopter eyes the U.S., building better batteries, Drone Safety Awareness Week, and the attack of the magpie.

UAV News

BAE Systems to build T-650 cargo quadrocopter with 300kg capacity

BAE Systems and Malloy Aeronautics want to develop an all-electric heavy-lift UAS targeted to missions for military, security, and civilian customers. The T-650 Heavy-Lift Electric UAS concept vehicle would accommodate payloads of over 300 kg with a range of 30 km on one charge of its batteries. The aircraft could fly autonomously or by remote control at a top speed of 140 km/h.

T-650 Heavy-Lift Electric UAS
T-650 Heavy-Lift UAS, courtesy BAE Systems.

NOAA Data Storage Needs May Grow as Drones Become Smarter

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration captures data with tube-launched fixed-wing drones, vertical-launch hexacopters, and even NASA’s Global Hawk aircraft. For many applications, the data is collected on-board, onto an SD card. But the amount of data is increasing as a result of AI-directed data collection and higher resolution sensors. Capt. Phil Hall, director of the NOAA Uncrewed Systems Operations Center in the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations:

The amount of data and data services is just the absolute key to all these uncrewed systems, whether they are marine systems or aviation systems. “Data archiving, data analysis, cloud storage networking — all those areas are priorities for NOAA.

Capt. Phil Hall

Video: Drones Aid NOAA Scientists with Hurricane Tracking and Animal Monitoring

The Best Way To Watch Rallycross Is From A Drone

Video coverage of a recent World Rallycross event in France was partly provided by a drone. The drone closely followed the action, just above the racers.

Video: FPV Drone Vs Rallycross Racing

Drones Fly Into Weather Data Deserts. Can They Be Stopped?

University of Calgary researchers recently published a paper that examined the impact weather had on flying commercial drones. The authors looked at historical data – temperature, wind, rain. The conclusion: weather restricts the average hours a drone can fly during the day.

Drone Racing League lands $100 million deal with crypto platform Algorand

The sponsorship deal with Boston-based Algorand is worth $100 million over five years, according to those with knowledge of the agreement. Algorand gets title rights to the League. DRL starts its sixth season on Sept. 29, 2021.

Leonardo and Northrop Grumman join forces on future rotorcraft UAS opportunities

Leonardo and Northrop Grumman plan to collaborate on VTOL air vehicle design, system architectures, payload optimization, and integration within next-generation battlespace architectures.

Man Sentenced To 3.5+ Years In Prison In Scheme Using Drones To Smuggle Contraband Into Federal Prison at Fort Dix

A New Jersey man was sentenced for conspiring to use drones to smuggle cell phones,  tobacco, and other items into a federal correctional facility. The former inmate participated in multiple deliveries of contraband by drone.

Volocopter shares plan to bring eVTOL urban air mobility to US starting with Los Angeles

Volocopter announced a partnership with Urban Movement Labs (UML) to bring UAM solutions to the Los Angeles area. If successful, this would introduce Volocopter eVTOLs to the US market. Volocopter CCO Christian Bauer:

Our partnership with Urban Movement Labs is a great entryway into the US with our innovative UAM services. By leading the conversation about urban air mobility with broad stakeholders in Los Angeles, Volocopter can strategically identify and address how our services can benefit cities in the country. More importantly, we are also gaining real insights into living transportation ecosystems in the US to build the best complimentary service to other modes of transportation for our future passengers.

Christian Bauer

Volocopter plans to launch its UAM services in the next 2-3 years, pending certification from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Certification from the FAA would be necessary for Volocopter to bring its eVTOL services to the US.

Batteries of the future set to be cheaper and better — just by adding sugar

Lithium-Ion batteries are made from toxic chemicals that are increasingly difficult to obtain. On the other hand, Lithium-Sulfur batteries are made with cheaper, safer, and easier-to-obtain materials that can store two to five times more energy per kilogram than lithium-ion batteries. 

National Drone Safety Awareness Week: We’re All In

National Drone Safety Awareness Week was hosted by the FAA Safety Team (FAAST). Short daily videos were published during the week featuring important safety topics. This was a collaboration between DRONELIFE, P3Tech Consulting, and a volunteer FAAST member and co-founder of Influential Drones.

Find the videos in the article and on the DRONELIFE  TV YouTube channel.

UAV Video of the Week

FPV drone video films sudden, determined magpie attack

“Everything in Australia wants to kill you, even birds!”

379 T-Mobile 5G Drone

T-Mobile’s low latency 5G drone, high-speed UAVs that crash less often, a solar-powered UAV, first responder drone of choice, patrolling the beach with drones, and marketing real estate with drone videos.

UAV News 

T-Mobile’s 5G off to the drone races

T-Mobile is partnering with the Drone Racing League (DRL) on a 5G drone with HD video. T-Mobile claims the drone is one of the world’s first racing drones to be equipped with an embedded 5G module that can live stream video straight to the internet. The module is made by Quectel.

Video from the Drone Racing League: Making of the Magenta 5G Drone

System trains drones to fly around obstacles at high speeds

Fast drones tend to crash because drone aerodynamics are difficult to predict at high speeds. Now MIT aerospace engineers are developing an algorithm that helps drones find the fastest route around obstacles without crashing. Drones trained with the new algorithm were found to fly through an obstacle course up to 20 percent faster than a drone trained on conventional planning algorithms. The results are published in the International Journal of Robotics Research as Multi-fidelity black-box optimization for time-optimal quadrotor maneuvers.

US Navy spends millions to develop a solar-powered UAV

The US Navy has awarded a $5 million contract to US-Spanish aerospace company Skydweller Aero to construct a solar energy-powered long-endurance UAV that could stay aloft for between 30 and 90 days. The aircraft flew in December 2020.

Video: Skydweller Aero Autonomous Software Flight Test – April 2021

As with consumer pilots, DJI drones dominate emergency responder fleets

A survey by the Airborne International Response Team (AIRT) and its Droneresponders affiliate found that DJI drones make up over 90% of the fleets flown by US first responder organizations. That compares with DJI’s 70-80% share of the commercial drone market. The AIRT + DRONERESPONDERS 2021 Public Safety UAS Survey was conducted in July 2021. Autel Robotics drones were the second most popular make, followed by Skydio, Parrot, and FLIR.

Brunswick County beaches have no lifeguards. Is technology the answer?

In March 2021, the Oak Island (North Carolina) Administrative department created the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Services division. The division provides aerial photography and video for Town departments. Current services provided include infrastructure inspections, project monitoring, pre and post-storm inspection, marketing materials, sand dune regulation enforcement, and beach safety observation.

Realtors shift to mini-drones to showcase properties to homebuyers in increasingly hot housing market

With contactless selling growing in importance during the COVID pandemic, companies that provide video services with drones are being created. Cain Costin and his wife Sarah formed Virtual Drone Tours that produce exterior and interior videos of properties using FPV drones. The videos on the Cain Costin YouTube channel show what’s possible.

Mentioned

The Volocopter at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh
The Volocopter at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh. Photo by Max Flight.

346 The Longest Organ Delivery Flight by UAS

Long-distance organ delivery flight, a survey-grade micro drone, a UK drone zone, research on multi-fuel drones, heavy-lift drones, a UAV landing at a commercial airport, locating pregnant dolphins, Verizon’s wildfire drone waiver, and a former FAA Administrator lands a new job.

UAV News

Mission Go completes longest organ delivery flight via UAS in Las Vegas

In this MissionGO and Nevada Donor Network collaboration, two successful test flights were made. The first flight delivered research corneas from Southern Hills Hospital and Medical Center to Dignity Health – St. Rose Dominican, San Martín Campus. The second flight delivered  a research kidney from an airport to a location outside of a small town in the Las Vegas desert. This was the longest organ delivery flight in UAS history.

IdeaForge Raises The Bar With The Launch Of RYNO UAV

The RYNO UAV is a survey-grade micro-drone from IdeaForge, a drone manufacturer in India. RYNO is designed for high accuracy mapping applications and delivers centimeter-level accuracy. The drone has a flight time of over 40 minutes and a range of up to 4 km. The performance of the RYNO UAV is claimed to be comparable to more expensive categories of drones.

U.K. has plans to create aerial drone zone superhighways to contain UAV traffic

The U.K. is establishing a commercial drone corridor called the “Arrow Drone Zone.” Airspace will be available to any fully automated drones, including flying beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS). The zone will be located in the town of Reading, to the west of London, and managed by Altitude Angel with their GuardianUTM O/S platform.

US Army funding research to allow drones to run on multiple fuel sources 

The Army awarded the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign a four-year, $8 million contract to research multi-fuel chemistry and investigate advanced propulsion technologies for high-speed air launches. Researchers will study the ignition chemistry of fuels using machine learning algorithms and develop materials for novel ignition assistant technologies for flexible-fuel drones.

Volocopter teams up with Schenker to deploy heavy lift drones

The two companies want to gain practical flying the VoloDrone before the VoloCity air taxi enters service. The drone Is remote-controlled, can lift up to 200 kilograms (440 lbs.), and has a range of 40 kilometers (25 miles). Volocopter CEO Florian Reuter said, “The logistics opportunity in the urban market is just as big as the passenger market.” 

Israeli Company Carries Out Historic First-Ever UAV Landing at a Commercial Airport

The landing was conducted by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) with their Heron reconnaissance UAV. The landing at Ben Gurion International Airport was entirely remote-controlled. This is reported to be the first time a UAV was operated alongside commercial flights in civilian airspace.

Video: Heron UAV Landing at Ben Gurion Airport

Dolphin reproductive research aided by UH Drones

The University of Hawaii is collaborating with Dolphin Quest on a study to better understand the health of dolphin populations. A Ph.D. student has been operating a drone over a pregnant bottlenose dolphin at the Dolphin Quest facility. The goal is to detect pregnancy in female dolphins in the open ocean.

Verizon deploys remote network-connected drone during Big Hollow Wildfire

The FAA granted a special temporary waiver to Skyward, A Verizon company, that allows civilian operations to inspect critical communications infrastructure in the U.S. Company pilots can fly the Percepto Sparrow drone from their homes to inspect critical communications infrastructure near the Big Hollow wildfire in Washington. The waiver permits operations 24 hours a day, with less than 3 miles of visibility, and no pilot or observer on site. Skyward spent nearly a year testing and proving that it could safely fly without onsite personnel.

Former Head of Federal Aviation Administration Michael Huerta Joins D-Fend Solutions’ Advisory Board

The former top Federal Aviation Administration executive brings airspace management and airport safety expertise to the D-Fend counter-drone technology company. 

UAV Video of the Week

Colors of Vermont Fall Foliage Captured in Drone Footage

Vermont photographer John Rowe captured drone footage of the fall colors at Norton Pond.

UAV226 Drones at CES 2018

Drone news from CES 2018, drones and asymmetrical warfare, situational awareness for sense and avoid from Insitu, a Cargo Air Vehicle prototype from Boeing, and GoPro exits the quadcopter market.

The Volocopter 2X autonomous air taxi at CES 2018.

The Volocopter 2X autonomous air taxi at CES 2018.

UAV News

Drones fly over Bellagio fountains during Las Vegas CES

Intel Corp. flew 250 light-emitting Shooting Star drones over the Fountains at Bellagio at CES 2018. Intel plans a drone show at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.

Video: Intel’s drone light show sends 250 drones flying over Las Vegas at CES 2018

Volocopter 2X: An Autonomous Flying Taxi In Flight At CES 2018 In Las Vegas For The First Time

The Volocopter 2X autonomous passenger drone lifted off on the stage at CES 2018. The flight was short and tethered for safety.

Yuneec announces Typhoon H Plus alongside first fixed-wing and racing drones

Yuneec showed three drones at CES 2018: The Typhoon H Plus for pro photographers and videographers, the Firebird FPV fixed-wing drone, and the HD Racer small racing drone.

Images from CES 2018

These photos were provided by junior21 in our Slack listener team:

Law enforcement drone at CES 2018.

Law enforcement drone at CES 2018.

Yamaha Frazer at CES 2018.

Yamaha Frazer at CES 2018.

CES 2018 drone safety booth.

CES 2018 drone safety booth.

Defining Asymmetrical Warfare: Extremists Use Retail Drones to Attack Russian Air Base in Syria

There are reports of insurgents modifying commercially available quadcopters to deliver explosives such as mortar rounds and grenades. Social media photos show the damaged tail of a Sukhoi Su-24 Fencer attack aircraft in Syria. There is speculation the Russians have intercepted the drones with the Pantsir S-2 integrated missile and gun vehicle.

Insitu Demonstrates Broad-area Airspace Situational Awareness System for Unmanned Air Systems

Insitu completed a successful flight demonstration of their real-time, ground-based UAS airspace situational awareness system. The system allows commercial UAS operators to detect and avoid nearby aircraft flying both within and beyond line of sight. The system is specifically designed to help detect and avoid “non-cooperative” traffic. Insitu collaborated with Boeing Phantom Works International in Australia under a program sponsored by the Queensland Government.

Boeing Unveils New Unmanned Cargo Air Vehicle Prototype

The unmanned electric VTOL multi-copter Cargo Air Vehicle (CAV) prototype is designed to carry up to 500 pounds. Boeing will use it to “test and evolve Boeing’s autonomy technology for future aerospace vehicles.” Initial flight tests were successfully completed at Boeing Research & Technology’s Collaborative Autonomous Systems Laboratory in Missouri.

Future of autonomous air travel: Boeing unveils new cargo air vehicle prototype

GoPro Plunges After Announcing Job Cuts, Revenue Miss

GoPro Inc. had a difficult fourth quarter. The company is cutting more than 20 percent of its global workforce and ending its drone business. GoPro says they will sell off the existing inventory of Karma drones but will continue to provide service.

UAV Video of the Week

Brain Controlled UAV

A hacked Star Wars Force Trainer uses the operator’s thoughts to control a small drone in this ARCLab ACE Project.

Feedback

NASA chief historian Bill Barry sets the record straight on the origins of the winglet. It was Richard Whitcomb at NASA that gets credit for the aeronautical innovation, not DARPA.

Dryden Flight Research Center: Winglets