Monthly Archives: August 2019

300 It’s Called a Drone

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The Commercial Drone Alliance wants to see regulations for large drones, sUAS are vulnerable to impacts, using AI-enabled drones to identify specific individuals (human and otherwise), drones donated to universities for precision ag, and BVLOS for the UAS Integration Pilot Program.

UAV News

DON’T SAY ‘DRONES,’ Beg Drone Makers

This is the first story we covered, from Episode #1.

Commercial Drone Alliance calls for focus on large UAS in letter to new FAA administrator

The Commercial Drone Alliance sent a letter to the new U.S. chief technology officer and to the new FAA Administrator. The letter notes that the FAA has mostly focused on sUAS and the Alliance wants to see regulators look at large UAS. Lisa Ellman, executive director of the Commercial Drone Alliance and partner at Hogan Lovells, said: “The Commercial Drone Alliance looks forward to working with newly sworn-in FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson and recently confirmed U.S. CTO Michael Kratsios to develop common sense and business-friendly regulations for large UAS.”

Lessons for drone defense from a tennis ball

XKCD cartoonist Randall Munroe asked Serena Williams to try and take out a DJI Mavic Pro 2 with a tennis ball. She did. On her third serve, Serena nailed the quadcopter. Consumer drones are not very hardened against impact.

Little Ripper deploys croc-spotting AI drones

In Episode 287 we talked about Little Ripper drones being used in New South Wales and Queensland to spot sharks. Now the same drone technology is being used to spot crocodiles in Queensland.

Drones that recognize you? Amazon has a patent for that.

This article describes two patents granted to Amazon.com: One includes launching unmanned aircraft from freight cars and the other utilizes one or more drones to locate the delivery customer.

In other package delivery news:

Video: Bell Autonomous Pod Transport 70 Achieves First Autonomous Flight

AeroVironment Donates 87 Quantix Drones and AV DSS Ecosystems to 35 U.S. University Agriculture Departments to Advance Drones in Farming

The AeroVironment 2019 Quantix and AV DSS University Collaboration Project seeks to advance academic research, applications, and crop production practices through the use of UAS and advanced data analytics.

Video: The Next Generation of Quantix & AV DSS

https://youtu.be/_Qpxhokc2Ok

Drones on the farm: Using facial recognition to keep cows healthy

An automated drone system that can monitor the health of cattle in the pasture is being developed by a team of professors and student researchers in the UK. Testing is being conducted with 3DR Solo drones modified with a Raspberry Pi. The autonomous drones could identify each animal, determine its location, and measure health information like weight, size, facial features, and physical activity.

FAA OKs Airbus Aerial UAS Operations in North Dakota

The FAA authorized Airbus Aerial to operate UAS at the Grand Forks, North Dakota, test site under the UAS Integration Pilot Program. Airbus Aerial will use a SenseFly eBee drone to survey power distribution lines, BVLOS. Press release: Airbus Aerial Receives Waiver for Urban BVLOS UAS Flight Operations Over Populated Areas in North Dakota.

GA-ASI Receives FAA No-Chase COA for Unmanned Flights in North Dakota

The FAA also granted General Atomics Aeronautical Systems a Certificate of Waiver or Authorization (COA) for BVLOS. They will use a Ground-based Sense and Avoid (GBSAA) system that incorporates the Grand Forks Air Force Base Air Surveillance Radar (ASR) and the L3Harris Technologies VueStation and RangeVue systems. These meet the “see and avoid” requirements over large airspace.

Videos of the Week

Video of man fishing while dangling from drone under investigation by CASA

The man posted a video on social media showing him fishing, drinking beer, and even catching a fish. Now the Civil Aviation Safety Authority is investigating.

Your new best travel buddy is this autonomous suitcase that’s always by your side

“Self-driving technology allows the Ovis Suitcase to follow alongside its owner, while computer vision tech lets it see and avoid obstacles.” Ovis is equipped with GPS location tracker, smart alarm, embedded weight sensor, TSA-approved digital lock and removable airline-compliant LiPo battery that doubles as a charging station.

Video: Introducing Ovis by FowardX, the World’s First Vision-Powered Side-Follow Suitcase

299 Aeronautical Knowledge Test

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An update on the aeronautical knowledge test for recreational drone pilots, UPS plans for medical deliveries, a drone field technician college degree, a waiver for drone flights over people, opinions on drone strikes on airliners, environmental BVLOS missions, and a message from the FAA on drones and dangerous weapons.

UAV News

Recreational Drone Flyer Test Coming Soon

FAA seeks third parties to administer online recreational drone tests

The FAA wants to outsource the administration of the aeronautical knowledge test for recreational drone pilots mandated by Section 349 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018. The agency has posted a request for information and seeks responses from commercial, non-profit, or academic entities that would serve as test designees. The FAA said it won’t pay test designees and is “agnostic as to the business model” they choose to administer the test. Replies are due by September 12, 2019.

UPS details drone plans in federal exemption request

Since March 2019, UPS Flight Forward and partner Matternet have been transporting blood and medical samples by drone for WakeMed hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina. Now UPS wants to expand this service to other areas in the U.S.

Atlantic Cape debuts new degree in drones this fall

Atlantic Cape Community College in New Jersey is offering an associate degree in applied science with a concentration in sUAS (Drones) Field Technician. The college says “Upon successful completion of the program students will demonstrate basic proficiency in the area of small UAS operations, general maintenance and repair, the use of a small UAS for the collection of and pre and post-processing of aerial images and videos, and geospatial data collection.”

Fast Food Delivery Drone Being Developed in Syracuse, N.Y.

Flytrex has received a waiver from the FAA to fly over people, specifically over a highway in Holly Springs, North Carolina as part of a three-year test project. Flytrex wants to deliver food over a single route from a shopping center with 15 restaurants to customers at a nearby public park and sports complex.

NUAIR (the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research alliance) tested the Flytrex drone (a DJI Matrice 600 Pro) and parachute (from Drone Rescue Systems of Austria) in a series of 45 different failure tests at Griffiss International Airport.

Are Drone-Aircraft Collisions A Real Threat To Airline Passengers and Crews?

The author observed a drone out the window of a commercial flight out of Newark Airport. The seatback in-flight map showed an altitude of 2,800 feet and a ground speed of 230 MPH. He offers some suggestions for the flying public, legislators, and drone manufacturers.

Aeromapper Talon Amphibious fly BVLOS missions over marine reserve for illegal fishing detection and biodiversity research

Two Amphibian Aeromapper Talon drones were used in trials in Belize to detect and document illegal fishing activities and perform conservation research. The waterproof drones can land on water. Twenty-four BVLOS flights were successfully flown during the trials. Current enforcement involves patrols around the atoll in small boats.

Video: Commercial grade amphibian fixed-wing drone

Drones and Weapons, A Dangerous Mix

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is warning the general public that operating a drone with a dangerous weapon attached is a violation of Section 363 of the 2018 FAA Reauthorization Act enacted Oct. 5, 2018. Operators are subject to civil penalties up to $25,000 for each violation unless the operator has received specific authorization from the Administrator of the FAA to conduct the operation. “Dangerous Weapon” means any item that is used for, or is readily capable of, causing death or serious bodily injury. Operators are subject to civil penalties up to $25,000 for each violation.

298 High Altitude Pseudo Satellite

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HAPSMobile plans to fly a High Altitude Pseudo Satellite (HAPS) over Hawaii, Amazon petitions for drone delivery exemptions, NASA plans to test UAS traffic management in Texas, researchers find that drones are better than people studying whales, a female drone pilot seeks to encourage women, and drones that provide medical assistance.

UAV News

FAA Approves Solar Drone Flights Over Hawaiian Island

Japanese drone company HAPSMobile has a waiver to fly a solar-powered UAV over Lanai. The HAWK30 will act as a stratospheric telecommunications platform – a High Altitude Platform Station, also called a High Altitude Pseudo Satellite. The project is a collaboration between HAPSMobile, the University of Hawaii, and the Pan-Pacific UAS Test Range Complex which is managed by the University of Alaska Fairbanks. AeroVironment is HAPSMobile’s aircraft development partner for the HAWK30.

Amazon requests FAA approval of delivery-drone plans

Amazon has filed a 29-page petition with the FAA requesting approval to use their MK27 delivery drone before getting a certificate of airworthiness. Amazon would like to fly BVLOS and they ask for exemptions from certain aviation regulations that are more applicable to manned aircraft. The petition says delivery drones will fly autonomously but with one operator for each drone in flight. Eventually, Amazon would like to have one operator for multiple drones “subject to FAA approval based on flights and simulations that demonstrate required levels of safety.”
The FAA will take public comments on the petition until August 28, 2019. See Petition for Exemption; Summary of Petition Received; Amazon Prime Air in the Federal Register.

NASA drone testing schedule in Corpus Christi: What you need to know

NASA selected the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi’s Lone Star UAS Center of Excellence & Innovation as a nationwide drone testing site. Testing will focus on urban UAS traffic management and they plan to close or restrict access to several downtown streets.

Tests show multi-rotor UAVs can improve cetacean behavioral studies

New Zealand researchers found that small, multi-rotor UAVs are better than expert observers on research vessels. When it comes to surveying and studying humpback whales, the drones captured some social activities not detected by the observer and there was no observable effect on the whales’ behavior. See Insights into the use of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to investigate the behavior of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in Vava’u, Kingdom of Tonga.

Introducing Derbyshire Police’s First Female Drone Pilot

Victoria Atherton, Derbyshire Police’s first female drone pilot, has said she wants to inspire others and fight crime. She was recently deployed to a damaged dam that forced the evacuation of about 1,500 residents. She commented: “Personally, I think the best way to encourage women to get involved is to support each other. The future of aviation appears to be heading in the direction of unmanned aircraft and it’s important that men and women are equally represented in this field.” Also, “It’s an achievement to be labeled the first, however, I think it’s more important to ensure that I am not the last.”

Drones, smartphones and sensors could provide a new solution to elderly falls

Researchers from Baghdad’s Middle Technical University and the University of South Australia have designed a system to remotely monitor elderly people. It detects heart rate and temperature abnormalities and provides urgent first aid via a drone if a fall occurs.

UAV Video of the Week

DARPA video shows autonomous drones swarming a building

The demonstration took place under the agency’s OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) program, which “envisions future small-unit infantry forces using swarms comprising upwards of 250 unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) and/or unmanned ground systems (UGSs) to accomplish diverse missions in complex urban environments.”

Video: Teams Test Swarm Autonomy in Second Major OFFSET Field Experiment

297 Nano Drones, Swarms, and AI

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A drone crash halts Swiss package delivery, AI used to detect drone faults and locate/track other drones, swarming nano-drones, mesh networked drones for precision agriculture, a drone mesh for event security, UAS for airport and public safety, and the reliability of drone sightings from aircraft.

UAV News

Swiss drone crashes near children, forcing suspension of delivery program

In May, a 22-pound Swiss Post drone crashed 50 yards away from a group of children. As a result, the drone delivery program in Switzerland has been suspended indefinitely. Swiss Post has asked Matternet to make several changes to the system: parachutes connected to the UAV by two ropes instead of one, ropes reinforced with metal braiding, and a louder emergency landing whistle.

Fault Diagnosis of Drone Propellers Using AI

Propeller defects in drones can cause them to fall from the sky and researchers have used different methods to perform fault diagnosis. But a new study by Italian researchers takes a different approach and focuses on measuring the noise emitted by the drone. Different noise patterns are used to build an artificial intelligence (AI) model that detects unbalanced blades in a UAV propeller. See Fault Diagnosis for UAV Blades Using Artificial Neural Network.

Drones Chasing Drones Using Deep Learning and AI

A Canadian study proposes target-detection and target-following using AI techniques for UAV pursuit-evasion. Deep reinforcement learning predicts the actions to apply to the follower UAV to keep track of the target UAV. A deep object detector and a search area proposal predict the position of the target UAV for tracking purposes. The proposed framework uses vision data. See Drones Chasing Drones: Reinforcement Learning and Deep Search Area Proposal.

The amazing world of nano drones

Nano drones have been studies for several years. Draper Lab’s DragonflEye drone project was announced in 2017. A real dragonfly wears a tiny backpack fitted with electronics, sensors, and a solar cell. AeroVironment has been working on a nano-hummingbird since 2011. The market for the nano drones alone is expected to reach $13.4 billion by 2023.

If one drone isn’t enough, try a drone swarm

Drones are being used for precision agriculture, but there are shortcomings with one drone and a big farm. Many battery changes may be required and the survey could take a lot of time. The Norwegian Defence Research Establishment and Rajant Corporation in the US are working on a drone swarming approach with decentralized communications, self-organizing drones, and little human supervision. The technology uses Rajant’s “Kinetic Mesh®” radio technology and “foreign function interface” distributed computing software.

Atlas Multi-Drone System Used by Rio Military Police to Secure Soccer Tournament

Atlas Dynamics partnered with the Military Police of Rio de Janeiro State to use the AtlasPRO at the Copa America soccer (football) tournament. The AtlasPRO was flown in single and multi-UAS missions along the perimeter of the stadium during the tournament’s final series. Data was gathered on public safety hazards and to facilitate emergency response. This was the first time the Atlas mesh multi-drone UAS technology was approved for use at a major sporting event. The mesh multi-node communication capability allows a single operator to command and control a drone network from a unified ground control system. The operator can divide missions among several UAS and maintain constant “eyes in the sky” using autonomous hot-swap capabilities.

Report: Data Management a Challenge for Public Safety UAS Programs

Droneresponders has released the 2019 Mid-Year Public Safety UAS Report. Three out of four public safety agencies say they are already either operating drones or working on implementing a drone program. More than 80% of public safety UAS operators either have obtained or are pursuing, their FAA Part 107 certification. 82% of public safety agencies with a UAS program are operating multi-rotor systems, while only 11% are using fixed- or delta-wing drones. Over 35% of public safety UAS programs are using the FAA’s LAANC system for airspace requests.

UAS Used For Part 77 Airport Inspections in Washington

AeroTEC has completed proof-of-concept aerial surveys in Washington State at Sunnyside Municipal Airport (1S5) and Prosser Airport (S40). The AeroTEC system looks for runway obstacles using photogrammetry to meet the requirement of FAA FAR 14 CFR Part 77. See AeroTEC Conducts First UAS Part 77 Survey of Washington State Airports for WSDOT.

Video of the Week

Epic Long Range FPV Mountain Surfing – 7km round trip

Mentioned

Drone Sightings (2014-2018) from the FAA from Rupprecht Law.

296 Bio-inspired Drones

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Bio-inspired drones are getting attention, a general contractor receives a waiver for flights over people with a parachute-equipped drone, six Israeli drone companies, a drone-mounted flamethrower, BVLOS critical infrastructure inspection, and an online drone survey.

UAV News

Forget props and fixed wings. New bio-inspired drones mimic birds, bats and bugs

Bio-inspired drones are being investigated by a number of researchers. A Northeastern University roboticist is working on a bat-inspired robot called Bat Bot. Animal Dynamics of Oxford, England, is working with the United Kingdom’s Defense Science and Technology Laboratory to build a dragonfly-like drone called Skeeter. Harvard University researchers are working on RoboBee which weighs less than a paper clip and features two pairs of solar-powered wings controlled by artificial muscles.

Video: Advanced Robotic Bat Can Fly Like the Real Thing

ParaZero Client Gets FAA Waiver for UAV Flights Over People

ParaZero Technologies Ltd announced the FAA has approved a waiver for flights over people to Hensel Phelps, a large general contractor. Hensel Phelps will use ParaZero’s ASTM F3322-18 compliant SafeAir Phantom Parachute System. The system monitors flight parameters for anomalies and when critical failures are identified, the rotors are stopped and the parachute is deployed. According to the FAA, this process is scalable and available to other applicants who propose to use the same drone and parachute combination. The FAA will require each applicant to provide the testing, documentation, and statement of compliance listed in ASTM 3322-18 in their applications using the same drone and parachute combination. ASTM 3322-18 is the Standard Specification for Small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS) Parachutes.

From Apple Picking to Security Details: 6 Israeli Companies Developing Specialized Drones

This article describes six Israeli drone companies:

The Tevel Aerobotics Technologies Ltd. autonomous drone has a one-meter long mechanical claw which can pick apples and oranges.
Flytrex Aviation Ltd. has a cellular data communication module allowing operators to remotely control any drone using a mobile app.
SkyX Ltd. modifies commercially available drones to become agricultural spraying machines.
Construction tech startup Civdrone Ltd. turns commercially available drones into land surveying, measuring, and marking machines for construction sites.
Airobotics Ltd. develops automatic drones for security details and land surveys at factories, refineries, and mining sites.
Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd. (IAI) has a “suicide drone” called Rotem that uses a grenade to attack targets in combat situations.

How can a Flamethrower on a Drone be Utilized by Commercial UAS Operators?

Flamethrower manufacturer Throwflame is now selling a drone-attachable flamethrower, the TF-19 Wasp, available for personal and commercial use such as controlling weeds, ground-clearing, ice and snow melting/clearing, and grassland management.

Soaring Eagle Imaging Performs 51 Mile BVLOS Utility Inspection

Soaring Eagle Imaging (SEI) utilizes unmanned technology in inspection applications for enterprise clients. They have been granted 17 emergency BVLOS waivers in the past and helped with critical infrastructure inspection near Baton Rouge after Hurricane Barry hit Louisiana on July 13th, 2019. SEI is a veteran-owned and operated UAS company that offers drone aerial services, such as image capture, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), aviation and FAA regulations.

Does a drone flying overhead make you uncomfortable? The NCDOT wants to know

The N.C. Department of Transportation wants to gauge public opinion about the growing use of drones and has created an online survey. Please support NCDOT’s efforts and contribute your input.