Monthly Archives: July 2021

378 UAS Incident Map

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An interactive UAS incident map, an airspace coordinator collaborates with archaeologists, a drone swarm that sniffs out gas leaks, the X-56B UAV is destroyed, making drones and air taxis quiet, and AI drones that find meteorites.

UAV News

Explore Thousands Of FAA Drone And Unidentified Aircraft Incident Reports With Our Interactive Tool

The Drive has taken FAA incident reports of UAS and unidentified aircraft and created an interactive and searchable UAS incident map. The approximately 10,400 incident reports cover the period from November of 2014 until December 2020. Find the UAS incident map at UAV Geography. (Be patient, it can load slowly.)

Pax UAS Airspace Coordinators Collaborate with Local Archaeologists

Historic St. Mary’s City (HSMC) is the earliest settlement in Maryland with a fort erected in 1634. Archeologists working the site considered drones to be part of their archaeological toolkit, but they didn’t have an understanding of the regulatory requirements. Pax River’s then-UAS Airspace Coordinator Air Traffic Controller 1st Class James “Cody” Green stepped in and started working with HSMC to ensure the drone operations were safe and legal.

Swarm of autonomous tiny drones can localize gas leaks

Researchers at the Delft University of Technology Micro Air Vehicle Lab and Harvard University have developed a swarm of tiny drones that can autonomously detect and localize gas sources in cluttered indoor environments. The bio-inspired navigation and search strategy algorithm is called “Sniffy Bug.”

Video: Sniffy Bug: A Fully Autonomous Swarm of Gas-Seeking Nano Quadcopters in Cluttered Environments

NASA’s X-56B UAV destroyed in crash on 9 July

A “flight anomaly” caused the vehicle to crash. The aircraft was being used to test ways to suppress flutter. It is not clear if other X-56B vehicles exist, or when testing will resume.

Whisper Aero emerges from stealth to quiet drones and air taxis

Startup Whisper Aero believes they can make drones quiet. An electric thruster would reduce the drone’s noise down to background levels that would be difficult for the human ear to hear. Whisper isn’t saying much about their thruster design.

Automated drones being taught to locate fallen meteorites

Less than 2% of meteorites are recovered but University of California, Davis researchers believe they can increase that percentage using AI and automated drones. These would fly in grid patterns at low altitudes over areas where they suspect meteorites have fallen. Images from the UAV would be analyzed by software that employed machine learning to differentiate meteorites from terrestrial rocks.

377 Google’s OpenSky App

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:21 — 18.8MB)

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Google released the new OpenSky app, collecting water samples, cellular command and control, Zipline raised additional investment, Skyborg made a second autonomous flight, integrating drones with warehouses, and an interview with Robotic Skies.

UAV News

Google’s Wing launches free app to help drone pilots obey US regulations

The OpenSky app lets both commercial and recreational pilots in the US see where they can fly. The app is in beta but it’s based on Google maps and shows flight restrictions for the selected location. OpenSky also allows you to plan a new flight and submit a Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) request. 

Drone-based water sampling goes deep

Reign Maker has developed a drone-based water sampling and data collection system called Nixie. The company spent two years developing a system that produces higher sampling rates and accuracy without the need for as much equipment and field personnel. The sampling attachment lowers EPA-certified bottles two feet under the water’s surface. Timestamps and GPS coordinates are associated with collected samples. The system currently supports DJI M600 and M300 RTK enterprise drone platforms.

FAA Moves to Further America’s Cellular-Connected Drone Operations

The FAA and Verizon’s Skyward signed a 3-year MOU to experiment with cellular-connected drones. Titled “Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS)—Cellular Technologies to Support UAS Activities,” the agreement seeks to advance BVLOS, UTM, and one-to-many operations utilizing the cellular network.

California Drone Operator Zipline Raises $250 Million

Zipline plans to create more hubs and warehouses in Africa and invest in US market expansion. Zipline co-founder and CEO Keller Rinaudo noted that traditional supply chains broke down during the pandemic. He said “Covid has significantly accelerated all of our timelines. As more and more health systems were betting on us, we were realizing that the opportunity is bigger and we need to be making big investments.” The funding round values Zipline at $2.75 billion. Investors include Scottish investment firm Baillie Gifford, Fidelity Investments, and Singapore’s state-owned fund Temasek.

Skyborg makes its second flight, this time autonomously piloting General Atomics’ Avenger drone

Two months ago, the Air Force first flew the Skyborg autonomy core system (ACS) aboard the Kratos UTAP-22 Mako. Now Skyborg has autonomously flown a General Atomics MQ-20 Avenger drone. This means Skyborg ACS has flown on platforms from two different manufacturers. The flight took place during the Orange Flag exercise at Edwards Air Force Base, California, over a period of about two hours and 30 minutes.

Without changes, warehouses could ground drone deliveries

To allow for drone delivery service at scale, warehouses will need a place for drones to land, re-charge, and get loaded with the next package. That could mean land space, roof space, or even interior warehouse space. Warehouse operations will need to shift from pallet loading to single-item loading.

Interview

Reporter-at-large Launchpad Marzari talks with Katria Passi from Robotic Skies, a company that performs aviation-grade drone maintenance through a global network of over 225 service centers across 50 countries.