Monthly Archives: December 2022

417 UAV Tether in Heavy Seas

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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.

416 European Drone Strategy 2.0

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European drone strategy 2.0, armed drones for Ukraine, drones used for poaching and other wildlife investigations, drone videos of three active volcanoes, dynamically assigning frequencies for UAS command and control, a survey of consumer attitudes on home drone delivery of goods and food, liquid hydrogen power, and the Dover AFB sUAS program.

UAV News

Drone Strategy 2.0: Creating a large-scale European drone market

The European Commission adopted the European Drone Strategy 2.0 which offers a vision for the further development of the European drone market. The Commission wants to ensure that society supports drones. By 2030, the Drone Strategy envisions a number of services, including emergency services, mapping, imaging, inspection and surveillance; the urgent delivery of small packages, such as biological samples or medicines; Air Mobility services, like air taxis that provide regular transport services for passengers, initially with a pilot on board, but ultimately fully automated operations.

The Commission’s strategy includes operational, technical, and financial actions:

  • Adopting common rules for airworthiness, and new training requirements
  • Funding the creation of an online platform to support local stakeholders and industry implementing sustainable Innovative Air Mobility.
  • Developing a Strategic Drone Technology Roadmap to identify priority areas for research and innovation, to reduce existing strategic dependencies and to avoid new ones arising.
  • Defining criteria for a voluntary cybersecurity-approved drone label.

See: A Drone Strategy 2.0 for a Smart and Sustainable Unmanned Aircraft Eco-System in Europe [PDF].

Senators urge Pentagon to send advanced Gray Eagle drones to Ukraine

After some reports that the Pentagon had decided to not send armed drones to Ukraine, sixteen Senate Republicans and Democrats sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin objecting. In the letter, the Senators say, “This particular [Unmanned Aerial System] will increase Ukraine’s unmanned capabilities in the near term and demands careful reconsideration. Most importantly, armed [Unmanned Aerial Systems] could find and attack Russian warships in the Black Sea, breaking its coercive blockade and alleviate dual pressures on the Ukrainian economy and global food prices.” The General Atomics MQ-1C Gray Eagle drones can hold up to four Hellfire Missiles.

Poachers beware—new drone team launched to assist in wildlife crime investigations

The five Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) drone law enforcement officers have been trained and have their FAA pilot licenses. The drones will assist officers in their investigations through increased documentation of crime scenes and locating evidence.

Drones capture video of three active volcanoes around the world

Watch videos of three active volcanoes: Mauna Loa in Hawaii, the Villarrica volcano in Chile, and Russia’s Shiveluch volcano.

uAvionix Awarded FAA contract to Implement and demonstrate C-Band Frequency Assignment Manager (FAM) with Multiple UAS Operations

uAvionix won a contract from the FAA for end-to-end demonstrations of a Frequency Assignment Manager (FAM) as a component of the uAvionix SkyLine™ Command and Control Communications Service Provider (C2CSP) management platform. The system will dynamically assign UAS C-Band Command and Non-Payload Control frequencies to UAS with CNPC radios. uAvionix teamed with the Northern Plains UAS Test Site to develop command and control concepts.

The contract demonstrations include:

  • Managing a pool of frequencies in a geographic area.
  • Allocating available frequencies to a specific CNPC radio for a specific mission.
  • Receiving assigned frequencies for the designated mission.
  • CNPC radios operating on the assigned frequencies.
  • Non-interference when multiple aircraft are operating in the area.

Do US Consumers Want Drone Delivery? Auterion’s 2022 Report

Auterion surveyed 1,000 Americans to get their perspective on drones. 94% view drones as having a potential positive purpose in the world. 67% view drones as more environmentally friendly than trucks. 57% think the adoption of small-quantity drone deliveries is a good thing for the environment. 47% said they would make a purchase from a specific retailer due to the option of a drone delivery program. 64% believe drones are becoming an option for home delivery now or will be in the near future. Press release: Drones set to make the future of holiday shipping greener. Download the report: Drone Delivery in the United States.

This New Airplane Could Be The First to Fly on Carbon-Free Liquid Hydrogen

Since 2016, the German company H2Fly has been flying an airplane powered by a hydrogen gas fuel cell. The Hy4 is a four-seat aircraft and in April it set a record for the highest zero-emission flight, at 7,230 feet. H2Fly plans to switch from Hydrogen gas to liquid. That would double the range. Testing is scheduled for 2023. The company has entered into a partnership with Deutsche Aircraft to develop a fuel-cell-powered aircraft that will hold up to 40 passengers, with a range of 1,200 miles.

Video: Präsentation der sechsten Wasserstoff-Antriebsgeneration in der Hy4

Eye in the sky: SUAS program takes flight at Dover AFB

The 436th Airlift Wing Plans and Programs office at Dover AFB has an sUAS program jointly run with the Bedrock Dover AFB  Innovation Lab. Recently, a Skydio X2D Small Unmanned Aerial System drone was tested during its first operational flight around a static aircraft at Dover on Nov. 4, 2022. The X2D was selected from other Department of Defense-approved systems due to its advanced obstacle avoidance system and other possible capabilities.