Tag Archives: Apple

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.

314 Remote ID Reactions

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Initial reactions to the FAA Remote ID NPRM, a high-accuracy photogrammetry solution, Apple hires a familiar face to lobby in Washington, an anti-drone system for Heathrow, a stealthy new target drone, and a fixed-wing eVTOL personal ultralight aircraft.

UAV News

Proposed FAA Drone Rules Prompt Industry Pushback

Engineering News-Record reports on some of the statements that are being made about the Remote-ID NPRM that is currently in the public comment period.

Frank J. Segarra, president and CEO of drone photography firm Connexicore said, “It is my personal opinion that drone operators or services should not bear the cost of carrying a specific type of remote identification system that broadcasts over the internet. This should be the responsibility of all drone manufacturers, not the pilots.”

Lloyd Garden, a commercial drone photographer, says the proposed rules only make sense in controlled airspace where connectivity exists. “I think people need to know where drones are. But [these rules] are a little restricting for me.”

Mike Winn, CEO of drone-imaging and software firm DroneDeploy commented, “In the long term, if we’re going have a drone on every construction site, we’re going to need these kinds of regulations on the technology.” He notes that by the time any regulations are in place, a lot of drone technology will have changed.

DJI supports Remote ID but warns against FAA’s “deeply flawed” NPRM

DJI vice president for policy and legal affairs Brendan Schulman posted an article titled, We Strongly Support Drone Remote ID. But Not Like This. Schulman says “DJI wants governments to require Remote ID for drones, but the FAA has proposed a complex, expensive, and intrusive system that would make it harder to use drones in America, and that jeopardizes the success of the Remote ID initiative. Instead, we support a simpler, easier, and free version of Remote ID that doesn’t need a cellular connection or a service subscription.”

The Leica Aibot AX20 Promises High Precision, High Accuracy Photogrammetry

Leica Geosystems offers “a complete UAV solution at the very top end of the photogrammetry use case.” It’s called the Aibot AX20 (pronounced “i-bot”), “a complete UAV solution for land surveying, civil engineering and construction.” Leica says the customized DJI Matrice 600 Aibot features high resolution and high precision photogrammetry, better than one-centimeter accuracy, a high-end survey-grade GN-18 T GNSS receiver, Gimbal-mounted sensors, a Sony aR7ii 42.4 megapixel CMOS and a Sony a6300 mirrorless camera.

Apple Taps Drone Specialist to Lobby Washington on Aviation

Apple has hired Lisa Ellman, a partner at Hogan Lovells, as a Washington lobbyist. Ellman is a co-founder of the Commercial Drone Alliance. Representatives for Apple and Ellman declined to comment.

Heathrow Airport installs anti-drone system that can locate UAV pilots

London’s Heathrow Airport has installed a counter-drone system that will detect and track unauthorized drones. The system will also locate the drone pilots. Designed by Operational Solutions Ltd. (OSL), the system employs a holographic radar system. The Operational Solutions press release [PDF] states:

“This one-of-a-kind Counter Drone system works by detecting and tracking drones in surrounding airspace and alerting airports of unauthorised drone use quickly and efficiently. This new and innovative system also works to locate the drone pilots themselves and can be used to identify their location.

“This technology has been specifically designed for Heathrow Airport by Operational Solutions Ltd, integrating for the first time a variety of leading counter drone technologies from different manufacturers.”

Stealthy UAS Unveiled For USAF Target, Loyal Wingman Needs

Sierra Technical Services has shown photos of its Fifth Generation Aerial Target (5GAT) prototype. 5GAT components cannibalized from other aircraft include engines (the GE J85) and metallic components from the Northrop T-38 trainer and F-5 fighter, and aileron actuators from the Boeing F/A-18. Sierra Technical Services was founded by retired Lockheed Martin Skunk Works engineers.

EVTOL drone developer launches BlackFly with new CEO

Opener calls its BlackFly the world’s first fixed-wing, all-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) personal ultralight aircraft. Ben Diachun was announced the new CEO. He was president of Scaled Composites in Mojave, California. Founder and former CEO, Marcus Leng, will oversee next-generation manufacturing and international operations as Chairman of the Board. 

UAV240 Calls to Repeal Section 336

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The Commercial Drone Alliance seeks to repeal Section 336, the FAA Reauthorization ACT of 2018 is introduced, Apple might not like drone flights over its new corporate headquarters, Temple University students build an autonomous drone for campus tours, and the DARPA Gremlins drone swarm program.

UAV News

Commercial Drone Alliance Calls for Section 336 Repeal: ‘Times Have Changed’

The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 prohibits the FAA from regulating model aircraft flown as part of a community-based organization. The Commercial Drone Alliance wants Congress to repeal Section 336 of the Act because all drones need “rules of the road.” Lisa Ellman, co-executive director of the Commercial Drone Alliance says the alliance “understand[s] why model aircraft proponents want to remain exempt, as they have been flying safely for decades. However, times have changed, and hobbyists are no longer flying alone.” Gretchen West, co-executive director of the Alliance, says, “Technology has improved. To promote innovation and the budding commercial drone industry, we need to enable the FAA to craft some common-sense rules around remote identification and more.”

FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, Sec. 336 (in part):

(a) …the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration may not promulgate any rule or regulation regarding a model aircraft, or an aircraft being developed as a model aircraft, if–

(1) the aircraft is flown strictly for hobby or recreational use;

(2) the aircraft is operated in accordance with a community-based set of safety guidelines and within the programming of a nationwide community-based organization;

(3) the aircraft is limited to not more than 55 pounds unless otherwise certified through a design, construction, inspection, flight test, and operational safety program administered by a community-based organization;

(4) the aircraft is operated in a manner that does not interfere with and gives way to any manned aircraft; and

(5) when flown within 5 miles of an airport, the operator of the aircraft provides the airport operator and the airport air traffic control tower …with prior notice of the operation…

(b) Statutory Construction.–Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit the authority of the Administrator to pursue enforcement action against persons operating model aircraft who endanger the safety of the national airspace system.

(c) Model Aircraft Defined.–In this section, the term “model
aircraft” means an unmanned aircraft that is–

(1) capable of sustained flight in the atmosphere;

(2) flown within visual line of sight of the person operating the aircraft; and

(3) flown for hobby or recreational purposes.

Brief Summary of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018

Rupprecht Law provides a good summary of the drone-related items in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 introduced on April 13, 2018, by Representative Shuster. The Act addresses the roles different government levels, user fees, unmanned air traffic management, recreational and commercial drones, registration, and other topics.

Petesch: Drone regulations make investments difficult

Missouri State prohibits the use of UAS systems on campus without specific permission from the university.

Drone Videographer Duncan Sinfield: ‘Only a Matter of Time’ Until Apple Park Shuts Down Drone Flights

Duncan Sinfield uses a drone to creates videos of Apple Park. He thinks “it’s only a matter of time until the campus becomes shut-off to drones completely… with a geo-fence, or something similar.”

APPLE PARK: A Very Private Corporate Campus | mid-April 2018

Students make drone for campus tours

A group of senior electrical engineering majors from Temple University are building an autonomous drone for their senior design project. The drone would give self-guided tours of the campus to prospective students. The team is utilizing two types of machine learning: a convolutional neural network and imitation learning.

DARPA Will Reel-In Its Gremlins Drones and Pluck Them Out Of The Sky Like Flying Fish

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is proceeding to the third phase of its Gremlins drone swarm program. Dynetics has been awarded a contract for the system which envisions a C-130 Hercules aircraft towing a docking system behind it that the unmanned Gremlins can latch onto for retrieval. Ground and limited flight tests will begin in 2018, and flight tests of the system should be completed by January 2020.

UAV Video of the Week

Top 5 Drone Fails