Tag Archives: DOD

376 Open Source Drones

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Open source drones offer many opportunities, using drones to make a quiet place, US Army trials ground-vehicle drone launches, a Canadian drone membership program, New York law enforcement drones, tern tracking with a Phantom, cleaning up dog poop, a flapping wing UAV, some DJI drones are now government approved, air-to-air refueling.

UAV News

DroneAnalyst: The Rise of Open Source Drones

DroneAnalyst David Benowitz says “There are two key elements driving the push for open-source drones…” particularly in America: “geopolitical tensions between the US and China and the search for a true DJI competitor.” According to DroneAnalyst estimates, drones built around open source technologies account for 16% of all commercial drones sold, but more than 60% of all non-DJI drones sold. See also, What Will DoD Do About Open Source Drones?

Here’s a Cool Idea: Sony Patents Drones for Noise Cancellation

Under this patent, networked drones with speakers could be used to cancel ambient noise in real-time, creating a “mobile quiet-zone.”

US Army Trials Launching Drones From Ultra-Light Vehicles

Ground vehicles such as the DAGOR ultra-light tactical vehicle could become a mobile base to launch drones, such as the ALTIUS-600. The Future Vertical Lift Cross-Functional Team’s Twitter account posted a photo stating, “#EDGE21 the ultimate soldier touch point.” Edge 21 is the Experimental Demonstration Gateway Exercise.

COPA Introduces Drone Membership Options – Bridging Gap between Traditional and Remote Aviation

COPA, the Canadian Owners and Pilots Association, has a membership option for the remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) community. Benefits include updates on regulations and issues, education and safety programs, insurance coverage for recreational and commercial RPAS pilots, training discounts, and an RPAS scholarship. AOPA also has a drone membership program.

Use of drones, robotic dog in NY police intervention spark debate

Federal agents flew a UAV into a Poughkeepsie, NY apartment while executing a search warrant. Video from the drone showed the suspect throwing a handgun out of a window. He was arrested and booked on illegal possession of a firearm. NYC lawyer Albert Fox Cahn said,  “Flying drones in public air space is invasive enough, but using it inside of a person’s home is completely unconstitutional.”

We used drones to track the feeding habits of seabirds – new research

Foraging habits of seabirds were examined in a new study, A bird’s-eye view on turbulence: seabird foraging associations with evolving surface flow features. Feeding in turbulent water is difficult to study, but a DJI Phantom 3 quadcopter was able to track three species of surface-foraging terns and use particle image velocimetry to map the water vortices and upwellings.

The Dog Poodemic Is Here. Call in the Dung-Hunting Drones

The lockdown gave people an excuse to buy that puppy they always wanted, but owners are hanging the bags of poo in trees and on bushes. Using image recognition, drones might be useful for finding the bags and notifying authorities. (No, we didn’t make this up.)

Bird-like robots could assist in medical emergencies and hunt down drones

Uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) can draw their inspiration from the biological world. The GRIFFIN project from the University of Seville is seeking to create prototypes of highly autonomous, ultra-lightweight robot birds. They would minimise energy in flight by soaring and flapping.

The government’s been worried about DJI drones — the Pentagon now says they’re safe

The Pentagon released a report that says two “Government Edition” DJI drones are “recommended for use by government entities.” In 2020, the Department of the Interior grounded all its drones. The government has examined some older model drones and didn’t find any malicious code.

Whoa, the US Navy is now using drones to refuel its jets mid-flight

A Boeing MQ-25 Stingray carrying 500 pounds of fuel transferred 325 pounds to an F/A-18 Super Hornet in midair, with as little as 20 feet of separation.

UAV Video of the Week

FPV racing drone chases kiteboarder in this adrenaline-pumping video from Spain

Video: Big Air Kitesurfing + FPV Racing Drone

311 V-Coptr Falcon Bi-copter

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A new bi-copter for aerial photography, a waterproof fishing drone, a single-seat eVTOL aircraft for the GoFly competition, DOD wants U.S. designed and manufactured drones, a town grapples with public safety drones and privacy concerns, and the FAA revises the airman certificate process.

UAV News

V-Coptr Falcon 4K camera drone gets 50-minute flight time with just two rotors

The new bi-copter from Zero Zero Robotics is called the V-Coptr Falcon, a tilt-rotor with a claimed flight time of 50 minutes. It features slower rotating propellers that are quieter, a 3-axis mechanical gimbal, 4K video and 12-megapixel photos, a controller with a flip-up mount for your phone. The bi-copter also has auto-follow, obstacle avoidance with a front-facing stereo camera and pre-programmed flight paths.

Gannet’s waterproof fishing drone to launch this month

Gannet offers a fairly complete range of drone fishing products including bait release systems and drone fishing rods. They’ve crowdfunded the development of the Gannet Pro waterproof drone that can release 3.5kg payloads of bait hundreds of meters away. A unique barometric pressure control system adjusts flight altitude.

Video: Gannet Pro waterproof drones

Silverwing reveals full-scale S1 prototype

The S1 is a single-seat, VTOL electric drone developed by a team from the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. The S1 drone takes off and lands vertically on its tail, then tilts forward for horizontal flight. Silverwing says the S1 will be able to transport a passenger 60 kilometers (37 miles) flying at a top speed of 120 km/h (75 mph). The S1 was designed to meet the requirements of the GoFly prize which is sponsored by Boeing. The competition is for innovators, inventors, engineers, and makers to design and build a personal flying device.

The Final Fly Off is at Moffett Federal Airfield at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California with support from Boeing, Google’s Planetary Ventures, and Pratt & Whitney. from Thursday, February 27th through Saturday, February 29th, 2020.

Pentagon Is Searching for Domestic Drone Options

The U.S. Defense Department wants to see a U.S. ecosystem for sUAS and counter technologies and they are making it a priority in 2020. Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment, Ellen Lord said, “We see this as developing an ecosystem to have investment in areas that the Department of Defense thinks are particularly critical for providing capabilities to the warfighter, but also translate many times into commercial products. …I think you know that DJI flooded the market with low-cost quadcopters particularly, which eroded our industrial base and really altered the landscape for the U.S. government and for the small drone industry. What we want to do is reinvigorate that.”

Menlo Park: Proposal for city drone program raises civil liberty questions

In California at a Menlo Park City Council study session, police, public works, and community development leaders described how drones could help them. The council was open to the idea of using drones, but they did have significant concerns about privacy and civil rights. Mayor Ray Mueller said, “For me, the use cases are great. I just want to have discussion about what the guard rails are.” City staff was asked to come back with a drone program expert and clearer policies on acceptable uses of the drones and relevant software applications, as well as more information about how many human-hours of work that drone use could save.

FAA to Improve Airmen Certificate Testing

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Jan. 13, 2020, will launch improvements to the way it tests all applicants for an FAA airman certificate. This applies to all certified pilots of manned and unmanned aircraft. One of the most important changes is the requirement that applicants obtain an FAA Tracking Number (FTN) by creating an Integrated Airman Certification and Rating Application (IACRA) profile prior to registering for a knowledge test. IACRA is the web-based certification/rating application that guides the user through the FAA’s airman application process. The five-minute process enables the agency to rely on the name in the profile for all actions associated with that applicant.