Tag Archives: Teal Group

353 Building Drone Highways

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Drone highways and corridors, flying over the ocean on hydrogen, a hybrid drone sets a new flight record, a world civil UAS market forecast looks bright, and a DroneMasters online meetup.

UAV News:

Digital Drone Highways: a Future Transportation Network

Airspace Link is a company that wants to play a role in developing drone highways for safe and efficient transportation. The company connects private drone operators with state and local governments. Their tag line is: Partnering with local government to expand drone innovation through communication, collaboration & connection and Airspace Link offers the “AirHub for Government” and “AirHub for Pilots” cloud-based drone platforms to manage and build a local drone community.

President and CEO Michael Healander says, “If you were to set up these drone highways, it’s really about figuring out the safest areas for the kind of drone I’m going to fly and figuring out the probability of hurting someone on the ground in creating these corridors.”

But are drone highways the right idea? We contemplate that question.

Hydrogen-powered VTOL drone flies for 3.5 hours

The Micro Air Vehicle Lab (MAVLab) of TU Delft University has developed a hydrogen fuel cell-powered drone in collaboration with the Royal Netherlands Navy and the Netherlands Coastguard. The 3-meter (9.8 ft) wingspan VTOL weighs 13 kg (29 lb) with 12 motors and propellers distributed on two wings. The 800-watt fuel cell stores hydrogen in a 300-bar (4,351-psi) composite hydrogen cylinder holding 6.8-liters.

Video: Novel versatile hydrogen drone developed by TUDelft – MAVLab

Quaternium partners with Löweheiser EFI startup to achieve a new Flight Record of 10 hours 14 minutes with HYBRiX drone

The experimental HYBRiX hybrid quadcopter hovered for over 10 hours after being loaded with 16 liters of fuel.

Video: New World Record of 10 hours 14 minutes with HYBRiX drone

Teal Group Predicts Worldwide Civil Drone Production Will Triple

A Teal Group study (2020/2021 World Civil UAS Market Profile and Forecast) finds that non-military UAS production will total $108 billion in the next 10 years. Such production was $5 billion worldwide in 2020 and is expected to grow to $18.4 billion in 2029 for a 15.6% compound annual growth rate in constant dollars. Teal Group analysis says consumer drone purchases are slowing, government purchases are small but growing, but commercial use will drive the market with a 21% compound annual growth rate.

DroneMasters Meetup

The 54th DroneMasters Meetup will be held on 2 December 2020. The online event features one hour of “full droning” with speakers from Bulgaria, Germany, Spain, and the U.S. talking about amphibious drones, kidney deliveries, and acceptance of urban air mobility.

Since 2015, the DroneMasters Meetups connect relevant stakeholders from business, science, politics, and society. More than 4,000 experts and enthusiasts from all industry sectors have already participated in the DroneMasters Meetups in Africa, Europe, and North America to share knowledge, present projects, trigger developments, and promote the sustainable use of lower airspace.

UAV Video of the Week

Mesmerizing Drone Footage Shows Flamingo Flock Gathering in Kazakhstan Lake

A photographer was able to capture stunning footage of a massive flock of flamingos on a Kazakhstan lake.

Video: Mesmerizing flock of flamingos filmed by drone in Kazakhstan

UAV252 An Autonomous Flock of Drones

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A flock of drones that act autonomously, the Airbus Zephyr maiden flight, Teal Group predicts strong growth for the civil drone market, DJI improves their geofence unlocking process, another incident with an airliner, and suicide drones that take out hostile UAVs.

An autonomous flock of drones from Eötvös University in Budapest.

An autonomous flock of drones from Eötvös University in Budapest. Credit: Zsolt Bézsenyi.

UAV News

How a Flock of Drones Developed Collective Intelligence

These autonomous drones flock without any pre-programming or control station. Instead, they communicate amongst themselves and self-organize, split around obstacles, rejoin, and avoid colliding with each other. The flocking model is described in Science Robotics Vol. 3, Issue 20. The research is from the Robotic Lab in the Department of Biological Physics at Eötvös University in Budapest. See: Optimized flocking of autonomous drones in confined environments.

Airbus unveils pioneering solar-powered drone

At the Farnborough airshow, Airbus unveiled its Zephyr solar-powered drone. Airbus said the High Altitude Pseudo-Satellite (HAPS) Zephyr S maiden flight occurred in Arizona on July 11, 2018. The Zephyr S has an 82-foot wingspan and weighs less than 55 pounds. It can fly at 21,000 meters or almost 70,000 feet. Seven models are planned to be produced in 2018 and seven more in 2019. The future Zephyr T would have a 108-foot wingspan.

Civil drone production will soar over the next decade

The Teal Group 2018 World Civil Unmanned Aerial Systems Market Profile & Forecast is out, featuring 10-Year Market Forecasts, expert analysis, a look at venture capital, implementation of regulations worldwide, and company strategies. The forecast projects non-military UAS production growing from $4.4 billion worldwide in 2018 to $13.1 billion in 2027. You can download the Table of Contents & Executive Overview [PDF].

DJI will unlock geofencing for enterprise drone users

DJI is improving the process that allows drone pilots with authorization to obtain geofence unlock codes. The company’s global authorization team is now staffed around the clock and requests can be made online at the DJI “Custom Unlocking” webpage. A DJI account is required to login.

Dumb and Dumber: A Drone Flies Dangerously Close to an A380 During Take Off

A drone waited off the end of the runway as an Emirates Airbus A380 prepared to take off from the airport at Mauritius Island. The drone appeared to be about 300 feet from the tip of the left wing as the jet passed by.

Army Buys Small Suicide Drones To Break Up Hostile Swarms And Potentially More

At the Farnborough Airshow, Raytheon announced it has shipped more than 32 Block 1B variants of the Coyote drone to the U.S. Army. The Coyote weighs under ten pounds and includes a small warhead with a fire control radar. After launch, the six-foot-wide main wing, the rear stabilizers, and the twin tail pop open. Raytheon’s Vice President for Advanced Missile Systems said, “We modified these vehicles to have small warheads to take down a quadcopter, for example, or other types of Class I or Class II UAVs.”

Mentioned

The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Procurement Guide was recently published by the USAID Global Health Supply Chain Program-Procurement and Supply Management (GHSC-PSM) project. The guide contains considerations, specifications, and criteria that can be used to evaluate UAV manufacturers. A webinar on the guide with the UAVs for Payload Delivery Working Group is scheduled for August 1, 2018, at 10 AM Eastern Standard Time.