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c-Aerial
Coordinated UAV docking
Autonomous Robots Blog
18 Aug 2014
This post is part of our ongoing efforts to make the latest papers in robotics accessible to a general audience.
Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) can be both safe and maneuverable, but their s...
DJI Spreading Wings S900
Dronologista
15 Aug 2014
DJI Innovations keeps pushing new products into the market. As a market leader in flying camera technology, it recently introduced Ground Station for its Phantom 2 Vision and the Drop Safe parachut...
VertiKUL takes off like a helicopter, but flies like a fixed wing aircraft
Dronologista
05 Aug 2014
One of the main disadvantages of copter drones is their low energy efficiency: in order to create and maintain a sufficient lift, a lot of energy is needed, thus decreasing the endurance of the UAV. T...
DJI DropSafe System
Dronologista
31 Jul 2014
One of the main concerns about UAV, apart from privacy, is their safety. No one really wants to have a flying lawnmower falling from the sky, or buzzing near passenger aircraft. As drones become more ...
Martha Stewart: Why I love my drone | TIME
Hallie Siegel
30 Jul 2014
Last year, while celebrating my birthday in Maine, I was given a drone fitted with a high-definition camera. After a quick introduction to the mechanics of operating the contraption and a few words ab...
Drone Startups: Maps Made Easy
Dronologista
30 Jul 2014
Aerial mapping can be quite time-consuming and expensive. Even if you are employing a UAV to do it, it might take hours for all the post-processing, time-stamp shifting and deleting blurred photos. An...
Rescue drone that finds survivors using their cellphones’ WiFi signals
Dronologista
25 Jul 2014
Search and rescue operations are increasingly using drones, and the speed and ease with which UAVs can be launched is especially important when applying them as an emergency response tool. Jonathan C...
Drones against illegal fishing
Dronologista
24 Jul 2014
Image source: Flickr
With industry losses worth US$23 billion per year, illegal fishing represents a major global problem. One out of three bluefin tunas are caught illegally, as are around 20% of a...
Flying Donkey Challenge on hold as Kenyan authorities cope with Westgate Mall fallout
Hallie Siegel
18 Jul 2014
Today organizers announced that the first edition of the Flying Donkey Challenge in Kenya, which had preliminary sub-challenges slated to begin this November, is on hold indefinitely due to delays in ...
Alleged drone ‘Peeping Tom’ photo reveals perils of drone related journalism | Forbes
Hallie Siegel
15 Jul 2014
Last month a Seattle woman said that a drone made her nervous because it was flying outside of her window. Early media reports called the device a flying “Peeping Tom.” Soon afterwards, nat...
Amazon requests FAA permission to test delivery drones
Dronologista
14 Jul 2014
In April this year, Amazon.com issued a shareholder letter that stated: “The Prime Air team is already flight testing our 5th and 6th generation aerial vehicles…″ Fast forward three months to t...
Amazon seeks FAA permission to test drones outdoors near Seattle
Andra Keay
13 Jul 2014
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc is seeking permission from U.S. regulators to test its delivery drones near Seattle, as part of a rapid expansion of a program that has sparked widespread deba...
Drone startup: SR2
Dronologista
10 Jul 2014
There are number of industries that could harness the potential of UAVs, but they lack the skills and/or resources to design and build a reliable and professional system that fits their needs. SR2 w...
Winners of hurricane-tracking UAS design challenge announced | NASA News
Hallie Siegel
09 Jul 2014
From a NASA press release:
A team of students from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) in Blacksburg captured first place in NASA's University Aeronautics Design C...
FAA Will Miss UAS/NAS Integration Deadline | UAS Vision
Hallie Siegel
03 Jul 2014
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is in danger of missing a Congressionally mandated deadline for expanding the use of non military UAS in the US, according to a report that was conducted by t...
Drone startups: Fotokite
Dronologista
03 Jul 2014
Although I am amazed with UAVs and their versatility, I must admit that having a flying camera zoom by – and zoom in on me – can be intimidating. Not because the drone has a camera, but because ...
The thriving drone community of South Africa
Dronologista
30 Jun 2014
Source: Skylab Productions
A couple of years ago, while I was living in Cape Town, I met a group of people who were so into drones and aerial filming that they managed to initiate me into the world ...
How important is the FAA’s first commercial licence approval?
Hallie Siegel
16 Jun 2014
On June 10th, the FAA issued a press release announcing their approval of the first commercial UAS flight over land. According to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, this represented an "important ...
While the cat’s away, the mice play: What the drone delivery biz is doing while FAA ruling is under appeal
Robert Corday
13 Jun 2014
The Federal Aviation Administration’s rules on civilian use are currently on hold by a federal court, and in the interim, companies are scrambling to take advantage of using drones to deliver produc...
BP gets first FAA approval to use commercial UAVs
Frank Tobe
11 Jun 2014
BP, the oil and energy company, received the first FAA early-use approval to fly Puma UAVs in and around Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. ...
HorseFly unmanned aerial parcel delivery system uses truck as base
Dronologista
11 Jun 2014
Parcel delivery UAVs are a simple idea that requires a complex technology and great deal of vision. Matternet, Amazon.com and DHL (with their Paketkopter) are actively developing their drone delivery ...
Elon Musk wants to make a flying car | The Independent
Hallie Siegel
09 Jun 2014
"Maybe we'll make a flying car, just for fun," said Elon Musk. From any other businessman, such a statement would be a joke. But the billionaire, 42, who has poured the millions he made from the sal...
Bay Area Maker Faire biggest yet
Frank Tobe
29 May 2014
Aerial shot of the Bay Area Maker Faire 2014 from 3D Robotics using their IRIS autonomous aerial vehicle.
Maker Faire, held at the San Mateo Event Center May 17-18, was the biggest Maker Faire Bay A...
Small Unmanned Systems Business Expo recap
Frank Tobe
29 May 2014
"sUSB Expo 2014 showed signs of a maturing drone industry," said Antoine Martin of Unmanned Vehicle Systems Consulting.
The sold-out 2nd annual sUSB Expo 2014, held in San Francisco earlier this ...
America’s dominance in military robotics is starting to crumble
Frank Tobe
19 May 2014
Foreign Policy Magazine's recent examination of "The Looming Robotics Gap" by University of Pennsylvania International Relations Associate Professor Michael C Horowitz, and recent Pentagon in...
Livestream: Small Unmanned Systems Business Expo 2014
Robohub Editors
08 May 2014
Watch the live stream from the second sUSB-Expo in San Francisco. Speakers include Henri Seydoux of Parrot Drone, Wolfgang Juchmann of Velodyne LiDAR, Rory Paul of Volt Aerial Robotics, Chris Ande...
Aerial drone maps show Philippine typhoon devastation, aid in reconstruction
Adam Klaptocz
07 May 2014
A drone's eye view of the many coconut trees that were uprooted when Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines.
Photo Essay
Six months ago, Typhoon Haiyan devastated the Philippine’s South East coast....
A drone’s eye view of the latest oil train explosion | Motherboard
Hallie Siegel
01 May 2014
Drones used for journalism and disaster response have been hovering in a grey area, as the FAA argues that organized operations can't use them. The footage above helps emphasize the usefulness of dron...
ECA Group acquires UAV copter maker Infotron for $10 million
Frank Tobe
22 Apr 2014
Groupe Gorgé, via their subsidiary ECA S.A., has acquired French UAV copter provider Infotron for €2.5 million and 375,000 shares of ECA - a combined value of around $10 million. The acquisition s...
Drone crashes could cause headaches and lawsuits | NBC
CIS Blog
09 Apr 2014
A drone fell from the sky during a triathlon in western Australia, resulting in an injury to a runner and raising questions about who is legally responsible when an unmanned aerial vehicle comes crash...
What to do if you find a lost drone | Forbes
CIS Blog
03 Apr 2014
“I think if you find a drone, you set it free. If it comes back to you, it’s meant to be,” said legal drone expert Ryan Calo kiddingly, before more seriously suggesting calling the manufacturer ...
No drone experts were harmed in the making of this video … Or were they?
Hallie Siegel and Ioannis K. Erripis
28 Mar 2014
What's with all the quadrotors in auto advertising these days? And what do quadrotor swarms have to do with cars? Probably not much at all, but apparently associating your auto brand with high-perfor...
Flying Donkey Challenge announces 33 entrants for first subchallenge
Andra Keay
17 Mar 2014
The Flying Donkey Challenge asks teams to create a UAV solution that can eventually circle Mount Kenya collecting and delivering 20 kilo payloads. The first subchallenge in this escalating task will t...
Commercial drone use legal in USA? Who’s willing to make bail?
Andra Keay
07 Mar 2014
Or perhaps the better question is: who's willing to be the test case?
A US federal court judge ruled against the FAA yesterday in their case against Raphael Pirker (the first and only person fine...
Facebook plans to offer Internet service using aerial robots
Frank Tobe
05 Mar 2014
In a story on TechCrunch, it was revealed that Facebook is in talks to acquire or partner with Titan Aerospace. Titan makes solar-powered aerial robots that can fly for up to five years without needin...
