News

In case you didn’t know, the FAA is seeking public input as it weighs up rule change proposals which could enable more advanced operations, including routine drone flights over people and at night. As well as enabling safe flights over people and at night, the FAA is exploring how to …

Michael Mazur, Consulting Partner and head of PwC Drone Powered Solutions delivered one of the Keynote addresses at the Commercial UAV Expo Europe today in Amsterdam, naming 7 trends that the investment firm sees shaping the industry. 1) Telecom will be a major beneficiary of the drone industry. Mazur says …

By Sgt. Bobby Yarbrough [Public domain] Commercial and defense drone systems provider AeroVironment is flying into a contract with an unnamed nation for more than $17 million, according to a company announcement during the LAAD 2019 defense expo in Rio de Janeiro this week. The company will provide its Puma AE …

Since Hurricane Harvey hit Texas with devastating results in 2017, drones have been recognized as a critical life-saving tool by government agencies, first responders, and victims.  But while emergency services is widely recognized as a growth vertical for the drone industry, the sector has lacked some of the clarity in …

If you haven’t been following our investigation of the Lily Next-Gen, the Mota Group and, more recently, Drones By US (DBUS), here’s a very quick recap. In October, we reported that a number of customers were having issues with the Mota Group, the company that picked up the pieces after …

With the UAS Integration Pilot Program (IPP) well underway and reporting successful tests of a wide variety of beneficial drone applications, Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao is giving drones some attention.    While her speech did mention “irresponsible drone flights,” the focus was on search and rescue and first …

When compared to Amazon delivery or police operations, power-plant boiler inspection via drone may not seem sexy, but one Japanese company knows such missions can be life-saving. DroneLife Archives Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd. is bringing drone-inspection technologies to check out boilers and similar large-scale indoor structures. The conglomerate plans …

Avalanche photodiode sensors.  If you don’t know what they are – you need to. The following is a guest post by talented author and self-described nerd Ryan LaDue. The Latest Wave of Sensor Tech Could be a Game-Changer for LiDAR-Equipped UAVs Avalanche photodiode sensors are semiconductors capable of converting photons …

Last month we took a closer look at three technologies that will transform the drone operations of the future: The ability of drones to rest and recharge on the fly; advanced computer vision and motion planning, and hydrogen power. One of the projects mentioned in our exploration of hydrogen was …

The Gatwick Airport closures in December of last year are still a hot topic in the drone industry, especially now that estimates of the cost of the incident have been released – a whopping $65 million. The incident – when a rogue drone apparently deliberately flew over runways in order …