Safety and Security

Consumer drone big DJI and the Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) have joined forces to launch a program that may promote secure and accountable drone operations. The intention of this new partnership is to encourage accountable flying, prepare public security officers to use drones successfully and elevate consciousness of the …

Fearing possible threats from rogue unmanned aircraft, Swiss police deployed two anti-drone technologies during last week’s World Economic Forum in Davos. Canton-level police used DroneGun, a signal-killing device manufactured by American-Australian startup DroneShield that can drop errant drones and block video signals from their cameras, as well as DeDrone’s Drone …

The sight of a crash-test dummy being pummeled from the air by a rogue drone may alarm a casual observer; but for researchers at Virginia Tech University, it’s all in a day’s work to improve air safety. The VTU research team recently launched a program, in cooperation with the FAA, …

As society moves to integrate drone use into the fabric of everyday life – delivery, agriculture, public-safety –the need to establish unmanned traffic management and “no-drone zones” will be a necessity, not a luxury. To meet the challenge head-on, several players have emerged to help keep the airspace safe without …

An emerging anti-drone company has a brilliant idea: to catch a rogue drone, release a hunter drone. California-based Airspace Systems recently conclude a successful test of a hybrid system that marries UAV tracking software and sensors with a hexcopter on steroids. The Interceptor drone engages the target in a kind …

UAE’s GCAA HQ When you think of Nokia, you think of mobile phones. But the Finnish tech giant is spreading its considerable corporate wings into the drone skies, completing a deal this week with the United Arab Emirates to develop a drone traffic management system over the nation’s airspace. Under …

Drone-management firm Kittyhawk is hoping to live up to its aviation pioneering namesake with the launch of a new UAV air-traffic app. Partnering with Airmap, an airspace information service provider, San Francisco-based Kittyhawk has developed an iOS app that will allow users to receive live air-traffic alerts without exiting the …

A security researcher has developed a new anti-drone device that takes control of rogue drones. During the PacSec 2016 conference in Tokyo last week, Trend Micro security research manager Jonathan Andersson demonstrated a hack that remotely highjacks unauthorized or unwanted drones using a transmitter that exploits a common radio protocol. …

Microsoft wants to bring law enforcement into the “cloud” and drones can help lift them to new heights. On Monday, the software giant demonstrated Microsoft Cloud for Government at the International Association of Chiefs of Police in San Diego. The software bundle provides secure cloud computing to government agencies and …

Photo courtesy of DARPA The U.S. military’s top think-tank is thinking of ways to map and track potentially harmful drones over major American cities. Last month, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced the launch of the Aerial Dragnet program “to provide persistent, wide-area surveillance of all [drones] operating below …