Technology

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 SETI Institute is probably best known for its work scanning the stars for signs of extraterrestrial communications. But the organization’s remit is broader than that. Its many research teams work towards a noble goal: to explore, understand, and explain the origin and nature of life in the universe. Exploring …

Not that long ago, the industry was dominated by bold forecasts (and VC investment) projecting enormous adoption rates and a huge rise of the number of drones in operation. In reality, the more ambitious projects have been slower to get going than some predicted. Amazon’s Prime delivery service is still more …

We often think of drone deliveries as being most useful in remote, hard-to-reach locations. Usually, that involves providing a cargo-carrying alternative in rural areas or a link to places cut off by natural disasters. But ‘hard-to-reach’ can also apply in some of the world’s busiest ports. A drone delivery project with …

As GM of Intel’s drone group, Anil Nanduri has probably got one of the industry’s most exciting jobs. Intel has fingers in all sorts of drone-related pies, from Yuneec to Volocopter to Movidius, to its own drone services and Shooting Star-powered aerial light shows. Nanduri, whose role at Intel gives him leeway …

If you follow how drones are being used in the world of conservation, you will have heard about Ocean Alliance by now. The Massachusetts-based marine conservation organization has pioneered a new way of collecting biological samples from whales in the form of SnotBot. These adapted drones act as flying Petri …

Drone manufacturer Yuneec International and communications provider Mobilicom have teamed up to offer UAV solutions to the enterprise and government markets. The partnership’s focus will be the development of two commercial and government drone solutions. Both will be based on a combination of Yuneec´s H520 hexacopter and Mobilicom´s SkyHopper and …

Spanish UAV manufacturer Alpha Unmanned Systems is one of several UAV companies chosen to participate in Inmarsat´s UAV Pop-up lab. The satellite and communications giant is using the program to explore the value of satcoms in the commercial UAV sector. Along with six other UAV companies, Alpha Unmanned Systems will execute …

Night flights and beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations are coming and DJI is preparing the ground. Today the Chinese manufacturer launched an upgrade to their most popular enterprise drone and improvements to FlightHub, the company’s operation management platform. The Matrice 200 series is getting a serious revamp (and …

Australian transport infrastructure company Transurban has released a video outlining how their drone fleet is supporting construction, maintenance and inspection operations. Transurban operates infrastructure in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, as well as roads in North America, in Montreal and Greater Washington. The company’s maintenance teams have been using drones to …