Global Drone Inspection (GDI), the new subsidiary company of robotic inspection specialists RIMS BV, have announced today a partnership with Voliro AG , a Swiss-based startup and a spin-off from ETH Zurich that specializes in developing advanced aerial robotics for inspection and maintenance of critical infrastructure. This partnership enables GDI to use the Voliro T flying robot to inspect storage tanks and other confined spaces safer and faster and collect more data than ever was possible before. The founder and CEO of GDI and RIMS, David Knukkel is well respected and vastly experienced in the marine and tank storage industry and has been partnering with heavy technical industries and maintenance providers for many years. The GDI and Voliro alliance fills an industry gap and will aim to accelerate drone use in industrial environments. Through the alliance, GDI will collaborate with class societies and established inspection service providers to offer a complete solution for asset own...

Photo credit: Easy Aeria In November 2021 in Israel, infiniDome, Honeywell, and Easy Aerial demonstrated a UAV-tailored resilient navigation solution to complete critical missions under GPS challenged and denied environments. The three companies demonstrated the fully operational robust navigation system integrating GPS anti-jamming technology, inertial system and radar velocity system into a fully resilient navigation system for UAVs. The robust navigation system, jointly developed by Honeywell and infiniDome, solves the GPS jamming problem by tightly pairing GNSS-based UAV-tailored Honeywell Compact Inertial Navigation System (HCINS) with infiniDome’s GPS anti-jamming technology (GPSdome), integrated with Honeywell’s Radar-based Velocity System (HRVS). The Robust Navigation System is a one-stop shop that can be installed on almost any UAV with a common flight controller (e.g. PixHawk) providing it with continuous, accurate navigation data in GNSS-challenged or fully GNSS-denied envir...

DJI Killed Analog. Long Live Analog! by DRONELIFE Contributor John Saginario Movers and shakers in the hobby market read the wind and cut ties. It’s What They Can’t See When it comes to UAV technology, the hobbyist market has always been an interesting bellwether. It’s where many technologies get their start, where new software and algorithms cut their teeth, and where ideas are transformed for scale. And then there’s just realizing you sometimes can’t beat the big players at their own game, so you stop trying. That’s the subtext behind the very recent word from Fat Shark ( RedCat Holdings ) that it’s dropping most support of its Shark Byte Digital FPV system. For those not aware, prior to its pivot to more commercial interests, Fat Shark was the name (and arguably still is) in FPV goggles. A little over a year ago, after making lots of money selling analog headsets, they decided to put their support behind a digital FPV system that broke the “Standard Definition” barrier into HD. Fre...

Skyfish M4 As we look forward to 2022, it’s time to reflect on the drone industry 2021.  Despite chip shortages, new regulations, an ongoing global pandemic, and the challenges inherent in a growth sector, the drone industry came out on top in 2021.  We asked our sponsors and partners to describe the drone industry 2021 in a word (or two) – and here’s what they said. Inflection Point Brett Kanda, drone industry veteran and VP of Sales and Marketing at BRINC Drones , makers of drone solutions for law enforcement and first responders , says the industry is shifting. “2021 was an inflection point in our industry. We saw the 90% market share lion in DJI start to lose some momentum and most importantly, key executives and personnel in North America. This has created an opportunity for other manufacturers to build differentiated solutions that can compete with DJI in the very near future. We also started to see the landscape change in terms of end user sentiment. The need for tailored soluti...

Heisha Tech has created an drone-agnostic, autonomous drone kit that allows developers to create drone-in-a-box solutions for their commercial drone solution – and it could be a game changer for the drone industry. Autonomous drones are big news.  As regulations for flight beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) develop around the world, the opportunity for completely remote drone missions – those operated at a significant distance – expands.    For remote mining sites, unstaffed areas like parking lots or warehouses that require perimeter security, construction sites, and more; autonomous missions offer real value. Full autonomy presents major operational challenges, however.  In the absence of an operator on site, hardware must protect a drone from the weather, house it, and recharge the battery: all while maintaining the aircraft’s operational health and safety.  These challenges are being met by “drone-in-a-box” solutions: high end products that include the drone, remote operating sy...

UAS (unmanned aerial systems) data provider Soaring Eagle Technologies, a leading drone data collection company servicing critical infrastructure owners across the continental United States, announced the company has received another BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight) waiver from the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) this month. This latest BVLOS certificate enables the company to expand its BVLOS for the second time in just the last few months to provide more cost-effective inspections. Nathan Alber, Director of Training at Soaring Eagle Technologies, added, “As we continue to expand BVLOS operations across the country, clients are able to obtain aerial mapping, inspection, and other imaging data in less time, more efficiently. The drone inspection option is also cleaner and safer than the fossil fuel alternatives such as helicopters and ground patrols. Of course, safety and data security are a paramount focus for our company. Our army training and experience piloting manned airc...

Gains Analytics and UAV Capabilities, Expanded Footprint Photo courtesy of DroneBase. DroneBase, a Santa Monica, California supplier of intelligent aerial imagery, recently announced its acquisition of India-based AirProbe, which provides drone inspections of solar panels and artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled analytics. The resulting organization will have additional AI and UAV capacity and an expanded global footprint. “My mission is to build up a robust global operation,” said Mark Culpepper, a former SunEdison executive who is now general manager, global solar solutions, for DroneBase. “As we did that, our big questions were: a) ’Who is out there with interesting technology and a good business footprint’ and b) ‘How will their technology help us to continue to scale up our operations?’ AirProbe was a uniquely good fit.” AirProbe describes its offerings as “turnkey and aerial data analytic solutions for complete PV asset lifecycle,” and DroneBase saw the company as an active pot...

Cloudless made another flight in an electric, unmanned plane at an altitude of up to 21 kilometres. Cloudless engineers successfully completed a 30-minute horizontal test flight at an altitude of over 13,000 meters. The Cloudless startup, founded by two Polish engineers, performed another successful flight of a stratospheric UAV at an altitude of over 21 km in mid-December. After less than an hour of ascent under a special balloon, a large – with a span of 5 meters – UAV was released. During the 2.5-hour flight, environmental parameters were tested, and then a landing was made at the planned location. The winter flight took place with the passage through the area of unfavourable weather conditions, such as icing and strong winds (jet streams). This is the fourth stratospheric exploration flight this year. During the last flights, components such as photovoltaic panels, a new type of propulsion and new batteries were tested. In the last flight, in December, a test flight was also carrie...

Meet Zing Drones.  This Florida drone delivery start-up plans to offer Uber-like deliveries. By Jim Magill Everyone is familiar with delivery services such as Door Dash and Uber Eats, which allow consumers to order deliveries of food by accessing an app on their smart phone. Now, a small Florida-based start-up company is hoping to offer the same service nation-wide, featuring delivery by drone. Zing Drones is gearing up to train potential Part 107 pilots in the use of the company’s winch technology developed for use on DJI Inspire 2 drones. At the outset, Zing will employ its own pilots to fly company-owned drones, with the ultimate goal of enlisting private drone pilots who will act as independent contractors, using their own drones to make deliveries, Ian Annase, Zing Drones founder and CEO, said. Annase said the company plans sometime next year to hire a regional flight manager to begin the training process. As the company expands its operations into different U.S. cities, additiona...

Doosan Mobility and JOUAV have partnered to develop “the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell VTOL commercial drone solution.”  The result of their collaboration is the DJ25: winner of a CES 2022 Innovation Award. “DJ25 is the world’s first hydrogen fuel cell VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) commercial drone solution,” says the CES Announcement .   South Korean Doosan Mobility have established expertise in hydrogen fuel cell drones: China’s JOUAV has partnered with companies around the world to bring their suite of robust VTOL air frames to the skies.  The DJ25 is the integration between the advanced PEMFC (Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell) technology to a VTOL air frame. The DJ25 has a flight time of up to 5 and half hours.   Able to cover up to 500 km in a single flight, the DJ25 offers an ideal solution for long distance inspections, large scale site surveying, and mapping. JOUAV CEO Ren Bin says that the innovation is a critical development for the drone industry.  “From an env...

Soaring Eagle Technologies has received another FAA Certificate of Authorization.  This BVLOS Waiver enables more efficient inspections. Soaring Eagle Technologies , is a leading drone data collection company working with critical infrastructure companies across the U.S.  Having completed over 60 large scale BVLOS missions across the U.S under SGI (special government interest) waivers,the company currently can currently survey up to 100 miles of electrical transmission line per day with each BVLOS capable sUAS (small unmanned aircraft system) in the company’s fleet. Nathan Alber, Director of Training at Soaring Eagle Technologies, says, “As we continue to expand BVLOS operations across the country, clients are able to obtain aerial mapping, inspection, and other imaging data in less time, more efficiently. The drone inspection option is also cleaner and safer than the fossil fuel alternatives such as helicopters and ground patrols. Of course, safety and data security are a paramount fo...

DRONEDEK Corporation DRONEDEK Corporation, one of the first companies in the world to patent a smart mailbox designed for secure drone delivery, will demonstrate its device at CES – the most  influential tech  event in the world. “We’re gearing up for what we think will be exceptional opportunities to showcase our patented device to some of the most important organizations in the world,” said DRONEDEK CEO and founder Dan O’Toole. “Our technology is ahead of the market right now, but we’re going to see huge movement in the U.S. delivery-by-drone market next year. We’re ready for it, and we want to demonstrate just how ahead of the pack we are. There’s no better audience for that than CES.” DRONEDEK  holds a first-position patent portfolio for its smart mailbox for drone package receiving, sending and storage. It is a feature-rich, secure mailbox that accepts delivery via robotic, unmanned driverless, aerial drone or conventional means and will also enable users to send out packages. DRO...

What’s next for drone regulation in 2022?  A new report from Drone Industry Insights says the commercial industry can expect progress globally. DRONEII Editor Ed Alvarado  writes that around the world, drone regulations – and the regulatory framework – are evolving rapidly.  “This is a very welcome development given that the drone industry sees this as the most important driving factor. writes Alvarado. The movement on drone regulation in 2022 is global.  In Korea, significant movement towards urban air mobility is underway: continuing the progress made this year with trial flights and the government committment to an early implementation of passenger VTOL aircraft.  In the United States, the FAA is on the cusp of defining rules for flight Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) after establishing the BVLOS ARC this year.  In Brazil, the government is simplifying drone registration: in China, officials are publishing a new, risk-based regulation framework.  Japan will finalize registrati...

Today, the Drone Racing League (DRL), the world’s premier, professional drone racing property, announced an expansion of their DRL Academy STEM program in partnership with Draganfly (NASDAQ; DPRO) (CSE: DPRO), an award industry-leading drone solutions and systems developer, Steve Wozniak’s Woz Ed, the leader in demand-driven K-12 education, and Robotify, a virtual platform that teaches students about coding using robots. Together, these leaders in technology and education will inspire the next generation of innovators through an immersive and interactive “Science of Drone Racing” curriculum, debuting for middle school students in 2022. With the United States expected to add 100,000 new drone jobs by 2025, investing in a technology-talent pipeline is crucial for companies to remain competitive. The Science of Drone Racing program will spark students’ creativity, critical thinking and collaboration through hands-on and virtual learning experiences that demonstrate career-pathing opportun...

Today, uAvionix announced the successful completion of the first series of flights with its newly developed SkyLink Control & Non-Payload Communications (CNPC) C-band radio, intended to meet the needs of safety-critical & BVLOS missions as well as operators and manufacturers with airframe certification in mind. The flight tests were conducted at a range of up to 25 miles at the Northern Plains UAS Test Site (NPUASTS) locations south of Grand Forks, ND.  In August, uAvionix  announced  FAA and FCC approvals for testing C-band CNPC radios at several locations. Regulators increasingly focus on the performance of safety-critical control data and recent RTCA standards recommend separating it from payload data for scalable commercial Unmanned Airborne Systems (UAS) operations. While most UAS still operate on public spectrum such as ISM or 4G, current BVLOS waivers are primarily focused on recovery procedures to deal with the probability of a lost C2 link. uAvionix SkyLink CNPC radios...

On Sunday 19th December Kea Aerospace has recorded the longest known flight for an unmanned aircraft in New Zealand, in an electric-powered flight above Kaitōrete, near Christchurch. The battery and solar-powered vehicle flew non-stop for 14 hours and 3 minutes, beating the previous record of 12 hours and 3 minutes in 1996. “The achievement is an important milestone for the team as we continue to expand our capability,” says Kea Aerospace CEO Mark Rocket. The UAV flight took place in an area above the land managed by the newly established Tāwhaki Joint Venture – a partnership between Te Taumutu Rūnanga, Wairewa Rūnanga (together as Kaitōrete Limited) and the Crown, which aims to heal and rejuvenate the unique whenua at Kaitōrete and advance Aotearoa’s fledgling aerospace industry. Named after the demi-god Tāwhaki, the partnership owns and cares for 1,000 hectares of land at Kaitōrete – a significant cultural and environmental landscape renowned for its mahinga kai, taonga species and ...