Real World ROI: Unlocking the Future of Successful Drone Adoption  At this morning’s Commercial UAV Expo Keynotes,  Commercial UAV Expo Editor Jeremiah Karpowitz and Skydio Co-Founder and CEO Adam Bry discussed how the concept of automation and reliability inform the ROI of commercial drones. Continue reading below, or listen: Skydio’s platform is known for their ground-breaking autonomy, and Bry says that autonomy is key to maximizing the ROI of commercial drones. “We’re at a place in the drone industry where people who are experts in drones have figured out to do all kinds of useful stuff,” said Bry, “but you still need someone who is an expert to do that stuff.” Skydio co-founder and CEO Adam Bry That need for an expert pilot can limit the scale of commercial drone projects – and limit the value of the commercial drone program.  “We think the smarter the drone gets, the more useful it is,” Bry said. The Software and Hardware Ecosystem – and Beyond Skydio is recogniz...

Las Vegas, Nevada: Adam Bry, CEO of Redwood City, California-based drone maker Skydio, and David Boulter, associate administrator for aviation safety at the FAA, keynoted the Commercial UAV Expo here, earlier today. Drone Industry Likened to Early Days of Computing Bry likened the drone industry to the early days of computing, where everything happened at the command prompt and you had to be an expert to do something useful. He said the drone industry is at a similar time where, if you want to get good results, you need an expert pilot. He sees that the transition from this stage will be more software reliant yet actually make experts more valuable. ‘If you want good data to move values over time, that comes to depend on software,” he said. Understand Why Things Are the Way They Are Bry said that to bring about change, it is really important to understand why things are the way they are, and to build that understanding inside one’s company as well as with customers. “Core industries li...

The question of whether you can fly a DJI drone without a GPS often comes up from drone hobbyists and Part 107 pilots alike. Can you fly a DJI drone without a GPS signal? DJI drones can fly without a GPS signal. In this article, we’ll walk you through how drones have flown without GPS in the past, why you may want to fly without GPS, and how to fly modern drones without GPS. Make sure you keep reading! » MORE: What Are GPS Drones, and Why Does It Matter Why you DO want GPS on your drone While it’s not necessary to fly a drone with GPS, there are many benefits to having access to GPS. As you probably know, GPS is a system that uses the triangulation method with coordinates and satellites to locate an object. While this seems incredibly complex, and it is, it could be made somewhat simpler with this brief explanation. The world has been mapped time and time again. WGS 84 as a map projection coordinate system is used to convey a point on the earth using longitude and latitude. The way an...

There is a saying in the drone world I didn’t want to believe. And then it happened to me. “It’s not if you crash your drone; it’s when …” This has rung true in the ears of plenty of drone operators, both hobbyists and professionals alike, myself included. Sadly, regardless of how careful we might be as pilots, there are sometimes external forces beyond our control that might cause our aircraft to “hit the dirt”, so to speak. We will be looking at various situations where drone flights ended in crashes or damaged, lost equipment. Some of these crashes may be due to human error, others due to environmental influences.  We will also discuss hazardous pilot attitudes identified by the FAA and how addressing these may lessen some chances of flights going wrong . For this article, professional and hobbyist operators using a variety of drones were contacted by Droneblog. Their experiences and solutions will be discussed here. The Types of Issues That Can Occur During a Drone Fl...

The DJI FPV is not your typical drone. It’s still possible to make great cinematic videos with it, even with the limited camera. You just need an ND filter. What are the best ND filters for the DJI FPV? I recommend FreeWellGear’s ND filters for the DJI FPV for their high quality, variety, and results. Your purchase gets you a four-day pack consisting of ND4, ND8, ND16, and ND32 filters as well as ND64, PL, and UV filters. Other ND filters you can check out are the PolarPro and PGYTECH filters. Keep reading to learn more about ND filters for DJI FPV and how to get the most use out of them. There’s lots of great info to come! The Best ND Filters for DJI FPV Below are the best ND filters you can use with your DJI FPV drone. 1. FreeWell ND Filters for the DJI FPV You can’t go wrong with filters or any other drone accessories from FreeWell Gear. For the DJI FPV, you get five different types of ND filters, a stand-alone polarizing filter, and a stand-alone UV filter. These include a standard...

At Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas, commercial drone company Draganfly unveiled three new products: a Long Range LiDAR system which can be used as a mobile LiDAR system on drones, manned aircraft, or mounted to another vehicle or backpack; a North American-made Heavy Lift Drone, and the smaller “Swiss Army Knife” Commander 3 XL Drone. In an interview, Draganfly’s CEO Cameron Chell says the new offerings reflect the current needs of their customers. Draganfly Inc. is one of the holdings in the AdvisorShares Drone Technology ETF , the only ETF dedicated to the drone economy. The AdvisorShares Drone Technology ETF is a thematic investment strategy seeking to capture the growth opportunities in drones and autonomous vehicles (AV).   AdvisorShares is a DRONELIFE sponsor. Continue reading below, or listen: “Draganfly has been in the industry for such a long time, we have the luxury of having a lot of customers that tell us exactly what they need,” Chell said.  “Customers are co...

It would appear that even with prior warnings, numerous exemption holders do not have exemptions for all of the regulations needed to comply. Again, these waiver inconsistencies counter the FAA’s safety of the NAS mantra and charge. Sometimes I feel like I’m the only person with his eye on the ball with these FAA waiver issues since the “Amazing” Grogan moved on to greener pastures. As of the beginning of August, at least 48 exemptions were defective. These exemptions are missing 91.403(b). Some of you want to take advantage of the timely announcement and find a new huckster or hawker capable of the old cut and paste at one of the drone shows. I’d caution the reader to ensure that the new ‘expert” carries malpractice insurance. No one wants to get the you’re grounded call when the contracted client has a crop in the field. And this should not have caught anyone off guard. On May 12, 2021, sUAS News broke the story  Can You Cut And Paste Your Way To Big Drone Money?    Ju...

Since the Apollo Project of the 1960s targeted the moon, the venerable Kalman filter has offered estimates of unknown variables based on multiple measurements over time. But as GNSS jamming and spoofing technologies have challenged GNSS-only solutions, defense forces and others have sought alternatives for position information, adopting inertial navigation systems for trusted guidance and navigation applications. Xavier Orr, CEO of Advanced Navigation, has been developing alternatives to the Kalman filter for two decades. In the process, his mission has grown from grad-school theorizing into a company with a mission “to drive the autonomy revolution with AI-powered systems delivering unparalleled capabilities and performance.” The company now has more than 1,000 clients and 35,000 systems in the field. Herein lies a tale. IN THE BEGINNING “It was 2000,” Orr recalled about the roots of his AI odyssey. “I think it was in my eighth year at university and I’d spent the last three years spe...

With the onset of drones in 2016 becoming more popular in industries like agriculture, pilots and farmers are innovating beneficial ways to use drones to monitor plant health, spray crops with fertilizer and pesticides, and seed fields. The world is in an era where resources are becoming finite. For farmers and agricultural operations to combat these challenges, efficiency every step of the way is necessary. Drones are a tool of choice for the agricultural industry to overcome the challenges of feeding a growing population while conserving resources. This article will cover these new innovations in the industry and how it benefits farmers, drone pilots, and the agricultural industry as a whole.  Plant health mapping To begin, we will cover how drones are used to monitor plant health. This use of drones in agriculture is one of the most accessible forms. To monitor plant health, pilots will utilize a drone capable of sensing and taking images on the RGB spectrum of light, near-infrared,...