• The U-ELCOME project has launched with funding from the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) in cooperation with the SESAR 3 Joint Undertaking as one of its flagship Digital Sky Demonstrators (DSDs). • In answer to a call launched by CINEA under the Connecting Europe Facility, the 3-year U-ELCOME DSD project is coordinated by the EUROCONTROL Innovation Hub and involves 51 European partners. • This DSD project is part of an innovation pipeline to bridge the gap between applied/industrial research and industrialisation, and to accelerate the market uptake of U1 and U2 U-space services with the involvement of early movers. It also has a strong and close connection with relevant standardisation and regulatory activities and bodies. The European Commission (EC) has recently announced the launch of a series of Digital Sky Demonstrator (DSD) projects that will contribute to the objectives set out in its Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy through acc...

Did you know that there are more than 130 billion packages delivered globally, and that figure is expected to double by 2025?* The sheer volume of deliveries is causing many challenges in the logistics industry, which affect cost, time to deliver and leave an impact on the environment. blueflite is changing this by creating a future where drones enable sustainable logistics that are safer, more cost-effective and make the world a better place. Through patented delivery drones, proprietary logistics software, and an intelligent in-flight control algorithm, blueflite provides a unique approach for the rapidly growing logistics industry. As drone systems are being increasingly adopted, the current $8.5 billion market for this technology is expected to see substantial growth with an impressive 23.23% CAGR. Amidst this already booming industry, the cargo drone delivery sector specifically is expected to approach an inflection point in the near future, according to Morgan Stanley and McKinse...

Beau Legeer is director of the Imagery and Remote Sensing GBD team at Esri. His team works closely with partners and customers on their imagery data and analytics needs. He has over 25 years of experience working with commercial and government customers to solve problems using remotely sensed data and analytics. He specializes in solutions that enrich GIS using imagery and remote sensing data sources. Lori Scott is chief information officer and vice president for technology and partnerships at NatureServe, which, for nearly 50 years, has been the authoritative source for biodiversity data throughout North America. Scott oversees NatureServe’s technology team, with a portfolio that includes software product development, user support, and IT infrastructure for mission-critical enterprise information management and delivery systems. Some of the largest technology companies in the world have compiled petabytes of data, filtered through artificial intelligence and machine learning, to hel...

Ever since Amazon first announced the concept of drone delivery in 2013, somebody – somewhere – has asked when the holiday gifts would be delivered by drone.  This holiday season was the one, as Amazon drone delivery begins in two U.S. communities as of last Friday. Continue reading below, or listen: Now, Prime Air Amazon drone delivery begins in Lockeford, CA and College Station, TX as Walmart announces their drone delivery program will expand to six states, and Alphabet’s Wing has been at work in Australia and the US.   Flytrex is partnering with retailers in multiple states to offer drone delivery.  Walmart, Wing, and Flytrex however, are primarily deliveries from brick and mortar retail stores: they work much like a traditional ground-based delivery service does, choosing an item that exists on the shelves from an app and selecting the delivery mode, but with drones. Amazon’s goal is to deliver 5 pound or less packages in under an hour.  While most company ...

If you are a drone pilot visiting Toronto, or if you live in the Greater Toronto Area and happen to own a drone, this article is here to assist you in finding ideal locations where you can fly your drone within the permitted bounds of ‘The 416.’ The first thing to take into consideration before flying a drone is that there is a set of rules and regulations for particular areas that have been positioned for air space safety and to help you avoid potentially losing or destroying your drone. Remember, whenever you are in control of a drone, you are regarded as a pilot, and your drone is your aircraft.    In Canada, you have the Canadian Aviation Regulations on RPAS operations which every drone pilot must adhere to regardless of where you are flying in Canada.    In Toronto, each region has clearly defined rules on where drones can be flown.  Toronto Parks, Scarborough Parks, and Mississauga Parks do not allow drones or model aircraft of any kind to take off or land...

The temperature results are in and the planet is heating up, driven by the burning of heat-trapping fossil fuels. Governments are belatedly working to address the threat by advancing green technologies, but the barriers to success are daunting. A June 2016 color photo from NASA’s Earth Observing-1 satellite of southwestern Greenland. According to NASA, melting in this area began relatively early in April and May resulting in this water. Surface meltwaters directly contribute to rising sea levels, but also infiltrates through cracks to the glacier’s base, speeding up ice flows, which further contributes to sea level rise. Photo courtesy of NASA Earth Observatory/Jesse Allen, NASA.gov. Climate change, for decades a seemingly distant eventuality, has by the 2020s become a manifest reality, one that ominously promises only to worsen in the remainder of this century. Already, the last seven years have been the seven hottest on record. The sea level has already risen four inches since 1993. ...

Credit: Shutterstock When OpenAI launched ChatGPT at the end of November, the site’s use of language models to answer many questions coherently and conversationally made it seem like Ask Jeeves on steroids. Its rollout has spurred talk about how it will do everything from killing Google search to providing new tool for bogus term papers. Meanwhile, harrumphers question its ability to be nuanced and accurate. A month into ChatGPT reinforcing its language and knowledge bases through user interfacing, we at Inside Unmanned Systems wondered how well it could reply to queries on the specialized information that populates the world of drones. To find out, we unfurled a New Year’s version of our “Five Good Questions” format. After several protective sign-ins on openai.com, we found results ranging from impressive to simplistic. Here they are, with our assessments. Q. What is the role of drones in the Russia-Ukraine war? ChatGPT: The Russia-Ukraine war, also known as the War in Donbass, is a ...

Credit: Shutterstock When OpenAI launched ChatGPT at the end of November, the site’s use of language models to answer many questions coherently and conversationally made it seem like Ask Jeeves on steroids. Its rollout has spurred talk about how it will do everything from killing Google search to providing new tool for bogus term papers. Meanwhile, harrumphers question its ability to be nuanced and accurate. A month into ChatGPT reinforcing its language and knowledge bases through user interfacing, we at Inside Unmanned Systems wondered how well it could reply to queries on the specialized information that populates the world of drones. To find out, we unfurled a New Year’s version of our “Five Good Questions” format. After several protective sign-ins on openai.com, we found results ranging from impressive to simplistic. Here they are, with our assessments. Q. What is the role of drones in the Russia-Ukraine war? ChatGPT: The Russia-Ukraine war, also known as the War in Donbass, is a ...

Earlier this month, drone research company DRONEII published their annual report of top drone manufacturers .  While some things stayed the same – DJI is still the world’s biggest drone manufacturer – there have been some noticeable changes since last year’s report, and there are likely to be even more changes in 2023. Continue reading below, or listen: The top 3 places in the manufacture of civilian drones were: - DJI (China) - Parrot (France) - Skydio (U.S.A.) - XAG (China) That’s a shift from last year, when large agricultural drone manufacturer XAG took the number 3 spot.   Skydio is the only US-based manufacturer in the top 5, jumping 2 places this year.  They’ve made major progress in a short time, since introducing their very first drone in 2018.    Since then, the company has received more than 200 million in funding, grown their manufacturing base, and developed a number of new aircraft for both civilian and military use. The change may be even great...

Garuda Aerospace becomes 1st Drone company in history to get DGCA approvals for Type Certification and pilot training   Indian drone manufacturer, Garuda Aerospace is India’s first drone startup to receive both Type Certification and RTPO approvals from India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for their “Made in India” Kisan Drones. “DGCA Type certification is provided on the basis of the quality check of the drones and is issued after a rigorous testing process for the UAVs. The Type certification was introduced by the government of India in August 2021 under Drone Rules and the historic dual DGCA approval validates Garuda’s tag of being India’s most valuable Drone startup,” says the Garuda Aerospace press release. Garuda’s Kisan drones are agricultural drones purpose built for reducing crop loss, crop health monitoring, yield measurement, and crop loss mitigation – particularly critical during the current global food crisis. Receiving the DGCA Type Certificate is sig...