By A.J. McCarthy Drones are so hot right now. From peeking inside the mouth of an active volcano to recreating Tatooine pod races, unmanned aerial vehicles are in, and their utility (thankfully) extends far beyond the battlefield. For proof of this, look no further than the Vancouver Aquarium’s use of a custom-built hexacopter to track […]
Yamaha Demos Agricultural RoboCopter, But Humans Can’t Unleash It Yet
By Evan Ackerman Agriculture is (arguably) where drones are going to be the most useful in the near future. Drones have already proven their usefulness to hobbyists and the military, and agriculture is the next huge commercial frontier. And although commercial drone operation is still waiting for official approval, at least in the United States, […]
3DR Announces Launch of the Dronecode Foundation
From the beginning 3DR has been committed to open source development. This is the 21st century lesson in innovation: moving fast means moving together. To that end, we’ve proudly supported a vibrant global community of brilliant and selfless developers who over the past seven years have been responsible for some amazing achievements in aerial robotics, not the least of which is the APM/Pixhawk platform that’s […]
McKenna Pursues Federal Regulatory Preemption in Unmanned Aircraft Systems (“UAS”) Arena
McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP (McKenna), on behalf of members of its UAS Advisory Group, has petitioned the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requesting that any Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued by the FAA addressing small unmanned aircraft systems (“sUAS”) include a regulation that expressly preempts state and local regulation of sUAS including design, sale, distribution, use, or operation. […]
Interview with DJI: Future of the Phantom quadcopters
Quadcopters – or ‘small drones’ as they are also known – are enjoying a meteoritic rise in popularity. One brand in particular appears to have made a name for itself in the market. Just like ‘GoPro’ for many people has become synonymous to action camera, ‘DJI Phantom’ increasingly seems to be the first and indeed […]
One of America’s Biggest Insurance Companies thinks Unmanned Aircraft Could Change the Way It Processes Disaster Claims
BY NEAL UNGERLEIDER One of America’s largest insurance companies has an unorthodox proposal: using unmanned aircraft to speed up insurance claim processing. USAA, which serves millions of U.S. military personnel and their families with financial services, formally petitioned the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on October 2 for permission to use drone aircraft to process insurance […]
North Carolina high school uses drone to live-stream football game
A small white object hovered high above the Green Hope field in Cary, N.C. The four propellers looked too delicate to power the device, which fought rain and wind to maintain its position 100 feet above two rival football teams. The game between Green Hope and Middle Creek (Apex, N.C.) was more than just a […]
America can’t lead the world in innovation if the FAA keeps dragging its feet on drone rules
By Larry Downes October 8 at 7:00 AM As the latest revolutionary digital technology takes off, entrepreneurs are finding themselves battling federal regulators for permission just to experiment with new applications. This time, it’s not the FCC (smartphone apps), the FTC (the Internet of Things), the FDA (genetic testing), the Department of Transportation (driverless cars), […]
A Drone To Watch Over Me
The Nixie wearable drone aims to turn selfies to stalkies. Filming others from afar remains suspect behavior, but it could become less so as drones normalize surveillance by enticing us to record ourselves. A team that includes Stanford post-doctoral researcher Christoph Kohstall, Google technical program manager Jelena Jovanovic, and physicist-filmmaker Michael Niedermayr, along with other […]
Give the dog a drone: Owner exercises his Jack Russell terrier with a Drone
Dave Jansen has put ‘drone dog walking’ to the test at a Sydney oval His Jack Russell terrier was filmed running around with his tail wagging as he tried to chase the quadcopter across the field Mr Jansen said his dog Tyler ‘loved it’ and will consider using it again to get the canine’s energy levels up […]