UAV

Thomas & Hutton Announces New Certified UAV Remote Pilots

Thomas & Hutton (T&H) has announced its new Certified Remote UAV Pilots. Survey Party Chief, Brad Lariscy; Staff Surveyor, Cliff Wilson; and GIS Analyst, Preston Evans, both recently earned this certification. The Remote Pilot Certification is a requirement in order to fly drones legally and requires applicants to pass an FAA aeronautical knowledge exam. www.thomasandhutton.com

SITECH® South offers Microdrones® UAV Mapping Systems

Microdrones has announced they are partnering with SITECH South, a leading provider of construction equipment and services in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida – USA. It will now offer Microdrones mdMapper solutions – complete UAV packages with everything needed for surveying and mapping.

Construction companies use drones for many purposes, including volumetric analysis of stockpiles, site overviews, and monitoring progress. www.sitechsouth.com.

Drone laws: New German rules aim to stop eye-in-the-sky snooping

According to the new regulations in Germany, if a drone weighs more than 2kg (4.4lb), its operator is supposed to demonstrate knowledge of how to fly it safely, by presenting either a pilot’s license or a certificate from an air sports association, or by taking an examination.

If the drone weighs more than 5kg (11lb), operators will have to get special permission from the federal aviation authorities before they can use it.

However, any drone weighing 250g (0.56lb) or more will from October 1 have to carry a badge or aluminum sticker bearing the owner’s name and address.

Drones cannot be flown above a height of 100m without permission. If they weigh over 250g, they cannot be flown over residential areas. And whatever the weight, if it can broadcast or record video or audio, flying it over houses that aren’t your own is verboten.

The same goes for flying drones over police and rescue operations, main roads, gatherings of people, and airports’ flight paths.

As is the case with the UK’s drone code and other similar regulations, there’s a general rule that operators have to keep their drones in sight at all times.

The German government amended its air-traffic regulations at the start of the year, but the changes only became effective recently. The new regulation will act as a bridge to future laws that are being drawn up at European level, with implementation probably a few years away. http://www.zdnet.com

FAA rolls out no drone zones

The Federal Aviation Administration of USA has rolled out its first restricted flight rules aimed at unmanned aerial systems, marking off areas around airports, military bases and possibly critical infrastructure and intelligence facilities.

The FAA said on April 11 that it is poised to release its first set of map data that the mushrooming flock of private UAS operators can use to safely navigate their aircraft around commercial airports.

The announcement comes only a few days after the agency pushed out map data restricting drones over military bases across the country and only a couple of months after the agency reported that the number of close calls between commercial aircraft and unmanned aircraft almost doubled in the last six months compared to the same period last year.

In the April 11, the FAA said it will release the first in a series of “facility maps” that show areas and altitudes near airports where the small aircraft can operate safely. The maps, it said, will also help operators comply with the agency’s Part 107 airspace authorization rules, which are now nearly a year old.

Under the new military base restrictions, UAS can’t be operated within 400 feet of the boundaries of the military facilities. The restrictions take effect April 14.

The FAA and the Department of Transportation are also setting up a process to accept petitions to restrict or prohibit drones from operating over critical infrastructure facilities. http://gpsunder500.info

First approval to fly fully-automated, commercial drones without a pilot

Airobotics has announced that it is the first company worldwide granted with the authorization to fly fully automated drones without a pilot. The certification, that was presented by the Civil Aviation Authority of Israel (CAAI), is solidifying Airobotics’ status as a world-leader in the field of automated drones, allowing for the most innovative Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) commercial drone operations.

This milestone proves that decisions and actions that were once taken by a human drone pilot, can now be taken by Airobotics’ computer software and artificial intelligence. Essentially, an authorized pilot is now replaced by an authorized computer. This concept, of a system operating on its own, was designed and developed for the first time by Airobotics, solving some of the biggest problems for the drone market, such as high costs of labor, increased logistics around drone operations, expensive and lengthy training of aircrew as well as enabling customers that are not drone experts to perform highly complex drone missions. www.airobotics.co.il an

Bengaluru Municipal Body to track property tax defaulters via drones

Further ramping up its measures to monitor the non-payment of property tax in Bengaluru, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in India is now considering deploying drones to survey and 3-D map buildings to check if property owners are paying their dues. The BBMP has reportedly included the drone plan in its proposal for smart city planning and will submit it to the Union government soon.

Earlier, the BBMP had set up a Geospatial Enabled Property Tax Information System (GEPTIS) link under the citizen services tab on its website. The GEPTIS had been set up in association with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and will soon be open for public use. It helped BBMP to track property tax collection across the city, through the Bhuvan Karnataka platform, created by the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), Hyderabad, a wing of ISRO. https://in.news.yahoo.com/

DJI has built the ultimate aerial photography drone

DJI has teamed up with camera giant Hasselblad to create a brand new aerial photography platform for drones. The Chinese drone giant has built what it claims is the “world’s first” 100-megapixel integrated aerial photography platform, paving the way for incredibly high-resolution bird’s-eye imaging. The system is built using a number of different components. www.trustedreviews.com

Drones e-tailer launches Cat Drone

Cat lovers can now add a touch of technology to playtime with their cherished animals, following the launch of a new Cat Drone.

Pampered pets big and small can play with the state of the art toy which includes three soft toy attachments, including; mouse, fish and feather dangler toys.

This drone will play ‘cat and mouse’ for hours, with cutting-edge collision avoidance system technology and altitude hold technology – the flying pet drone will skillfully navigate and track your pooch, keeping toys at paws.