UAV

senseFly’s eMotion 3.5

senseFly has released eMotion 3.5, which includes a raft of new features and functionality, all designed to make the working lives, and workflows, of geospatial professionals simpler and more efficient.

eMotion 3.5 has added Beta-level language support for Simplified Chinese and Spanish,Agisoft PhotoScan integration, Smart mission resume and Live air traffic data. It now supports uAvionix’s PingUSB ADS-B*/ UAT receiver, allowing senseFly operators to view live air traffic data during their missions: simply launch it, connect your uAvionix PingUSB (available for purchase from senseFly) to your ground station PC, and click eMotion’s Air Traffic icon.

Drones deliver accurate 3D aerial surveys

Perth-based inspections and asset visualisation company Airscope is working with Intel to capture high resolution aerial data and create digital 3D models of Santos’ Moomba oil and gas processing plant in South Australia.

An Intel Falcon 8+ drone is used to fly pre-programmed flight plans and capture several hundred aerial images on each flight. These images are then collated and stitched together to form a holistic 3D model. The image capture is sufficiently accurate to enable it to incorporate laser scanning data into the collated images to make the model accurate enough for use in detailed engineering design of major infrastructure projects.

FLIR provides thermal imaging for DJI Zenmuse XT2

FLIR Systems has announced that DJI will integrate a FLIR thermal imaging sensor technology into its new DJI Zenmuse XT2 drone camera. The DJI Zenmuse XT2, DJI’s first dual-sensor and its most advanced gimbal-stabilized camera for commercial drone applications, furthers the collaboration between FLIR® and DJI. It also joins the ‘Thermal by FLIR’ partner program, which FLIR created to fuel thermal innovation and allow partners to leverage the leadership, quality, and innovation that FLIR’s brand represents in the thermal imaging space. www.dji.com

Development of The Condor – 400Lbs Cargo Delivery Drone

Drone Delivery Canada has commenced development of its newest cargo delivery drone, ‘The Condor’ with a lifting capability estimated at 400 pounds of payload. It is being engineered to provide payload capacities of up to 400lbs and designed to fly approximately 150km. The Condor boasts a considerably larger payload compartment compared to both the Raven and Sparrow. The Sparrow obtained its Declaration of Compliance accepted by Transport Canada in December 2017. The Condor looks to accept pallet size payload shipments, ideal for transporting bulk cargo, both in Canada and abroad. www.dronedeliverycanada.com

Dedrone introduces drone and pilot localization technology

Dedrone has released the sensor, RF-300, which automatically locates drones and their pilots. When combined with the broad coverage and early warning capabilities of Dedrone’s RF-100, the new RF-300 adds situational awareness for organizations to determine the nature and severity of threats from unauthorized drones.

The ultimate protection a facility can take against drone threats is to stop the pilot before they can cause any harm, and hold them accountable for damages. The Dedrone RF-300 provides this opportunity to enable law enforcement and site security leaders to locate and take action against trespassing pilots.

Pix4D announces Pix4Dfields

The idea behind Pix4Dfields comes from two observations: the need to produce accurate, repeatable measurements of crop health and the need to produce results efficiently and rapidly in the field, while performing more detailed analysis in the office. Both of these factors are essential to support decision making of the farmer, agronomist or the breeder. It is currently available as a closed beta, which we are opening to select users to test it and give us feedback. https://pix4d.com

Thales signs agreement with NASA for unmanned systems control technologies

Thales has announced that it has reached formal agreement with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for a Space Act Agreement to support their unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) traffic management (UTM) activity. This framework agreement allows Thales to engage with NASA on a technical and program level to continue to establish UTM in the United States, and allows Thales to leverage its global expertise in UTM. Thales will support NASA’s goal to develop a UTM concept that can be transferred to the FAA in 2019 for deployment in the national airspace system (NAS). Under this agreement, Thales will collaborate with NASA for the research, development, testing and evaluation of low-altitude airspace control of UAS operating at or below 400 feet. www.thalesgroup.com

UK introduces new standards for drones

The standards, set to come into force for the first time in Spring 2018, will release the true potential of this industry, and transform business sectors from transport to infrastructure and agriculture to medicine, according to the group. The new measures are expected to lead to strengthened public confidence in safety, security and compliance within an industry, which is set to be one of the fastest growth sectors in the world.

According to Robert Garbett, in his role as Chairman of the BSI Committee on Drone Standards, “after several years of work and global collaboration, detailed draft standards are expected to reach BSI Committee stage by Spring 2018, following which there will be a period of wider consultation, expected then to lead to adoption shortly thereafter.”

He added, “The development and adoption of the first quality and safety standards for the drone industry will make 2018 a pivotal year for an industry which is set to become a global phenomenon. It is the year when British and world standards will be crystallised, energising the industry, and enabling it to meet its full potential to the benefit of UK plc, and indeed economies worldwide.”

“Two years ago drones were forecast to spawn a $100 billion industry by 2020. But today the opportunities are perceived to be even greater than this since such projections were based upon available data at that time which predominantly focused on the air industry, and we define the entire drone industry as covering surface, underwater, air, and space. If you look at the entire picture the figures are much larger and growing faster than anyone expected. If you then forecast the impact of integrating drone technologies across these environments, the figures will take on an ever more exciting dimension.” www.powerengineeringint.com

Drone-based measurement system for navigational aid inspection

Following a joint-development effort with FCS Flight Calibration Services GmbH, LS telecom’s Colibrex announces the launch of NavAidDrone, a drone-based system for navigational aid (NAVAID) inspections.

The NavAidDrone is used for field measurements required for commissioning and regular maintenance of Instrument Landing Systems (ILS). It will support Air Navigation Service Providers, NAVAID system manufacturers, and CNS (communication, navigation, surveillance) installation and maintenance service engineers. The system can also perform VOR and GBAS measurements with additional software included.

Measurement data, processed by the NavAidDrone, will now be available for areas that cannot be accessed by vehicles or conventional telescopic masts and for which measurement was therefore previously not possible.

World’s First Wide-Area Security verification experiment

NEDO (The New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization), KDDI (a Japanese telecommunications operator), Terra Drone (a Japanese industrial drone service provider), SECOM(a Japanese security company) succeeded in the world’s first security verification experiments of multiple drones using 4G LTE mobile communication network at a wide-area facility.

In this demonstration experiment, remote patrol security by four autonomous flying drones was conducted utilizing KDDI’s “Smart Drones Platform.” With remote patrol security flying multiple drones, it leads to security enhancement such as the discovery of suspicious individuals and fire, alerting attention, night security and so on.

Many effects are expected for remote patrol security utilizing multiple drones. Specifically, by remotely monitoring camera images installed in the drone from the operation control room, it is possible to respond promptly, such as finding suspicious individuals. Also, by combining multiple drones with different missions, wide-area surveillance will be improved, and security of large facilities will be further reinforced.

Cepton announces nextgeneration LiDAR solution

Cepton Technologies unveiled its Vista LiDAR product at the annual NVIDIA GPU Technology Conference. The 120-line scanner delivers 200-meters of range and 0.2 degrees of spatial resolution, and is available immediately for the autonomous vehicle market. The Vista LiDAR is significantly smaller than most solutions on the market and uses less than 10 watts of power. The sensor is the fourth LiDAR product developed by Cepton over its first 20 months in operation.