UAV

Droneshield join hands with Thales

DroneShield has entered into a Teaming Agreement with Thales Programas De Electronica Y Comunicaciones S.A.U. (“Thales”) (a Spanish subsidiary of Thales S.A.), whereby Thales will utilise and promote DroneShield’s products in its defence and security contract bids in Spain involving counterdrone aspects.

Drones help map sea level rise

Drones can be used to create low-cost and accurate 3-D maps of coastal areas, new research shows. The technique – developed by the University of Exeter – was tested at beaches where sea turtles nest, allowing scientists to see how rising sea levels will affect them. It combines drones and photogrammetry (extracting measurements from photographs) with accurate GPS satellite location to create detailed digital models of coastal habitats. Previous methods were either cheap but low in quality, or high-quality but cost thousands of pounds to produce.

Scientists tested the technology at Alagadi in Cyprus – a key nesting site for loggerhead and green turtles – and found that a sea level rise of 1.2 metres would result in the loss of up to 67% of loggerhead nesting sites and 59% of those used by green turtles.

“Being able to accurately map out terrains in such a fine and local scale is crucial if we want to develop effective conservation strategies,” said lead author Miguel Varela, of the Centre of Ecology and Conservation on the University of Exeter’s Penryn Campus in Cornwall.

“Most of the studies on climate change impacts are done on a global scale, but is also crucial to understand what will happen on local areas. This method allows us to create realistic digital models that are highly accurate (less than 10cm error).

This is a fine scale when compared to global projections. It’s ideal for surveying coastal sites, but could also be applied to other habitats and species, and be used to help identify wildlife protection areas.” In this case study, the researchers combined their imagery of Algadi’s beaches with data on the location and depth at which turtle eggs are laid. https://phys.org

Airspace launches Galaxy Drone Security Solution

Airspace Systems has introduced Airspace GalaxyTM, the first family of fully-automated, always-on airspace security solutions that accelerate the integration of drones into cities and protects people and property — on the ground and in the air — from clueless, careless or criminal drone operators.

The new Airspace Galaxy security platform combines input from multiple sensors to detect drone activity at longranges, instantly identifies authorized and unauthorized flights, assesses risk, and if necessary and permitted, deploys an autonomous mitigation system to safely capture and remove an unauthorized or malicious drone. http://airspace.co/

Vodafone organizes 4G trials at the BCN Drone Center

Vodafone is conducting 4G drone test trials at the BCN Drone Center to enable the massive use of drones in the near future.

Soon, all drones equipped with a 5G SIM card will be able to be controlled and geolocalized simultaneously. This will also enable the possibility of landing them in case of accessing restricted areas such as airports or concentration of people.

The flight tests consist in several flights at different altitudes in order to model the aerial coverage. The emissivity patterns of the antennas will be finetuned to guarantee capacity of thousands of drone flights simultaneously. www.barcelonadronecenter.com

Drone company inks delivery agreement with Moose Cree First Nation

Drone Delivery Canada (DDC) has executed a commercial agreement with the Moose Cree First Nation to deploy DDC’s drone delivery technology platform with the Moose Cree First Nation communities.

The Company is currently permitted to commercially operate its drone delivery platform within the Moosonee and Moose Factory communities with its Compliant Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC), which permits DDC to conduct drone operations in all Canadian provinces and territories. DDC, with its Compliant SFOC in hand, will deploy its drone delivery platform to service the communities of Moose Factory and Moosonee, two northern towns located in Ontario approximately 19 kilometres south of James Bay. www.sudbury.com

Spanish Army acquires two Alpha 800 UAS

The Spanish armed forces has acquired two Alpha 800 UAS from Alpha Unmanned Systems.

The 14kg gasoline-powered Alpha 800 provides three hours of continuous flight with a 3kg payload and 30km operating range. It has a light and robust airframe and is equipped with a militarygrade autopilot with high precision GPS and sensors. It can be used for ISR, including unexploded ordnance detection, as well as for the delivery of supplies. www.shephardmedia.com

DJI reveals Mavic 2 Enterprise Dual

DJI has revealed the Mavic 2 Enterprise Dual, a portable industrial drone equipped with powerful, side-byside visual and thermal cameras that provide commercial pilots a reliable tool to operate better, safer and quicker in challenging environments.

Developed in partnership with FLIR Systems, the Mavic 2 Enterprise Dual features the compact design of DJI’s Mavic 2 Series drones with the same array of advanced controls and accessories found in the Mavic 2 Enterprise.