Drone survey at NMDC Diamond Mining Project, Panna

Drone service provider IG Drones has secured a substantial work order for conducting a comprehensive drone survey based on Photogrammetry and LiDAR at the Diamond Mining Project in Panna, Madhya Pradesh, India. This contract, awarded by National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), spans three financial years, covering 2024-25, 2025-26, and 2026- 27. Complying with Ministry of Mines guidelines, NMDC has mandated a drone survey of the entire lease area for the preparation of digital elevation models (DEM), digital surface models (DSM), and survey-based ortho mosaic images. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com

AvironiX Drones Receives Patent for Amphibian UAV

AvironiX Drones has announced that the Indian Patent Office has granted a patent to their groundbreaking “Amphibian Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for MultiTerrain Applications.” This unique drone, developed in collaboration with Vel Tech Technical University as part of a GITA Funded Indo-Korea joint research project, is a world-first hovercraft drone capable of navigating on water, land, and air. The Amphibian UAV has already demonstrated its versatility and utility in various applications, including bathymetry and turbidity mapping, as well as water quality sample collection. https://botsanddrones.in

Largest Drone Spray Project

Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) has partnered with Drone Destination to execute India’s largest drone-spray services project. The agreement, signed between the two entities, aims to cover approximately 30 lakh acres of farmland across 12 states in India.

Under this Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), drones will be utilized to spray IFFCO’s Nano fertilisers, including Nano Urea and Nano DAP, as well as other products across the designated farm lands. The states benefiting from this project include Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. https://botsanddrones.in

Wingtra launches WingtraCLOUD

Wingtra has launches WingtraCLOUD, which promises to simplify data collection and streamline the onboarding of surveyors and pilots, delivering clear business advantages. This new drone data planning and collaboration solution is set to address some of the most significant challenges faced by customers today. wingtra.com

Dedrone launches next gen solution

Dedrone has launched its latest airspace security solution, DedroneOnTheMove (DedroneOTM). It was developed in partnership with several Dedrone customers, partners and worldrenowned defence suppliers like Supacat. It is equipped with Counter Uncrewed Aerial Systems (cUAS) command and control (C2) sensorfusion platform for 360-degree drone detection, www.dedrone.com

First FAA waiver for BVLOS commercial operations

Iridium partner American Aerospace Technologies, Inc. (AATI) was granted a first-of-its-kind waiver from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to conduct UAS surveillance of critical infrastructure in the San Joaquin Valley on behalf of a multinational oil and gas company. This waiver may serve as a tipping point for wider adoption of safe and scalable UAS operations in the National Airspace System (NAS).

Enabled by Iridium’s L-Band satellite connectivity, AATI’s AiRanger is supporting remote aerial surveillance for the energy corporation’s pipeline and production facilities. Iridium’s lowlatency network is providing BVLOS connectivity, including remote Command and Control (C2) and Detect and Avoid (DAA) capabilities. www.iridium.com

FAA approves Amazon Prime Air BVLOS UAV deliveries

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has granted Amazon Prime Air permission to operate UAVs beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS).

Prime Air’s BVLOS operations rely on detect-and-avoid technology, which allows UAVs to autonomously navigate obstacles for safe flight operations. Amazon provided the FAA with detailed engineering data and conducted flight demonstrations, which included real-world scenarios involving planes and hot air balloons, to validate the system’s safety.

RapidFlight awarded $10M for autonomous aircraft development

RapidFlight has been awarded a $10 million contract from the United States Department of the Air Force (DAF) under the AFWERX Autonomy Prime program. Under the contract, RapidFlight will develop and produce the SPX, a customizable, autonomous fixed-wing aircraft system.

Drogo Drones to foray into survey, mapping, emergency medical services

Drone service provider, Drogo Drones, is pursuing multiple expansion plans, including a foray into survey, mapping, transportation of products as well as emergency medical services. It had recently entered into an agreement with fertilizer cooperative IFFCO for spraying insecticides on 30 lakh acres across several States, including in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Drogo has received permission from the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) for its Krishi 3 drone that provides services in the agricultural sector.

Drone pilot can’t offer mapping without North Carolina surveyor’s license, court says

A North Carolina board that regulates land surveyors didn’t violate a drone photography pilot’s constitutional rights when it told him to stop advertising and offering aerial map services because he lacked a state license, according to a federal appeals court in the USA.

The panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in upholding a trial court’s decision, found the free-speech protections of Michael Jones and his 360 Virtual Drone Services business weren’t violated by the state’s requirement for a license to offer surveying services.

The litigation marked an emerging conflict between technology disrupting the hands-on regulated profession of surveying. A state license requires educational and technical experience, which can include examinations and apprenticeships.

The board wrote to Jones in June 2019 and ordered him to stop engaging in “mapping, surveying and photogrammetry; stating accuracy; providing location and dimension data; and producing orthomosaic maps, quantities and topographic information.” Performing surveying work without a license can subject someone to civil and criminal liability.

By then, Jones had placed a disclaimer on his website saying the maps weren’t meant to replace proper surveys needed for mortgages, title insurance and land-use applications. He stopped trying to develop his mapping business but remained interested in returning to the field in the future. So he sued board members in 2021 on First Amendment grounds.

U.S. District Judge Louise Flanagan sided with the board members last year, determining that the rules withstood scrutiny because they created a generally applicable licensing system that regulated primarily conduct rather than speech.

Circuit Judge Jim Wynn, writing an unanimous opinion by the threemember panel, said determining whether such a business prohibition crosses over to a significant speech restriction can be difficult.

“Even where a regulation is in fact aimed at professional conduct, States must still be able to articulate how the regulation is sufficiently drawn to promote a substantial state interest,” Wynn said.

In this case, he wrote, it’s important that people can rely on surveyors to provide accurate maps. And there’s no evidence that the maps that Jones wants to create would constitute “unpopular or dissenting speech,” according to Wynn.

“There is a public interest in ensuring there is an incentive for individuals to go through that rigorous process and become trained as surveyors,” he wrote, adding the licensing law “protects consumers from potentially harmful economic and legal consequences that could flow from mistaken land measurements.”

Sam Gedge, an attorney at the Institute for Justice firm representing Jones, said he and his client want to further appeal the case, whether through the full 4th Circuit, based in Richmond, Virginia, or at the U.S. Supreme Court.

The ruling says “the state can criminalize sharing certain types of photos without a government-issued license. And it does so on the theory that such a law somehow does not regulate ‘speech,’” Gedge wrote in an email. “That reasoning is badly flawed. Taking photos and providing information to willing clients is speech, and it’s fully protected by the First Amendment.” https://apnews.com