UAV News Talk – Drone News, eVTOLs, UAS Policy & Air Mobility

George Mathew is the chairman and CEO of Kespry, a leading drone-based aerial intelligence solution provider. The company delivers fully integrated solutions from drone data capture to industry-specific analytics. Kespry serves customers across North America, Europe, and Australia.

George talks about “drone-based aerial intelligence” and Kespry’s success with “touchless inspections.” We consider the evolution from a hardware-based drone industry to one that is software-based and how Kespry successfully navigated that pivot. 

George explains the growing need for autonomy in certain use cases such as repeatable flight control. Also, how Kespry accommodates customer objectives that range from fully outsourcing the service to operating with internal resources. George also offers some thoughts on the current regulatory landscape and the waiver process, as well as on sensor data acquisition and analysis beyond drone-based platforms.

Kespry just announced their Summer 2020 Aerial Intelligence Platform Release which includes DJI Phantom 4 RTK support, seamless third-party drone operator support, a new haul roads feature, and enhanced hail detection for insurance inspections.

George has 20 years of experience developing high-growth technology startups and before joining Kespry he held senior leadership positions at Alteryx, salesforce.com, and SAP. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Neurobiology from Cornell University and a Masters in Business Administration from Duke University, 

Activists used a drone to hang a Pride flag on Ukraine’s version of the Statue of Liberty

Ukrainian LGBTQ activists used a drone to hoist a giant rainbow flag and attach it to the “Motherland” statue in Kyiv. The sculpture is venerated in the country and stands slightly higher than the Statue of Liberty. “Drone flights were carried out under the current legislation and according to the rules of the State Service,” according to Dronarium Ukraine, the company that arranged the flight.

AI-powered drones perform extreme aerobatics, the U.S. administration intends to allow the export of armed drones, how to test swarming drones, the Royal Canadian Navy uses a drone to find drug smugglers, a hybrid drone rescues a stranded motorist – in a demonstration, and the 5th Annual FAA UAS Symposium goes virtual.

UAV News

Researchers at Intel, the University of Zurich, and ETH Zurich developed an AI system that allows autonomous drones to perform acrobatics using only onboard sensing and computation. The vision-based drone can perform barrel rolls, loops, and flips. Training is accomplished entirely in simulation, which is fast, inexpensive, safe, and free from physical crashes.

The Trump administration plans to reinterpret the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) in a way that would open up the sale of armed U.S. drones to other countries. This would allow General Atomics and Northrop Grumman Corp sell into new markets that are currently serviced by China and Israel, which do not participate in the MTCR.

The U.S. Army and PhaseSpace have created an outdoor system for testing swarming drones. It uses a new motion-capture capability where LED marker strobes are attached to the UAS. 96 cameras on 16 tracking pods around the perimeter track the LED markers. It has a capacity of more than 1,500 times the volume of a typical testing facility and the testing system is transportable and can be scaled up or down and even change shape. 

The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) has been testing Puma-model fixed-wing unmanned aircraft for about two years. They’ve been used to help locate potential drug smuggling ships. The Pumas can sweep an extended area while the ship stays below the horizon. One team monitors the Puma real-time streaming video and another team manages the operation of the aircraft. Instead of the ship weaving around hunting smugglers, the drone does the weaving. The patrolling ship sails in a straight path saving fuel and increasing operational time.

Video: Road breakdown? no problem. HYBRiX drone to the rescue!

The HYBRiX 2.1 is a hybrid fuel/electric multirotor with up to 2-4 hours of operational flight time and a 25 kg MTOW. It uses a 2-stroke gas (or petrol) engine and LiPo 6S batteries.

The FAA is hosting the 5th Annual FAA UAS Symposium virtually instead of in-person in Baltimore. The Symposium will take the form of several virtual events or “Episodes.”

Episode I — July 8-9, 2020 will focus on UTM and international UAS integration.

Episode II — August 18-19, 2020 will focus on updates to the Integration Pilot Program (IPP) and public safety operations.

The sessions will be re-run later in the day for international attendees.

A cockroach-inspired microbot, a manned vs. unmanned fighter fly off, autonomous deliveries from CVS, a Predator over Minneapolis protests, a police helicopter collides with a police drone, piloting a UAS from an airborne C-130J Hercules, and library books delivered by Wing.

Researchers at Harvard created the tiny, cockroach-inspired Harvard Ambulatory Microrobot, or HAMR. The HAMR-JR is a ½ scale microbot allowing researchers to test scaled robot performance. It can trot, jump, pronk, and bound gait.

Video: HAMR-Jr: small and dextrous. Presented at ICRA 2020

A July 2021 fly-off is planned between an AI-controlled drone and a human pilot. The “Big Moonshot” was conceived by the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center. 

Autonomous vehicle maker Nuro is partnering with CVS Pharmacy to deliver prescriptions and essentials to three Houston zip codes. Nuro says “We see this moment as an important stepping stone toward delivering all kinds of goods, beyond food and groceries.” Initial deliveries will be made by autonomous Prius vehicles. In the future, Nuro’s custom-built R2 delivery bot will be used to make deliveries. 

A Predator drone from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) was flown over recent protests in Minneapolis. Now a U.S. House of Representatives committee wants to know why. The DroneLife Op-Ed says the use of Predator drones over a city will not help ease the way for commercial drones. The CBP says that the drone was not used for surveillance purposes.

A Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) AS350 B3 helicopter and an RCMP Aeryon SkyRanger R60 surveillance quadcopter collided during a joint mission in British Columbia. Canada’s Transportation Safety Board rated it a five on a seriousness scale of one to six. It was classified as a “mid-air collision” that resulted in a “forced landing.” The helicopter and drone met at about 300 feet AGL. The drone was destroyed and the helicopter made a precautionary landing on a road.

A trial at RAAF Edinburgh was performed to test the feasibility of operating a UAS through the aircraft’s onboard Satellite Communications (SATCOM) link. The test demonstrated operating a UAS from anywhere in the world and uploading live imagery from offboard sensor systems.

The Montgomery County Public Schools in Virginia is the first school system to offer a library book drone delivery service. Blacksburg Middle School librarian Kelly Passek thought that drones could deliver books while the library was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The service is being provided by Wing, in conjunction with the Montgomery public schools.

The researchers counting endangered female green turtles at the world’s largest sea turtle nesting site off the Northern tip of Australia have significantly underestimated their numbers. Drone footage shows the actual number is about twice that originally thought.

Video: Great Barrier Reef: drone footage allows researchers to count 64,000 green sea turtles

A major test of last-mile drone delivery, direct-seeding rice with a drone, a drone-centric kiosk you can build yourself, and a webinar to learn the BVLOS regulatory landscape.

DroneUp partnered with Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) and UPS on a project to quickly evaluate the concept of last-mile drone delivery. They wanted to see how unmanned aerial systems could assist with critical delivery during times of crisis.

On the vacant campus of St. Paul’s College, in Lawrenceville, Virginia, a group of pilots flew over 200 flights under a scripted plan, operating under part 107 rules, with industry-standard drones. The flights simulated the delivery of 1.275-pound payloads of medical and other critical supplies in city-like conditions. Data was collected with respect to operational capacities, airspace deconfliction, operator safety, processes, policies, and training.

Tom Walker, DroneUp’s CEO, said, “DroneUp’s drone delivery exercise was aimed at learning what is possible to do safely and effectively today while gathering data to overcome seemingly impossible obstacles in the near future.” 

For more, see the 56-page report, DroneUp Resources Operation Last-Mile: Critical Drone Delivery Report.

XAG is a Chinese company focused on agricultural technology. In April 2020, they organized a rice direct-seeding demonstration where two workers spread 5kg of rice seeds through a muddy rice paddy. Following that, a XAG drone repeated the same task. The difference in planing time was significant.

A project from Sky Horse Tech uses a Raspberry Pi to power a custom drone-centric kiosk. The kiosk pulls in local weather data and FAA advisories through AirMap and MapBox. The data cycles every 30 seconds and is refreshed every 5 minutes. The kiosk uses a 32” display, a $35 Raspberry Pi 3 Model B or newer, some free software, and weather and FAA advisory APIs.

This free AUVSI webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, June 10, 2020, 03:00 PM TO 04:00 PM (EDT). You’ll learn about the regulations affecting Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone flight and the factors involved in successfully navigating the regulatory environment to achieve a waiver. 

Iris Automation director of airspace integration Trever Linn will explain what operators should expect before applying for a waiver, and the key components such as risk mitigation measures and CONOPS documentation necessary for approvals. Attendees will learn about current regulatory challenges, readily available solutions, and the path forward for BVLOS drone operations.

Skyborg design competition for USAF loyal wingman UAVs, catapulting a drone from a helicopter, FAA is investigating a Blue Angels close encounter, a drone that launches grenades and sprays crops, flying over Singapore and keeping an eye on people, and a drone crash caused by electric interference.

Skyborg is the artificially intelligent software that would control a fleet of loyal wingman unmanned air vehicles, and the Air Force has now launched a design competition. A request for proposals was released on May 15 that could award indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contracts worth $400 million per awardee.

The U.S. Army wanted to test if a drone launched from a helicopter was possible. The question was if the drone could survive the launch and the helicopter downwash, so the Army conducted a series of tests with an Area-I air-launched, tube-integrated unmanned system (or ALTIUS 600). It was catapaulted forward from a UH-60 Black Hawk side-mounted tube, escaped the rotor downwash undamaged, and was able to fly its intelligence-gathering mission

A spokesperson for the FAA confirmed they are aware of the incident and that it’s under investigation. A set of guidelines for recreational drone usage is posted on the FAA’s website that includes, “Give way to and do not interfere with manned aircraft” and “Do not operate your drone in a careless or reckless manner.”

Vinveli Unmanned Systems, Inc. is an international technology company that is primarily involved in energy systems, electric vehicle systems, and unmanned aerial vehicles. The “Vero” quadcopter can be outfitted with a launcher firing 38mm or 40mm grenades. As an industrial drone it can perform inspection missions, but it can also operate as an automated agriculture spray drone that covers 1,000 acres in less than 30 hours.

Video: Agriculture Drone | Pesticide Spraying UAV | Vinveli

The Home Team Science & Technology Agency (HTX) of Singapore is using Airobotics drones to identify congregations of people. The automated drones broadcast real-time data to the Singapore Police Force.

An Aerialtronics Altura Zenith ATX8 commercial drone crashed next to a railway line in October 2019. The flight only lasted 13 seconds and it crashed after flying over an electrified railway line. Aerialtronics investigated and found that the quadcopter’s onboard magnetic compass reading “had varied through about 60° within a couple of seconds of takeoff.” The next day, the operator performed an RF spectrum analysis and checked for magnetic interference with a handheld compass. He found deviations of up to 140°. The railway’s overhead high-voltage wires were the cause.

Studio Drift created a three-dimensional image of a red beating heart in the sky above Rotterdam. It was part of the Franchise Freedom drone performance dedicated to healthcare workers. Franchise Freedom uses 300 illuminated Intel Shooting Star drones that are programmed to mimic the behavior of a flock of starlings in the sky.

Video: Studio Drift uses drones to create beating heart above Rotterdam | VDF | Dezeen

A passenger drone hotel, a pub drone for beer delivery, UFOs that might be drones, distance-learning UAS education, flying creatures make drones better, measuring whales from above, and a close encounter with the Blue Angels.

EHang plans to create a passenger drone hotel in China. Hotel guests could travel to and from the hotel via EHang’s passenger drones and they could take sightseeing tours of the area with the drones. The first passenger drone hotel will be in a Guangzhou coastal district. EHang and the Chinese government have an agreement to establish Guangzhou as “China’s first and the world’s leading UAM smart city.”

Video: EHang Joins Hands with LN Holdings in Building the World’s First “UAM” Theme Hotel

The doors of McKeever’s Bar and Lounge outside Dublin are closed during the pandemic. But thirsty customers have an option since McKeever’s is now using a drone to fly beer and wine to patrons.

Videos of US Navy F/A-18 fighters encountering “unidentified aerial phenomena” have been circulating for some time, and the Pentagon has officially declassified and released the videos. Now the Navy has publically released incident reports that describe many of the unidentified aircraft as “Unmanned Aerial Systems.”

• In June 2013, the encountered “aircraft was white in color and approximately the size and shape of a drone or missile.”
• In November 2013, the aircraft was described as having a 5-foot wingspan. “…the aircraft was determined to be a UAS.”
• From a March 2014 incident: “The unknown aircraft appeared to be small in size, approximately the size of a suitcase, and silver in color.”

The Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide Campus offers distance-learning for some of their drone programs. Christian Janke, the Program Chair for the Bachelor of Science in Unmanned Systems Applications program offered by ERAU, was interviewed by Jeremiah Karpowicz for Commercial UAV News. The ERAU Worldwide Campus offers distance-learning.

“…biomimicry draws inspiration from natural inventions to design and improve upon our current technologies.” The hummingbird offers large wing muscles to continuously flap their wings, a long chest bone for the surface area needed for those muscles, and a figure-8 wing-beating pattern. The AeroVironment’s Nano Hummingbird prototype for DARPA (the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) draws on these qualities.

Video: Stunning Slo-Mo Footage of Hummingbirds Hovering in Air

Video: AeroVironment’s Nano Hummingbird – 360 degree Lateral Flip

Meanwhile, the owl employs silent tactics, despite it’s huge wings. Owl wing feathers have leading-edge serrations that break up the turbulence that causes noise. Also, fringes at the end of the feathers further disburse turbulence and reduce noise. Similar turbulence-disrupting structures can reduce the noise produced by wind turbines and fans.

Video: Experiment! How Does An Owl Fly So Silently? | Super Powered Owls | BBC

Many whales and dolphins spend little time at the surface of the water, so they are hard to find and difficult to study. A Southern Cross University PhD candidate and scientist plans to use drones to find and measure the length and width of whales. Using photogrammetry techniques, video will be recorded of humpback and pygmy blue whales in Australian waters. With the measurements taken, the size and volume of a whale can be calculated. This provides an indication of its health.

Video: See Blue Whales Lunge For Dinner in Beautiful Drone Footage | National Geographic

The name Giovanni Lucia has been associated with a drone video of the Navy Blue Angels America Strong flyover in Detroit, Michigan on May 12, 2020. At one point, the Blue Angels fly past the drone at an apparently very close range. The video is currently on the Moss Photography YouTube channel, copied from Lucia’s FB page before he took it down.

A loyal wingman is unveiled by Boeing, special ops drones for training exercises, safe and effective volcano research, remote ID technology partners announced, crushing rocks and measuring the pile with a drone, and PPE delivery to the home.

The first unmanned Loyal Wingman aircraft has been presented to the Royal Australian Air Force by a Boeing-led Australian industry team. The aircraft is the first to be designed, engineered, and manufactured in Australia in more than 50 years. This is the first of three prototypes for Australia’s Loyal Wingman Advanced Development Program. Next comes ground testing, followed by taxi and first flight later in 2020. It is the foundation for the Airpower Teaming System (ATS) being developed by Boeing for the global defense market.

Video: Boeing Unveils First Loyal Wingman Aircraft

Physical distancing during the coronavirus pandemic has come to military operations. U.S. special operations troops have been using drones to train security forces in Iraq. Advisers with the Special Operations Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve use the remotely piloted aircraft to record the training exercises, then review the footage and provide feedback on the Iraqi troops’ tactics.

Active volcanoes are dangerous for researchers and scientists often study them with helicopters and satellite imagery. But some areas, like lava lakes, are difficult or impossible to access. Now volcanologists are using drones to study the Nyiaragongo volcano in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Drones images are much higher resolution than alternatives and much lower cost than helicopter or satellite imaging.

The FAA announced that eight companies will assist the government in establishing technology requirements for future suppliers of Remote Identification (Remote ID): Airbus, AirMap, Amazon, Intel, One Sky, Skyward, T-Mobile, and Wing. They were selected through a previous Request for Information process. The technology requirements that result will govern the applications created by future Remote ID UAS Service Suppliers. These applications will provide in-flight drone identification and location information to safety and security authorities.

A large Wyoming producer of aggregates and ready-mix is using Kespry drones for inventory management, mine mapping, and auditing. In 2019 alone, McMurry Ready Mix conducted 270 flights with Kespry. McMurry Ready Mix General Manager Rob Jongsma said, “We use Kespry a lot. And the great thing is, whether we use it 30 or 300 times in a year, the cost to us doesn’t change…”

Dive Delivery plans to deliver face masks and other lightweight items to residential backyards using off-the-shelf drones equipped with drop mechanisms. Pilots will operate under Part 107 rules making visual line of sight (VLOS) deliveries. Residents of San Mateo and Contra Costa counties in California can sign up to participate in the trials. This is “last-mile delivery.” BVLOS delivery is pending UTM technology from the regulator.

The U.S. Department of Transportation issued a report showing the benefits of blockchain for unmanned aircraft. Also, drone cinematographers and a labor agreement, a drone modeled after a dragonfly, VTOL reconnaissance, AI controllers, and AUVSI virtual sessions.

In a report titled Blockchain for Unmanned Aircraft, the U.S. Department of Transportation says blockchain could help in areas with large numbers of drones operations, especially near high-risk areas like airports or in crowded areas. The report says “Blockchain technology is being looked on to deliver a framework that can be used by stakeholders in the commercial drone industry, as it can ensure security and provide for identity management as well as providing a supporting role in aircraft traffic management, UAS conflict management and flight authorization.”

The International Cinematographers Guild initiated arbitration over a dispute with Warner Bros. The Guild said drone operators filming for productions are covered under the labor agreement. Those who work in “all phases of motion and still picture photography,” including members of a drone crew, should be treated the same as aerial directors of photography, camera operators, and camera technicians. They say the drone crew should get the same health and pension benefits.

Animal Dynamics is a technology start-up that takes lessons from wildlife and applies them to drone design. The Skeeter project uses flapping wings to power a small hand-launched drone, mimicking the dragonfly.

The AeroVironment Quantix™ Recon is a lightweight and rapidly deployable reconnaissance solution that is fully-automated. It produces high resolution, georeferenced terrain, vegetation, and infrastructure imagery. The VTOL transitions to a fixed-wing unmanned aircraft and can survey up to 0.6 square miles or 12.4 linear miles with a 45-minute flight time. The aerial imagery data is compatible with many geographic information systems (GIS)

The MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), Dartmouth, and the University of Washington have developed an AI-based system that uses “reinforcement learning” to train the model. This approach is being applied to VTOL designs that transition from vertical to horizontal flight. The AI works with the popular OnShape CAD software.

AUVSI postponed XPONENTIAL 2020 (tentatively scheduled for August 10-12, 2020). In the meantime, five webinars will be offered starting May 4, 2020:

1. Digital Twins – the Future of Virtual and Mixed Reality Robotic Avatars
2. Drone Delivery Supporting Public Health
3. NASA’s Vision and Role to Enable Urban Air Mobility
4. Advancing Autonomy Through DARPA Challenge to Benefit First Responders
5. Aerial Connectivity Joint Activity – Bridging the Gap Between Cellular and Aviation

Checking up on the public with a “pandemic drone,” a COVID-19 inspired BVLOS exemption, duck watching with drones, an unmanned BVLOS helicopter for humanitarian relief, how pre-historic flying reptiles could lead to better drones, and will fuel cells power eVTOL aircraft?

The Westport Connecticut Police Department plans to test a drone that can tell is someone has a fever or is coughing. First Selectman Jim Marpe says they want to “explore ways to prevent a possible resurgence of the virus.” The police department said that the Draganfly drone could help to “provide better health monitoring support for potential at-risk groups.”

An unnamed Houston, Texas oil and gas company has been given a waiver to fly BVLOS for critical infrastructure inspection missions. The company has a manpower shortage because of the pandemic and the waiver is good until June 30 or “the expiration of the federal, state, or local Covid-19 recommendations or requirements.”

UND graduate students and their advisor plan to go duck watching. They want to monitor nearly 60 duck nests using fixed-wing and quadcopter UAVs with high-tech cameras. Flights were conducted last summer with fixed-wing and quadcopter drones to see how the ducks reacted.

UAVOS Inc. has successfully tested its cargo delivery UVH-170 unmanned helicopter designed for highly automated delivery flights from a vendor to a destination and back. The flights follow pre-selected routes. The trial flight took 1.7 hours, over 62 miles carrying a 17½ pound package.

Two hundred million years ago, giant flying reptiles ruled the skies. At 650 pounds with a 35-foot wingspan, they were the largest animals ever to fly. Like a bat, they used a membrane to fly instead of feathers. They also had internal structures called actinofibrils for extra strength and structural support. A University of Bristol team thinks we could learn lessons from the pterosaurs that might help large UAVs launch and remain stable in flight.

Most companies developing eVTOLs have settled on all-electric aircraft using lithium-ion batteries. But are hydrogen fuel cells a better choice? HyPoint in Menlo Park, California demonstrated an air-cooled hydrogen fuel cell powertrain that produces 1000 watts per kilogram of specific power with an energy density of 530 watt-hours per kg. The next HyPoint product is to provide a specific power of 2,000 W/kg and 960 Wh/kg energy density. Fuel cells look good for longer-range aircraft, but may not be as suitable for short-range from a weight factor standpoint.

Altavian and the Sinclair National UAS Training and Certification Center team up to 3D print and distribute PPE masks, coronavirus resources from Drone Girl, US government anti-drone guidelines, a 360-degree onboard detect-and-avoid system, and an omnidirectional drone.

Drone manufacturer Altavian teamed up with doctors from local hospitals and improved on a 3D-printed PPE mask design from the Billings Clinic. It uses recycled materials commonly found in hospitals, is reusable, and was has N95-99 filter material. The 3D printing equipment at the Sinclair College National UAS Training and Certification Center lab is being used to produce mask shells. Altavian set up the non-profit “American Mask Rally” to accept donations and to distribute the PPE masks to frontline medical professionals. The site has a Paypal donate link.

The Drone Girl set up a webpage with drone-related Coronavirus resources, including something to do at home involving drones, resources for small business owners, at-home drone lesson plans for parents and teachers, the status of all the major 2020 drone conferences, and how drones are being used during the pandemic.

US Attorney General William Barr issued guidelines for how federal agencies can monitor and take out drones:

• Justice Department agencies such as the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Bureau of Prisons may intercept drone communications
• They can maintain records of those communications for up to 180 days.
• Agencies may seek approval for the use of counter-drone technologies and request designation of facilities or assets for protection.
• Agencies must work with the FAA to conduct risk-based assessments to examine the impact of operations on the national airspace.
• Policies should be sensitive to the legitimate use of unmanned aircraft by parties, including the press.

The Casia 360 is a computer vision detect-and-avoid (DAA) system with a 360-degree radial field of view. Iris Automation says this will enable commercial BVLOS operations for UAS. Casia is a combination of both hardware and software, and detects other aircraft in all directions. Casia 360 is available for commercial sales preorder, although the initial limited launch of the 360 system has sold out and this system is currently on back-order.

An experimental omnidirectional drone has been built by engineers from ETH Zurich. This drone can hover or fly in any direction, in any orientation.

Video: Design and optimal control of a tiltrotor micro aerial vehicle for efficient omnidirectional flight