In selecting the six test site operators, the FAA considered geography, climate, location of ground infrastructure, research needs, airspace use, safety, aviation experience and risk. In totality, these six test applications achieve cross-country geographic and climatic diversity and help the FAA meet its UAS research needs.
Tag Archives: drones
Drones and aerial mapping
From Professional aerial mapping
Collects aerial photography of 1-10sqkm in a single flight at down to 5cm precision.
The eBee has a flight time of up to 45 minutes allowing to cover areas of up to 10sqkm in a single flight. With its 16MP camera it can shoot aerial imagery at down to 3cm/pixel resolution. The images can then be used to create maps and elevation models with a precision of 5cm.
Disclaimer: The above does seem like a sponsored ad but this site does not advertise for anyone. I am interested in drone technology and creative applications for them and found this interesting. Click here for more references to drones on this site.
DJI Phantom Quadcopter with GoPro Mount
The DJI Phantom Quadcopter with GoPro Mount is a remote controlled, four-propeller quadcopter with a removable GoPro camera mount for capturing POV footage of flight. The compact and lightweight Phantom is ready-to-fly right out of the box and it includes the remote control unit and receiver, which gives the device a transmission range of up to 984.25′ (300m). The Phantom also features an intelligent Naza-M + GPS multi-rotor autopilot system, which supports two flight modes and a failsafe function that will automatically trigger the device to land safely when control is lost.
via DJI Phantom Quadcopter with GoPro Mount CP.PT.000001 B&H Photo.
UAV Provides Colorado Flooding Assistance Until FEMA Freaks Out
Falcon UAV is a Colorado company that makes a fixed-wing UAV called a Falcon that uses GPS and cameras to autonomously generate among other things highly accurate maps of the ground. The UAV is hand-launched, with an endurance of about an hour, and generally operates between 300 and 1,500 feet above the ground. It has public safety flight approvals from the Federal Aviation Administration FAA to fly in some parts of Colorado. Basically, the point here is that we’re not talking about some random dude with a quadrotor flying around taking pictures: the Falcons are designed for and governmentally approved for mapping missions in public airspace.
via UAV Provides Colorado Flooding Assistance Until FEMA Freaks Out – IEEE Spectrum.
Linux-based autopilots target commercial UAVs
The computers offer pre-installed flight control and mission software built upon the Linux-based AirwareOS platform. The software is provided under a royalty-free license that enables modification, extension third party software, and inclusion in proprietary products, says the company. The Linux-based software is written in C++, and provides a single hardware-independent Unified Autopilot Interface (UAI) API to the INS/GPS solution, system status, sensor data, actuators, datalink radio, and payloads.
via Linux-based autopilots target commercial UAVs · LinuxGizmos.com.
Matternet Building Quadcopter Drone Network To Transport Supplies
Whereas the internet is an information transporter, the “matternet” will transport…well, matter. These robotic “drones for good” will fly food, medicine, and other essentials to villages seasonally stranded by stormy weather and low quality road infrastructure.
via Matternet Building Quadcopter Drone Network To Transport Supplies | Singularity Hub.
Throwing and catching an inverted pendulum
Armed with a good theoretical model and knowledge of its strengths and limitations, the researchers set out on a process of engineering the complete system of balancing, throwing, catching, and re-balancing the pendulum. This involved leveraging the theoretic insights on the problem’s key design parameters to adapt the physical system. For example, they equipped both quadrocopters with a 12cm plate that could hold the pendulum while balancing and developed shock absorbers to add at the pendulum’s tips.
via Video: Throwing and catching an inverted pendulum – with quadrocopters | Robohub.
Below is the Youtube video.
More info at the Flying Machine Arena.
The Flying Machine Arena (FMA) is a portable space devoted to autonomous flight. Measuring up to 10 x 10 x 10 meters, it consists of a high-precision motion capture system, a wireless communication network, and custom software executing sophisticated algorithms for estimation and control.
Military turns to ESPN to help analyze drone footage
The amount of video streaming into this base, one of a number of sites that monitors and analyzes the images, is immense. Drone video transmissions rose to 327,384 hours last year, up from 4,806 in 2001.
Given the huge amount of feeds, the Air Force has launched an aggressive effort to seek out technology or techniques that will help them process video without adding more people to stare at monitors.
Air Force sends mystery mini-shuttle back to space
It is the second flight for this original X-37B spaceplane. The craft circled the planet for seven months in 2010. A second X-37B spacecraft spent more than a year in orbit.
Texas college hacks drone in front of DHS
Humphrey tells Fox News that for a few hundreds dollar his team was able to “spoof” the GPS system on board the drone, a technique that involves mimicking the actual signals sent to the global positioning device and then eventually tricking the target into following a new set of commands. And, for just $1,000, Humphreys says the spoofer his team assembled was the most advanced one ever built.
via Texas college hacks drone in front of DHS — RT.
“In five or ten years you have 30,000 drones in the airspace,” he tells Fox News. “Each one of these could be a potential missile used against us.”