News Archives - RotorDrone

One Competition, Three Challenges

“IT’S NOT ABOUT THE DRONES” We experience this first hand on a daily basis at WeRobotics and across the Flying Labs network. Only approximately 10% of time is actually invested in the drone itself, the other 90% is all about data and community and stakeholder engagement. So why is it that most organizations concentrate their efforts […]

Education Campaign Funding

Supporters of the Know Before You Fly campaign, an initiative to promote the safe and responsible use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), today sent a letter to the House Committee on Appropriations urging Congress to provide funding for the campaign. Given the new and evolving regulations for recreational UAS operators, the letter stresses the urgent […]

Apply Now for FAA Match

The FAA has pledged $6 million for this enterprise, so if your company is up for a challenge you could get matching funds from the FAA to perform vital drone integration safety work at the FAA’s UAS test sites. Acting FAA Administrator Dan Elwell today at the FAA UAS Symposium in Baltimore today said, “The FAA intends to […]

Developing AI for High-Speed Drones

Lockheed Martin and the Drone Racing League have announced the nine teams that were accepted into the 2019 AlphaPilot Innovation Challenge, an open competition to develop artificial intelligence (AI) for high-speed racing drones. These teams have earned a coveted spot in DRL’s inaugural autonomous drone racing series, the Artificial Intelligence Robotic Racing (AIRR) Circuit, which kicks off later this year. The […]

Autonomous Drone Plays Dodge-Ball

In this video, you’ll see how researchers at the University of Zurich have equipped an autonomous drone with an “event camera” that allows it to avoid moving objects while in flight. Event cameras only send data when the pixels in its field of vision change in intensity, so they have super-fast response times. Of course, […]

New FAA Rules for Recreational Flyers

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is implementing changes for recreational drone flyers mandated by Congress in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 (PDF). While recreational flyers may continue to fly below 400 feet in uncontrolled airspace without specific certification or operating authority from the FAA, they are now required to obtain prior authorization from the FAA before flying in […]

Australian company nabs first drone delivery approval

Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has approved Project Wing’s plans for drone delivery of food and medicine in suburbs around the capital city of Canberra, a “world-first,” according to a new report by the Guardian. Project Wing, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet, has been testing self-flying delivery drones in Australia for over a […]

A Drone & A Gun; What Could Go Wrong?

This doesn’t seem like a great idea on many levels … and besides, aren’t these folks at all familiar with SkyNet? Turkish technology manufacturer Asis Elektronik ve Bilişim Sistemleri A.Ş. has developed an armed drone system consisting of an automatic weapon fixed on a remotely controlled small drone. Video footage of the drone, called “Songar,” on the […]

AUVSI XCELLENCE Humanitarian Awards

Five organizations that pioneer new ways to use drones for good are winners of the second annual XCELLENCE Humanitarian Award from the Association for Unmanned Vehicles Systems International (AUVSI). The award, which is sponsored by DJI, was announced today at AUVSI XPONENTIAL 2019 at McCormick Place in Chicago. “We’ve seen an expanding implementation of drone […]

Raytheon’s Ground-Based Detect & Avoid System

Raytheon’s Ground-Based Detect and Avoid (GBDAA) system is now operational at Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport and will be used to test the safety and efficiency of small drone operations in the 200 square mile drone test range. “GBDAA allows drone pilots to make safe decisions about flight maneuvers beyond visual line of sight without using ground observers […]