Fire fighters hoping to use drones to “map a fire’s size and speed, and identify hot spots,” are running up against FAA regulation. A New York Times story notes a drone is precluded, “from operating out of sight of a ground-based pilot. If distance or the smoke of a wildfire obscures a drone from observers on the ground, a piloted aircraft must be sent aloft to keep an eye on it.” Fire fighting is but one of many facets of drone use the FAA, federal government and U.S. citizens are debating.
X-47B carrier ops video
May 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The Navy just made the first catapult launch of an unmanned X-47B from a carrier at sea; then did a touch-and-go on the deck a few days later (May 14 and 17). Frederick A. Johnsen of Airailimages.com put together a short video using U.S. Navy imagery.
Drones used to save rhinos
May 22, 2013 by 2 Comments
Rhino poaching is a big deal in Africa. Drones are a big (and getting bigger) deal everywhere. Anton Kieser is using helicopter drones to try to save the African rhino from poachers.
University conducts its first drone research mission over Gulf of Mexico
March 11, 2013 by 1 Comment
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi will conduct the first mission over the Gulf of Mexico with its unmanned aircraft from Monday, March 11, through Friday, March 15.
Make way for the drones
January 3, 2013 by 2 Comments
WASHINGTON, D.C. — You will be sharing the airspace with unmanned aerial vehicles more and more in the coming year and ahead.
North Dakota eyed for UAS ‘mall’
November 27, 2012 by Leave a Comment
By JUAN MIGUEL PEDRAZA
In a visit to Grand Forks, N.D, just ahead of election day, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) got a good look at a spot for a mall — an unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) mall.
A key spot on the tour was the University of North Dakota’s UAS facilities. UND would be a key tenant of the mall.
Driving drones can be a drag
November 18, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Study shows distractions may alleviate boredom and improve drone operators’ performance.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — On its surface, operating a drone looks a lot like playing a video game: Operators sit at workstations, manipulating joysticks to remotely adjust a drone’s pitch and elevation, while grainy images from the vehicle’s camera project onto a computer screen. An operator can issue a command to fire if an image reveals a hostile target, but such adrenaline-charged moments are few and far between.
Company demonstrates ADS-B fully autonomous collision avoidance for UAS
October 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment
R³ Engineering (R³E) recently completed a demonstration of an ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast) based, fully autonomous collision avoidance sequence, executed by a sense and avoid system installed on an unmanned aircraft system (UAS).
NASA and partners test unmanned aircraft technology in N.D.
October 9, 2012 by Leave a Comment
By KATHERINE BARNSTORFF, NASA Langley Research Center
GRAND FORKS, N.D. — A research team made of officials from government, industry, and higher education has completed two weeks of flight testing of “sense and avoid” technology that could some day help unmanned aircraft better integrate into the national air transportation system.
The MITRE Corporation and the University of North Dakota (UND) developed automatic sense and avoid computer software codes that were flown on board a NASA Langley Research Center general aviation aircraft. The NASA Langley Cirrus SR-22 flew 147 maneuvers during 39 hours of flight tests at the Grand Forks International Airport. A supporting UND aircraft flew more than 40 hours during the tests.
Creating an unmanned aircraft that can sense-and-avoid
August 20, 2012 by 2 Comments
By JUAN MIGUEL PEDRAZA, Office of University Relations, University of North Dakota
It looks easy to fly unmanned aircraft: Launch, fly, land. But there’s lots more to keeping an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) safely aloft than toggling controls from the ground.
“Among the major technical challenges facing the UAS industry is the sense-and-avoid system aboard the aircraft,” said Naima Kaabouch, associate professor of electrical engineering at the University of North Dakota College of Engineering and Mines and an expert in sense-and-avoid electronics and software.
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