The highlight of this year’s voestalpine Klangwolke in Linz, Austria, was a choreographed air show with 50 small helicopters equipped with LEDs. Ars Electronica Futurelab and Ascending Technologies GmbH set a world record with this, because this was the largest swarm of these “quadrocopters” (so called because of their four rotors) outdoors at the same time.
Perhaps this story really speaks to the fact that this would not have been allowed in the USA.....
Well worth a read, no really don't ignore it if you are in the UK. Yes you can fly for fun and do nothing but if you turn a penny or pint you need to comply.
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP722.pdf
If you are in the USA you might read it and cross your fingers that you are going to get such sensible regs, sadly after the AUVSI conference it would seem not! Just keep remembering ASTM F-38....
“We want to build small-scale UAVs that can fly quickly through indoor and/or cluttered environments, but controlling these UAVs is very different than controlling a fighter jet flying up above the clouds,” said Dr. Russ Tedrake, X Consortium associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science and aeronautics and astronautics at MIT and the MURI lead. “To be successful, we have to solve a number of incredibly hard problems in computer vision and nonlinear control. This long-term project lets us focus on the basic research questions that will lead to fundamental results and, ultimately, dramatic new capabilities for UAVs.”
Full press release
“Boca Bearing Company started with humble beginnings as a ball bearing supplier to the Radio Control (RC) hobby market. As the years progressed, we started offering a wider variety of bearings appropriate for use in various different applications from industrial to hobby and recreational uses. Many of the young men and women that enjoyed playing with RC vehicles as kids eventually grew up and went to work in advanced manufacturing industries such as robotics, optics, engineering, applied physics and other hands-on fields,” said Allen Baum, president of Boca Bearing Company. “These customers took us along with them and helped to expand the company’s product line and focus. Today Boca Bearing Company’s product line can not only be found in RC cars, RC helicopters and RC engines but also in turbine flow meters, unmanned autonomous vehicles, robots, semiconductor manufacturing, MRI machines, packaging equipment and much more. We’ve created this contest as a way to thank our global customers for their commitment to our business and to innovation.”
More here
Who is this person?
At last year’s Paris Air Show, some of the hottest aircraft were the autonomous unmanned helicopters—a few of them small enough to carry in one hand—that would allow military buyers to put a camera in the sky anywhere, anytime. Manufactured by major defense contractors, and ranging in design from a single-bladed camcopter to four-bladed multicopters, these drones were being sold as the future of warfare at prices in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In May, at a different trade show, similar aircraft were once again the most buzzed-about items on display. But this wasn’t another exhibition of military hardware; instead, it was the Hobby Expo China in Beijing, where Chinese manufacturers demo their newest and coolest toys. Companies like Shenzhen-based DJI Innovations are selling drones with the same capability as the military ones, sometimes for less than $1,000. These Chinese firms, in turn, are competing with even cheaper drones created by amateurs around the world, who share their designs for free in communities online. It’s safe to say that drones are the first technology in history where the toy industry and hobbyists are beating the military-industrial complex at its own game.
I have long admired the Australian UAS system and I might be getting this completely wrong.
A training scheme might get approved soon, and if you are planning on making some money with sUAS in Australia you might want to kick up a bit.
These bits made me smile
AVIO2004A Conduct frisk search of persons
AVIO2005A Conduct screening using Explosive
Trace Detection (ETD)
AVIO2006A Control access to and exit from an airside security zone or lands
Along with the need to
Requirement for emergency evacuation of aircraft is identified
There will be pots and pots of money to be made with UAS training around the world and bandwagons will be jumped on.
http://www.suasnews.com/2012/06/16329/australia-prepare-to-evacuate-your-unmanned-aircraft/
“Fly a UAV. Learn about robotics. Explore the universe. LM Tomorrow is a science and engineering app that provides insight into some of Lockheed Martin’s most innovative technologies and how they work. From flying a micro-scale Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and human exoskeleton design to some of the company’s more well-known products such as air and spacecraft, you’ll learn how sciences such as aerodynamics, electromagnetism and kinetics are translated into a variety of technologies.
http://www.suasnews.com/2012/05/16173/lockheed-martins-tomorrow-for-ipad-fly-a-drone/
Getting ready for the start of our next live podcast in a couple of hours time (you can download it later) 10:00 PST about 17:00 GMT I think (could very well be wrong)
The show link here
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/suasnews
Should also tell you what time it starts local to you.
If you have any questions for the airframe and autopilot designers, Jimmy Prouty and Chris Mc Nair then please send them to patrick@suasnews or tweet them at @sUASNews and if he can he will put them to them.
In this installment, we will discuss the role sUAS plays in assisting the Sea Shepherd in their ongoing endeavor to help safeguard the inhabitants of our delicate ocean ecosystems. Sure to be an exciting and informative dialogue, with all that had to be overcome operating an unmanned system from the high seas. We look forward to finding out more about this admirable example of what can be accomplished with a low risk, low cost solution.
Sad breaking news.
A foreign engineer from an Austrian company was killed and two South Korean colleagues were injured Thursday when an unmanned spy drone crashed into their control vehicle during a test flight, police said.
The trio were testing the aircraft for South Korea’s military in the western port city of Incheon, police said.
“A 50-year-old foreign engineer from an Austrian company died on the spot when the S-100 drone crashed while they were controlling it remotely from inside the vehicle,” a police spokeswoman at Incheon told AFP.
http://www.suasnews.com/2012/05/15515/schiebel-s-100-crash-kills-engineer-in-south-korea/
Having seen the post about football airspace restrictions thought I should add this
Smaller airframes perhaps used by drone journalists would be subject to current ANO provisions. Any part of a CAA 1:500,000 chart that is yellow is considered a built up area and therefore not suitable for UA flight. So a pilot observed flying anything outside of approved RC flying sites within the prohibited zone might expect an interview on the 13th floor at Gatwick with no biscuits. I doubt if they will go after a small boy in a park, but try them with a camera equipped anything.
If you have any thoughts of showing off and posting some FPV videos whilst this is going on from anywhere in that red area you need your bumps read. They will prosecute you if caught no questions asked.
Unlike other parts of the world there are clear rules that you will be breaching. That always applies to the yellow bits on a CAA 1/500,000 but its if they choose to come get you.
More reading here http://www.suasnews.com/2011/03/4439/olympics-2012-airspace-restrictions/
Here is what the entire area looks like with restrictions of some sort or other in force.
The CAA in the UK have been very good to unmanned aircraft types, especially those of us in the small world. Other countries still do not have regs permitting commercial flight and clear lines drawn in the sand. Lets not ruin a lovely thing.
Gene from RP Search Services shares some of his considerable experience with Patrick.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/suasnews/2012/05/09/suas-search-and-rescue
If you have any ideas for people we should invite as guests then please email Patrick, patrick@suasnews.com
We have a few ideas going forward and hope its of use to the community at large.
Cheers
Gary
Would love to hear your thoughts at http://www.facebook.com/suasnews as well.
We all saw the map generated with COA sites in the USA last week, thought it might be fun to have a map of our own.
There were only 60 or so sites that the FAA had, perhaps there are more private UAS flying around and about please feel free to add yourself! Not just in America but anywhere.
View Civil Unmanned Aircraft Research the sUAS News iFLY map.
Schiebel kindly sent me this morning a link with this video on it. Its pretty amazing and certainly to my mind points at how Europe really is pulling ahead of the USA. (starting a flame war there) Imagine how difficult it would have been test flying the system in the USA.
I think there will be a rush towards large helicopter based systems now. This will become the minimum expected standard from movie UAS. It will cost a bit that's for sure.
It excited me enough yesterday to add it to our UAS Got Talent tab, if you have an entry then please suggest away.
Its on show in Las Vegas this week.
I can't believe just how wrong John Villasenor can be, I guess he figured one of us would mention this here and it would drive his blog posts wild at Scientific American.
He completely misses the real definitions of UAS its not about having an autopilot onboard. What worries me more is that Mr Villasenor is asked to speak about UAS to other grown ups. There is a huge gap between the reality of UAS and what CSI tells us.
John is a member here so he can perhaps chip in and explain his definitions.
From the FAA Interim Guidance http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ato/service_units/systemops/aaim/organizations/uas/coa/faq/media/uas_guidance08-01.pdf
Unmanned Aircraft: A device used or intended to be used for flight in the air that has no onboard pilot. This includes all classes of airplanes, helicopters, airships, and translational lift aircraft that have no onboard pilot. Unmanned aircraft are understood to include only those aircraft controllable in three axes and therefore, exclude traditional balloons
Here is an excerpt from the Scientific American blog.
What is a "first person view" unmanned aircraft? Is it a drone?
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2012/04/12/what-is-a-drone-anyway/#comment-4952
A first-person view (FPV) aircraft has a front-facing video camera and transmits real-time video to an operator on the ground. The operator looks at the image on a computer screen, sees the view as if he or she were sitting in the cockpit, and flies the plane accordingly.
While “UAV” is a general term for (non model aircraft) unmanned aircraft, FPV refers to the subset of such aircraft that are flown by a remote pilot using the image transmitted from an on-board camera. Unmanned aircraft guided exclusively by GPS or on-board computer analysis of imagery are UAVs, but they aren’t first-person view UAVs.
Until now, most FPV aircraft have been operated by the military, using technologies that make it possible to fly the aircraft beyond the line of sight of the pilot. However, use of FPV aircraft in non-military settings is certain to increase with the recent enactment of a new U.S. aviation law that will open U.S. airspace to many types of unmanned aircraft in the coming years. FPV aircraft are likely to be subject to very conservative FAA rules regarding domestic non-line-of-sight operation to minimize potential safety concerns. For example, if the communication link between the pilot and the aircraft fails, then there are obvious challenges involved in bringing the aircraft back to the ground without endangering other aircraft or people on the ground.
Is an FPV aircraft a drone? Under the strictest definition of drone, it isn’t, since it is flown under the control of a human operator. However, when flown beyond the line of sight, an FPV aircraft would be characterized by many people as a drone, despite the significant skill that might be involved in flying it. This is because the definition of drone can be difficult or impossible for an observer to apply. After all, how can someone who sees an unmanned aircraft maneuvering without any evidence of a nearby pilot know whether it is autonomous or remotely piloted? From the observer’s standpoint, it’s not unreasonable to consider it a drone.
Just to let you folks know, if Facebook is your social platform of choice we have started to try and make the sUAS News page look a little better
http://www.facebook.com/suasnews
We would welcome any build images that you have or comments on the stories, we firmly believe that innovation is coming from sheds and back rooms not main stream labs that need meetings to decide when the next meeting is.
Looking at this post that banner picture needs changing for a less military looking one, any ideas? Post it to the FB page for me to pick up.
Also the timeline can go back years so I want to add historic UAS stuff, again any ideas??
Don't forget we are on
Twitter @sUASNews and my current I quite like, favourite of mothers and cake bakers Pintrest
If you would like our stories delivered daily by email you can subscribe here. Examples of what they look like and all the previous emails are here
Our ebook collection of all the Police Fire Rescue stories and KB's excellent aerial photography .PDF are linked form here. There are a couple of papers here from Brett our new man about town when it comes to training and education.
Oh and there is the group at LinkedIn Some FAA players follow that one so be careful what you say.
Sorry if this is off topic, but sUAS News was created to spread the word for advocacy and happenings in our world and is there to help your small business rise above the noise generated by big business.
We are not expert writers or web wranglers, we are UAS nuts. Let us know your exciting stuff!
Oh and feel free to add your business to our free directory here
Oh and lastly people don't seem to be picking up what the logo is on the Fire Scout in this post, it made me smile....
http://www.suasnews.com/2012/04/14365/fire-scout-team-takes-steps-to-arm-unmanned-helicopter/
Oh and finally finally
I hope everyone has a happy and safe Easter, plenty of holiday time for entering the T3 or HK Beer lift challenge.
Be careful on the roads if you have to be.
A very sad story,
http://www.suasnews.com/2012/04/14210/uas-operator-finds-body-of-missing-texas-boy/
Well done to Gene Robinson (a member here) and the team from RP Search Services. A heartbreaking task.
The body of 2-year old Devon Davis was found, ending several days of an intensive search.
The boy's body was found shortly after the search was officially called off in a lake near his home. A DPS helicopter was checking a lake less than a mile from his home one last time when searchers spotted something.
"We have located Devon Davis in a large body of water nearby his home," Capt. Rex Evans with the Liberty County Sheriff's Office said. "Devon is deceased."
Earlier in the day, a remote control airplane with photography capabilities flew over the lake and spotted something. The DPS helicopter was checking that out when searchers found Devin's remains. After that, Texas Equusearch founder Tim Miller walked Devon's mother, April Davis, to the back of the yard where Capt. Evans told her that Devon was gone.
Ferreting around sUAS News for something else I am working on I stumbled on this video, 2009 no less! How things have changed. Hope folks don't mind me posting it here again.
My money is on a few people buying the systems just for the video downlink and screen.
Lets see how the first few review ones fly.
http://www.suasnews.com/2012/03/13932/ready-to-fly-first-person-view-aircraft/
Very clever one this from Jimmy Prouty @Hanger 18, simple is always best.
Read more http://www.suasnews.com/2012/03/13827/maple-seed-recovery-method/
If you are planning a commercial UAS operation down under new proposed guidelines are on the table for simple RPAS flight.
Away from built up areas, within VLOS below 400' and outside of CAS. Much the sort of thing that might come into place in the USA eventually.
Its the first qualification in the civil sector that I know of that is so well defined. Fifteen units to pass.
http://www.suasnews.com/2012/03/13639/australian-level-one-rpa-pilot-qualification/
If you think things might happen like this soon in the USA you should look at the NextGen roadmap recently released. Some dates that are quite far away in there. I will let you read it for yourselves....
