What have drones & football in common you could ask... Well, some clever French guys (http://www.deltadrone.fr/) dropped the game ball in front of 20.000 people with their drone. Good initiative to show the wide public drones can be friendly too. Nice model.
This is a big step towards the legal use of drones I believe. I never heard of this company but it seems they've been working hard with a nice focus. Nice design too with the small exchangeable 'sensor' bay. More info on the certification can be fount at http://www.uasvision.com/2012/10/03/french-civil-aviation-authority-awards-first-uas-authorisation-to-fly-over-100km-in-civil-airspace/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=0c16e3ea51-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN
Interesting development. The company behind the Parrot AR drone is investing in Sensefly and Pix4D. What can we expect? When will our kids be making ortho's with their smartphones?
From Engadget:
Switzerland's EPFL has managed to catch our attention with its various UAV-related activities, and it looks like it's also been the radar of Parrot, maker of the AR.Drones. EPFL announced today that the French company is investing 7.4 million Swiss Francs (or about $7.5 million) in two companies that have been spun out of the institution: senseFly and Pix4D. As you may recall, those two have collaborated in the past, with senseFly providing the camera-equipped UAVs necessary for Pix4D's 3D mapping software. Broken down, the investment works out to 2.4 million Francs put into Pix4D and five million invested in senseFly, the latter of which is enough for Parrot to claim a majority stake company. As for the future, senseFly's CEO says that the deal will give Parrot "access to the expertise and the technology for specialized drones," while Pix4D's CEO says that the investment "reinforces our position as a leader in software for professional drones" and opens up new business opportunities. It also makes it clear, if it wasn't already, that Parrot is getting pretty serious about drones. You can find the official announcement after the break, along with a video from EPFL explaining the deal.
Expected early august at http://www.red5.co.uk/catalog/product/view/id/1558/s/the-spy-hawk/category/100/
Came across a short article on a new low-cost UAV system:
http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/16/lehmann-aviations-lfpv-uav-packs-gps-autopilot-11mp-cam-1080/
A drone from the Swiss army crashed on tuesday morning. Interesting to see how quick the army communicates with a photograph of the incident. At least it 'landed' on the airstrip.
We've seen already a small UAV flying around the nuclear reactor and providing hires imagery. Would it be possible to use drones to measure radiation?
http://allegedlyapparent.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/build-your-own-rdiation-monitoring-drones/
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Festo has demonstrated it's capabilities again. No flying dolphin this time, no flying jellyfish, ...
