Successful flight of Japan's largest transport drone (49kg PL)
Onozuka Seiki Co.Ltd has developed ESC, a high-efficiency motor for large-sized transport drones using electromagnetic steel sheets for high-speed rotary motors made by Nippon Steel. They succeeded in flying a drone with 49kg PL. The multi-pole high-speed rotary motor has a high motor drive frequency and is highly effective in reducing eddy current loss due to the thinning of the thickness of the electromagnetic steel plate used for the motor core. The technology cultivated in EV (Eco-run solar car) is applied to this motor, it has higher efficiency & lower heat generation than conventional large drone motors. Thus, it can withstand operations under summer high temperatures. By making the motor and ESC double redundant, consideration was given to the reliability required for large transport drones in the event of a failure. By optimizing the control characteristics of the drive system for large-scale transport drones, it is no longer necessary to adjust the parameters of the c Read More »
CAP2000: Clued Up Autumn 2020: Electronic Conspicuity
The Clued-up publication is devoted to the subject of electronic conspicuity in our developing airspace infrastructure. Why do we need it, what has changed, what does it do, where can i get it and what will it cost? Who will benefit, where is it likely to be necessary, when is it likely to be mandatory and will it be required by all air vehicles and in all classes of airspace? This Clued-up publication looks at all of those aspects and tackles each in a very practical manner. It is a very informative publication packed with very current information. Read More »
Aeronext and its 4D GRAVITY technology opened a test line in Kosuge Village
Aeronext and its 4D GRAVITY technology opened a test line in Kosuge Village in anticipation of social implementation of logistics drones.Logistics systems that utilize drones are attracting attention as a solution for areas where land transportation is difficult or where there is a lack of delivery personnel.The logistics drone "Next DELIVERY ®" developed by Aeronext adopts the original center of gravity control technology "4D GRAVITY ® ︎" to realize horizontal transportation of luggage regardless of the orientation of the aircraft. By eliminating the bias of luggage during transportation, it is possible to transport medical and precision equipment and deliver meals, which is difficult with conventional drones. Read More »
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will commercialize a system that can operate multiple drones from a distance of 1,000km by 2022.
The defence technology that enables stable flight of the aircraft is being diverted to the private sector: for disaster prediction and monitoring of power transmission lines.MHI’s fighter jets and submarines can control their own movements while automatically following an adversary and notifying users of abnormalities. The commercial adaptation will use secure internet connections to control drones flying through wind gusts of 30m/s. The system will allow a controller in Tokyo to direct drones to Tanegashima, an island 1000km South.MHI also plans to launch an analysis service for data taken with drones, using defence technologies such as artificial intelligence and precise image processing that makes full use of artificial satellites. Read More »
Photographic & Survey Equipment Cover
Moonrock Insurance have launched a new drone insurance product in response to growing demand from customers, including UAV operators in the media, emergency services, agriculture, inspection and construction sectors.Moonrock now offer drone insurance that also provides cover for non-drone related items in one single policy, including all camera, video and survey equipment, as well as devices like laptops and mobile phones.We have had an uplift in requests from customers over the past couple of years seeking a single policy encompassing many of their insurance requirements in one place, and we have sought to meet this with our specialist cover. Read More »
Guest-blog: Stephanie Barnes discusses the importance of knowledge management
Peter Drucker once said: ‘that today knowledge has power because it controls access to opportunity and advancement’.The 4th Industrial Revolution is undoubtedly the century of knowledge. The everyday usage of available advanced information, business and internet technologies in business activities confirm that this is not only a phrase from the literature, but true reality.Globalisation has brought many modern trends, and companies have the task to be flexible and adapt as quickly, easily and painlessly as they can in order to survive in the competitive market. Read More »
The importance of post era newfound entrepreneurial spirit
While small businesses are becoming increasingly purpose-driven, it looks like businesses are also becoming increasingly digital, and embracing agile business models that allow them to quickly adapt to new environments.Throughout human history, crises have been pivotal in developing our societies.Pandemics have helped advance health-care systems, wars have fuelled technological innovations and the global financial crisis helped advance tech companies. The present coronavirus pandemic will arguably not be an exception; entrepreneurs can be expected to rise to the challenge. Read More »
Automatic inspection of wind power plants using J-Power, KDDI and drones
The blade was inspected by remote control by taking a picture of the wind power plant with a drone equipped with auto flight software. It is thus possible to shoot three blades of a stopped wind turbine from four directions in one flight.By using auto-flight technology, local maintenance personnel can inspect the blades with simple settings and can quickly inspect during an emergency such as a lightning strike.The team was able to take a picture of the entire wind power generator (blades, towers, etc.). It can be taken in about 20 minutes per unit, and the time can be shortened to 1/10 compared to usual inspection methods. Read More »
Kawasaki Heavy Industries succeeded in flight test of unmanned compound helicopter "K-RACER
Kawasaki Heavy Industries succeeded in flight test of unmanned compound helicopter "K-RACER" The technology was demonstrated by an unmanned tester aiming at high speed, which is technically limited in the conventional helicopter, and in this test, stable flight by autonomous control was confirmed. The K-RACER is a special type of testing machine called a compound helicopter that has a main rotor (4 m in diameter), main wings and propellers on both sides instead of a tail rotor. The left and right propellers can cancel the torque associated with the rotation of the main rotor and generate forward thrust. In forward flight, the main wing shares the lift to reduce the burden on the main rotor, and the concept is to enable high-speed flight that cannot be achieved with conventional helicopters. The power source is the supercharged engine of the company's motorcycle "Ninja H2R". Kawasaki Heavy Industries will utilize the results obtained in this test for the development of VTOL manned / Read More »
Mission possible for unmanned aircraft systems
During the COVID-19 pandemic, air drones or unmanned aircraft systems have played vital roles, from delivering aid to monitoring social distancing. However, issues such as safety, security and the sharing of airspace have continued to delay their full commercial use.Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) have undoubtedly become the technology of the moment which, from humble beginnings, is set to create an industry to rival the automotive and aviation industries combined. UAS gained notoriety as toys, but have quickly evolved into the basis for a high-value, rapid-growth industry spanning almost all sectors, including logistics, medical, surveying, security and transport, and are being used in almost every environment on the planet. UAS, which can be remotely controlled, but are increasingly being equipped with autonomous capabilities, have been around for a long time. It has only been in the past five years that the technology to make them commercially viable tools in a huge range of applic Read More »
EU UAS Implementing Regulation 2019/947 Delayed
Whilst the European Commission have delayed the EU UAS Implementing Regulation 2019/947 until 31 Dec 2020, they have not announced a delay to EU 2019/945 (unless we missed that announcement here at the DDG). This effectively means that new Drones introduced into the European market after 1 July 2021 have to abide by the EU Conformity rules in 2019/945 and must be CE marked. So if you are a UK Drone designer, how do you go about getting the relevant CE mark for your Drone? Well, unless you are in the very lowest (C0) category, you will need to have your design and productions processes, and of course your drone capability, reliability and claimed specifications assessed by a Competent Assessment Body (CAB). The CAB would assess your product against a UK Scheme. Let’s just run through that again. In order for your Drone system to be assessed the UK has to set up a UK Scheme. This UK Scheme would need to be created and owned by a UK Gov Department, most likely the DfT. Read More »
Successful development of an intensity measurement system using Kansai TV and drone
Kansai TV has developed a radio wave measurement system for terrestrial digital broadcasting using drones to measure the radio wave radiation pattern (graph of the direction and intensity of radio waves emitted from the antenna) of TV relay stations in Japan. An intensity measuring unit consisting of a PC & an intensity measuring instrument is connected to the communication port that normally connects the camera, and GPS data (flight position and time) obtained from the drone during flight and the intensity measuring instrument are connected. By transmitting the electric wave strength obtained from the above to a tablet on the ground via wireless LAN, the measurer can check the radio wave emission pattern directly after the flight by a simple menu operation. In the verification flight, the practicality of this system was confirmed by measuring the radio wave radiation pattern in the horizontal direction at the same time as the visual inspection by the drone camera at multiple rel Read More »
INVOLI and AirMarket announce strategic partnership upon being selected as a team for Canada’s official RTM Service Trials
Lausanne, Switzerland: As part of one of the two teams selected to perform Canada’s RTM* (RPAS Traffic Management) Trials, INVOLI, leading surveillance solutions provider, and team-leader AirMarket, regulatory technology solution provider for unmanned aviation, capitalize on such success and announce strategic partnership to bring the trials collaboration to the market. The trials aim at generating data and experience that would be used by Transport Canada to develop regulations for BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) drone operations and the delivery of commercial cellular-enabled UTM* services. The team, led by AirMarket and including partners such as world-renowned telecommunication company TELUS, was selected by Canada’s RTM Action Team cochaired by Transport Canada and NAV CANADA, to execute official service trials. Starting in a 425 km corridor in Northern Alberta, the partners will be conducting Cellular-enabled UTM and Sensing Data Services in conjunctio Read More »
Valqari Introduces The Drone Delivery Station
Six-storage delivery solution showcases the start-up’s continued leadership in last inch drone delivery logisticsValqari, the Chicago start-up that solved the last inch logistics problem with its patented universal drone delivery infrastructure, has launched its largest solution to date with the Drone Delivery Station. This new technology offers a safe and convenient landing station with six separate storage units to accommodate multiple drone and traditional deliveries or pickups. The drone delivery station also maintains a digital chain of custody throughout the entire delivery process to give users peace of mind knowing their packages are secure until retrieved. The Drone Delivery Station is entirely drone agnostic and enables a fully autonomous point-to-point delivery to provide a reliable, universal location for drone deliveries and pick-ups up to 25 pounds. It also has the ability to accept packages numerous ways including winched packages, hover-dropped packages, or pickups an Read More »
Airial Robotics sets out to change global commercial drone market with a new type of UAV
Hamburg, 23 July 2020 – The company Airial Robotics, head-quartered in Hamburg, Germany, and with branches in Hungary and the United Kingdom, has unveiled an innovative UAV carrier system that redefines the possibilities of commercial drone applications: the completely newly developed and patented technology platform Gyrotrak. Based on a new hybrid concept, Airial Robotics has created a new class of drone that clearly exceeds current industry standards in terms of flight time, payload, range and efficiency and at the same time possesses a highly modular system architecture that can be adapted to all kinds of missions. "Our Gyrotrak technology is a disruptive hybrid UAV solution, somewhere between helicopter and autogyro. The innovative combination of the advantages of both systems creates such a unique and special technical platform, that it leaves the current industry standards behind it, and makes Gyrotrak a real game changer. Gyrotrak gives us the ability to at least double impor Read More »
The New Leadership Challenge
John Lowe's Experience has exclusively involved helping individuals and companies to improve their performance. He has interviewed over 30,000 candidates and at all levels, all of which has endorsed the premise that each individual and situation will require advice and solutions which are in sympathy with their personality, soft and technical skills, strategy and responsibilities.The drone industry also incorporates great diversity in terms of environment whether it be air, ground surface and marine or underwater and involving various applications for data collection, imaging, surveillance, surveying or mapping.This diversity presents exciting new opportunities whilst also presenting challenges to identify and follow the commercial “trending”. The current people-distancing and restraint on personal interaction must create new opportunities and impetus for the drone industry. The remote-control aspect fits well with government dictates. The media is speculating on pan Read More »
UAS Components press release
Addressing a growing demand from our clients and users in subsystems that are being used in PD-1 UAS for their own projects we decided to launch a new subdivision of our company called UAScomponents.com, which is focused on EO/IR payloads, UAV engines, catapult launchers, airframes and other proven components for unmanned aerial systems. All products were previously tested and used for an extended period of time in PD-1 UAS in different regions of the world, different weather conditions, and by different users. For the past few months, UAS Components was presented among the limited number of clients to test all products as stand-alone solutions and make sure we are ready to serve a large number of requests. Among our products, you can find large number of components for your unmanned aerial system, including: Read More »
Reality of drone delivery unveiled - Myths, mistakes and the way forward revealed
The UK Government’s new initiative to find a fast way to deliver medicines and supplies via air drones, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, was welcomed today by one of the world’s leading experts on drone technology. Robert Garbett, who is Founder of Drone Major Group, Chairman of the Drone Delivery Group, and Chairman of the British Standards Institution Drone Committee stated: “This welcome move by the Department for Transport will open the way to accelerated growth of the UK drone industry, and provides the opportunity for UK plc to become a world leader in this fast growth technology.“This initiative validates the saying that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’... but it will require facing up to the myths and mistakes of public perception of what is possible, and the reality of how best to apply this fast-developing technology. Read More »
UK Drone Delivery Group releases plan to accelerate growth of UK drone industry
The UK Drone Delivery Group, the new drone industry initiative established to provide guidance on the steps required for the UK to accelerate the growth of the UK drone industry, has today released its long-awaited ‘White Paper’ for public consultation. The White Paper calls for the development of new testing grounds, which are expected to significantly transform the UK’s potential to achieve world-leading status in the fast-moving drone industry.Robert Garbett, founder of the UK Drone Delivery Group, stated: “The release of this White Paper for public consultation represents a major milestone for the UK drone industry. The mass-participation drone testing programme that the White Paper calls for will significantly transform the UK’s capability to achieve world-leadership in this industry. “The recommendations in the White Paper highlight the practical measures necessary to enable full economic development of drones, including the testing of competing solutions to ma Read More »
Why we do blade inspections, the way we do blade inspections
Writing is ambiguous. It misreads, misdirects, and paves the road for misunderstandings.Though the written word holds endless opportunities, when it comes to communicating the big picture, text alone is a clunky tool at best.Here, we prefer to let the visuals talk. After all, you know what they say about an image. Read More »
