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 »


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 »


A Scopito White label

Has the thought of building your own analytics platform ever crossed your mind? Here’s a little exercise for the next time it happens.Grab some paper and a pen. Now scribble down all the features you need. Then how those would work together. How someone might use them, how they should be used and how to communicate that. Once you’re done, grab a blank sheet and draw all of it. This is just the first draft.That is what we did seven years ago, and the result didn’t look anything like it does today. Read More »


How to create UAS jobs for yourself. Starting a DSP in 4 steps

1. Picking a marketAre you stuck looking for UAS jobs in your area, but finding nothing? Have you considered starting your own company? It is easier than you might think. We have broken it down into 4 crucial steps. The first step for any budding entrepreneur, should always be to pick a beachhead market.Most entrepreneurs are head over heels in love with their business idea; so much in fact, that they often forget to consider, if there is a market for it, and how to win set market. But, thanks to this article, you won’t make that mistake. Let’s begin. Read More »


Succeeding with using drones/UAVs to optimize maintenance operations, in 4 steps

This article builds on the premise, that using drones for maintenance inspections, provides significant value.If you are looking to harvest the value of drones for your own organization, you are in the right place. Frequent inspections and predictive maintenance goes hand in hand, and UAVs are the way to go if keeping costs low is a priority.1. Start yesterday Read More »


Exactly how much is visual inspection data worth?

It can be easy to look for a one-and-done solution, when it comes to pole-maintenance. But is it worth it?In most cases, cooperatives are missing out on huge benefits, by not using their inspection data properly.This article investigates the short- and long term advantages of using drones for inspections, coupled with Data Management software for analysis and storage. Read More »


InsurTech SkyWatch.AI and Starr Insurance Companies launch a Usage-Based Drone Insurance Product in Canada

SkyWatch.AI and Starr offer on-demand hourly, monthly and annual drone insurance solutions based on a proprietary safety platform SkyWatch.AI, the world’s first on-demand, telematics-based insurance platform for commercial drone pilots, launched its drone insurance product in Ontario, Canada. SkyWatch.AI’s dedicated drone insurance allows professional drone pilots to easily set and manage their coverage through their mobile or desktop devices. The policies are underwritten by a member of Starr Insurance Companies, the leading aviation insurance company in North America, which has insurance carriers rated “A” (excellent) by AM. Best. Read More »


NAV CANADA signs strategic agreement with Unifly

February 26, 2020, OTTAWA/ANTWERP – NAV CANADA has entered into an agreement with Unifly, a strategic technology partner, in the deployment of a national system that provides digital services for safely operating and managing drones in Canadian airspace. The system has an intuitive user interface and will enable Canadian drone pilots to access web and mobile applications to identify safe and legal airspace, plan flights, manage operations, pilots and fleet of drones.   This fully digitized system makes the process of requesting authorization to fly in controlled airspace easier and faster for qualified drone pilots. The app will also benefit airlines and general aviation pilots, as it reduces the risk of accidental drone incursions. As Canada’s air navigation service provider, NAV CANADA has an essential role to play in developing an operating environment that supports the innovative potential of the drone industry and ensures safety across Canadian airspace. The system Read More »


What’s the difference between PPK and RTK drones, and which one is better?

Post-processed kinematic (PPK) and real-time kinematic (RTK) are not new technologies. They’ve been used in terrestrial surveying for years to improve the accuracy of GNSS data. Both methods correct the location of drone mapping data and remove the need for GCPs, bringing absolute accuracy down to cm (sub-inch) range However, when you factor in obstacles and environmental conditions common to aerial surveying, the difference between a PPK drone and an RTK drone becomes more important to understand. In fact, choosing the best correction method for your surveys will save you time and project costs. But how do you know which is best? The answer can be found in learning about how each method works, including its inherent strengths and drawbacks.What is an RTK drone (and how does RTK work)? An RTK drone carries an onboard GNSS RTK receiver that gathers data from satellites and a stationary base (ground) station to more accurately correct image location, in real time as it flies Sat Read More »


Wingtra and Delair sign on dotted line to offer practical business insights from large, high-accuracy drone mapping projects

The vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) WingtraOne mapping drone and delair.ai artificial intelligence (AI)-powered software will now be promoted in both companies’ portfolios of solutions for extracting useful business insights from large, high-accuracy drone mapping projects. Earlier this year, Wingtra and Delair announced that the compatibility of the two products was tested and evaluated. Due to the complementarity of their solutions, they recently made the decision to join forces in a sales partnership. “We tested WingtraOne data compatibility with delair.ai a while ago and were convinced by the ease of use and the functionality of the software, especially in cases where deep AI analytics and accessibility by stakeholders is important,” said Leopold Flechsenberger, Head of Sales at Wingtra. We are excited to include delair.ai in our recommended software portfolio and that they’re promoting WingtraOne as a go-to drone when customers require a VTO Read More »


Mira Early Adopter Program

To visionary UAV/RPAS pilots,Mira cordially invites visionary UAV/RPAS pilots and entrepreneurs to join our early adopter program of the Mira Rotorcraft System. Take the opportunity to enrich your capabilities with this unique, versatile and UAV system!Mira has developed, and is now poised to reveal, the Mira Rotorcraft — a conceptually-new, universal and modular unmanned aerial system. The unique Mira Rotorcraft has been purposely and strategically designed with unrivalled versatility, enabling the widest range of aerial tasks and missions to be accomplished using the same, single vehicle. Read More »


Creative genius by artificial intelligence – but who owns the copyright?

Artificial intelligence, once the stuff of science fiction, is now common place in our day to day lives. This is only set to increase rapidly over the coming years, but not without a unique set of legal challenges.One key  challenge is the question of how the relationship between AI and copyright is defined. Whilst historically AI has taken over repetitive, process driven tasks carried out by humans, AI has now entered the creative sphere. Huge numbers of non-human AI artists, poets, writers and musicians have emerged, creating high level pieces of creative works. In 2018 Christie’s became the first auction house to offer a work of art created by an algorithm – the portrait, titled Edmond de Belamy, sold for $432,500. Whilst there is clearly a demand for AI as an emerging creative medium,  who owns the copyright in what is created?Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA 1998), ownership of the copyright in source code or other data is defined by Read More »


SkyWatch.AI Drone Insurance Launches Partnership with ParaZero Drone Safety Systems to Benefit Safer Drone Pilots

SkyWatch.AI Drone Insurance, a prominent risk-assessment and InsurTech platform for the drone industry and ParaZero, the leading developer of advanced drone safety systems, announced today a collaboration that will allow drone pilots, using the SafeAir Parachute to receive reduced rates on their drone insurance. The companies have teamed up in order to further benefit safe pilots who take extra measures to reduce drone risks. Pilots with ParaZero’s SafeAir system can now share their flight data with SkyWatch.AI and receive a higher Safety Score that will provide them with a unique reduced rate. The collaboration between SkyWatch.AI and ParaZero will allow drone operators to dramatically mitigate risk through the ASTM compliant ParaZero system, reduce their insurance costs with SkyWatch.AI, and also apply for a Flight Over People waiver with the FAA. This cooperation brings with it added value to drone operators, and is another great advancement in the development of the commercial d Read More »


Commercialisation of the Drone Industry... are we just dreaming?

Without question, the most exciting emerging industry mankind has ever witnessed but are we really moving as fast as some would have us believe or is it all just bluster? The evolution of the drone industry seems to shift from one exciting development to the next. First the sky will be full of tiny air drones or Unmanned Air Systems (UAS), then we are all going to be flying to work in taxis but the reality is that things are not advancing as rapidly as some would have you believe because we simply do not have the infrastructure needed to enable it.   We seem to be a long way from commercialisation (I'll come on o what that means later)and here's why: 1. To manage any volume of unmanned air traffic safely, we need to establish what is known as Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM), but UTM is not some magic thing which will just appear, it will take years of development both technically and regulatory and (no matter what certain app developers say) you can't build a UTM purely Read More »


FUNDING AND SAVINGS IN ONE FELL SWOOP

 Swoop is a business funding and savings platform enabling businesses to discover the right funding solutions across loans, equity and grants, and to identify and easily make savings - all in one fell swoop.  Read More »


Small Business Funding Options Simply Explained

We set up Swoop to help businesses grow, and one question we hear again and again is “where can I get access to funding for my small business?”. In order to grow, your company is likely to face the need for additional capital, which can be obtained in one of three main ways: equity, debt, or grant. This blog aims to simply explain these options to enable you, as a small business owner in UK or Ireland, to make better decisions about your company’s financial future. Equity Finance for SMEs Read More »