Drones

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The U.S. Navy will begin testing logistics drones on an aircraft carrier to see if the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) is practical in this environment. These drones are capable are carrying up to a 50-pound payload and can fly about 200 miles. This testing is in response to the needs of the Military…

U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman struck down a Texas drone law (one of the most restrictive in the U.S.), for violating the First Amendment’s protections of freedom of speech and the press. While there have been other cases in which the court has struck down similar laws in municipalities, this is the first time that…

A Philadelphia-based company, Treeswift, has created a drone called SwiftCruise, that can maneuver below the forest canopy and gather plentiful data from heavily-forested areas. The drone uses a combination of cameras, sensors, and machine learning algorithms to collect measurements of each individual tree. Why do we need these drones to collect these data? Well, the…

FedEx Express and Elroy Air, a California-based autonomous systems and software company, are teaming up to build the first end-to-end autonomous vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aerial cargo system. FedEx will test Elroy’s autonomous system within its middle-mile logistics operations. The autonomous crafts will move shipments between FedEx sortation stations.

Elroy first announced its autonomous…

Easy Aerial, creator of military grade drone-in-a box solutions, recently presented its plans for the New York Soteria Project with a goal of putting an “eye in the sky” to enhance security across New York City. Easy Aerial seeks to put drones on rooftops in the city, in particular in areas of high crime. Easy…

Last week, the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) Aviation Rulemaking Committee’s (ARC) Final Report was released. The report has been much anticipated by the drone industry and its stakeholders. The report recommends a complete overhaul of existing Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations with entirely new regulations. The goal of that…

Police across the United States are increasingly relying on emerging technologies to make their jobs more efficient and to increase public safety. Police are using drones, license plate readers, gunshot detection systems and even robots to reduce injury and harm. To no one’s surprise, law enforcement agencies have struggled with retention and hiring during the…

This week, U.S. Senators Marco Rubio, Rick Scott, and Tom Cotton (as well as U.S. House of Representatives member Elise Stefanik, who introduced parallel legislation) introduced the Countering CCP Drones Act in an effort to add DJI, a Chinese technology company, to the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) “Covered List.” The “Covered List” identifies telecommunication equipment…

Last week, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued its millionth airspace authorization for drone pilots under its Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) program. In order to operate in controlled airspace, drone operators must obtain approval from the FAA under Part 107 of the Federal Aviation Regulations. Prior to the introduction of LAANC, these…

Zipline, a drone operator and logistics company, plans to partner with Magellan Health’s pharmacy unit to deliver medical prescriptions to homes in Charlotte, North Carolina, this year, helping to jumpstart the era of “routine” drone delivery. This delivery system could provide on-demand delivery, lessen vehicle traffic (and emissions), and improve safety, while also helping the…