Commercial
Abu Dhabi // Property manager Richard Foulds had a problem: there were tiny air leaks in the window seals in Etihad Towers, and using men on ropes to find them was, as he says, “like looking for a needle in a haystack”. Then, when the makers of the action movie Furious
Testing
Aerosense, Sony Corp.’s joint-venture drone company, has unveiled a prototype of the flying machines it will use to serve business customers. The airplane-shaped drones will take off and land vertically, and are expected to carry objects weighing up to 22 pounds, and fly for more than two
Business
EHANG announced that it has raised $42 million in series B financing. Led by GP Capital, and with participation from GGV Capital, ZhenFund, Lebox Capital, OFC and PreAngel, the move drives the valuation of the Chinese drone startup 100 times higher than 16 months ago when it was established. Meanwhile,
Business
Drone developer Skycatch Inc. has landed $22 million in new funding. The company is still raising its funding, and it has a target of $25 million, according to a regulatory filing. Venture investment in drone companies has soared this year, with large investments in drone makers and other companies that
Agriculture
Commercial
Founded in 2013 by Luis Jaime Castillo Butters, the former deputy minister of cultural heritage and cultural industries, Peru’s drone archaeology team has quickly become one of the most active in the world, working to accurately survey and preserve the South American nation’s thousands of valuable archaeological sites.
Commercial
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are now testing a kind of license plate for drones they think could help make drone operators more accountable. The project, called Lightcense, involves a rectangular array of bright, multicolored LEDs attached to the underside of a craft. The LEDs blink a unique
Commercial
The Yamaha RMAX unmanned helicopter has become the first drone to be certified for flight in New Zealand under Part 102 of the Civil Aviation Rules. Civil Aviation Rule Part 102 came into effect on the 1st August 2015 and establishes a framework for the safe operation of unmanned craft
Commercial
Remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) present new opportunities for helicopter operators and some industry representatives in Europe suggest operators supplement their fleets with these aircraft, which can fill roles that rotorcraft cannot. Reaction to the idea among operators is mixed. One says it found the idea to be more complicated
Business
Aero Kinetics announces its partnership with GridMeNow to incorporate their mobile, real-time tracking solutions into Aero Kinetics’ newest multi-rotor vertical takeoff and land (VTOL) unmanned aircraft system (UAS). This combined effort is a significant step forward for the industry where dispatching now has the ease and efficiency necessary
Commercial
The U.S. Forest Service is highly interested in new technologies and believes there is potential to use Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) to support a host of natural resource management activities, including forest health protection, wildfire suppression, research, recreational impacts, and law enforcement. The agency has been exploring the potential
Business
HUVRData LLC, a drone-based data analytics startup, has completed a $2 million Series A round of funding from angel investment organizations including Central Texas Angel Network (CTAN), Houston Angel Network (HAN) and the Texas HALO Fund. In the past 1.5 years, HUVR has built out its technology, secured