Agriculture
Agricultural drones could help Tasmania's poppy industry fight the systemic mildew that has wiped hundreds of thousands of dollars from the 2015 harvest.Poppy grower and co-owner of Drone Ag, Will Bignell, from Bothwell in the Central Highlands, flew drones over poppy crops last season and saw
First Responders
UPS has announced its participation in a multi-state study on the use of drones for humanitarian disaster relief operations. The study was coordinated by Measure, a 32 Advisors Company specializing in drone applications, on behalf of the American Red Cross and participating companies, including UPS. The study was initiated
Accidents
Japanese authorities were investigating Wednesday after a small drone laced with traces of radiation was found on the roof of the prime minister's office. No injuries or damage were reported from the incident, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was in Indonesia to attend an Asian-African conference. Police
Commercial
Polish railway company PKP Cargo has said the introduction of drones across its network has led to a dramatic decline in the theft of coal. The special units were deployed to combat criminals, who targeted the freight wagons some 900 times in the first 10 months of 2014, costing the
Commercial
Belgian Police Authority, MidLim, announced that they will be using a new Altura Zenith unmanned aerial system (UAS) to complement their operations in the Limburg region. They praise the Altura Zenith for its reliability, stability and versatility after deploying it 70 times to search for missing persons, monitor traffic and
Business
The US Postal Service has narrowed down the companies bidding to build the next generation of its delivery vehicles - and one of them is offering up an all-electric truck that doubles as a drone launcher. The agency released a list of pre-qualified sources for the contract April 14,
Commercial
A group of scientists is taking the problem of plastic pollution in the oceans by land, sea and air. While Marco Simeoni, the president of the Race for Water Foundation and his team spend 300 days in a yacht collecting samples of all the plastic pollution found in the ocean,
VTOL
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have created a drone that can float on water and communicate with other drones via the cloud. The team behind the project hope that the drones can be used to test the cleanliness of water. Source: BBC Click
Commercial
The Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA), an organisation that promotes the development of model aviation, has announced the latest addition to its AMA Flight School online learning centre: small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) education with partner Fly Robotics. The Fly Robotics team brings with it an unprecedented portfolio of UAS
Commercial
Swiss Post, the neutral nation's postal service, has confirmed it is testing delivery-by-drone. Staff at the outfit have confirmed a report in local media detailing collaboration with Matternet and Swiss WorldCargo, the freight division of Swiss International Air Lines. Tests of drone-delivered mail are expected
Commercial
The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has set standard frequency ranges for handling unmanned aircraft systems. MIIT announced on its website that drones should operate in the following three frequency ranges: 840.5-845MHz, 1430-1444MHz, and 2408-2440MHz. The move aims to facilitate drones to be
Commercial
Chinese consumer drone maker DJI is in talks to raise funding at a valuation as high as $10 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, in what would be a sizeable bet by investors that flying robots will overcome looming regulation and safety concerns. Several venture-capital firms including