Month: August 2015

The world’s smallest drone gets ready to take flight

Posted on by mecicon
By on Aug 18, 2015 at 9:55 AM
Drone For SaleImage Source: Axis Drones

Drones have gone from geeky dream to mainstream gadget in a shockingly brief amount of time. The remote-controlled airborne devices were once expensive tools reserved for businesses with a real need for them. Construction companies, for example, used them to survey and film sites, while video companies used them to capture aerial footage at a fraction of the cost of renting a helicopter.

Today, you can walk into any toy store, spend less than $50 and leave with a recreational drone in your shopping bag.

Drones have flooded the market to the point that it’s getting difficult to distinguish between them, but one company is getting ready to launch a drone that you won’t soon forget: Meet the world’s smallest quadcopter.

Crowdfunded products often fail to actually make it to release, but the Aerius drone by Axis Drones was successfully funded some time ago. It is now less than a month away from launch, and production has apparently gone so well that the device can still be preordered for delivery ahead of the holidays.

How small is the world’s smallest quadcopter drone? As you can see in the photo below, it’s not even as tall as a quarter standing on its edge.

axis-drone-2

Here are some of the Aerius drone’s key features, as listed on the Axis Drones website:

  • The NEW World’s Smallest Quadcopter ® – 3cm x 3cm x 2cm
  • Ultra-Compact 2.4 gHz Controller with Drone Storage/Transport Compartment
  • 5-7 Minute Flight Time per 15 Minute Charge via USB Cable; 3.7v 80mAh Battery
  • 2-Speeds Pre-programmed for Desired Level of Flight Sensitivity
  • Headless Mode Allows for Beginners to Ensure Flight Orientation
  • 6-Axis Gyro-Stabilization Keeps Drone Stable and Centered
  • 360 Degree Rotational Yaw Allows Users to Seamlessly Adjust Orientation
  • Pre-programmed “Trick-Mode” Algorithm Provides Amazing Flips and Rolls!
  • Bright LED Colored Lights for Night Flight and Drone Orientation
  • Available in 4 Color Choices and Controller Accents
  • Super Portable, Fun, Unique and a Great way to Practice Flying Drones Indoors!

The Aerius is so small and portable that it can actually be docked inside the remote controller when it’s not being flown.

axis-drone-3

Here’s a video of the drone in action, and you can also see it doing some flip tricks:

 

The Aerius drone is set to start shipping on September 30th, and it costs $35 to preorder on Axis Drones’ website.

 

 

http://bgr.com/2015/08/18/drone-for-sale-worlds-smallest-aerius/

 

Teal Group Predicts Worldwide UAV Production Will Total $93 Billion in Its 2015 UAV Market Profile and Forecast

Posted on by mecicon

Darts_in_a_dartboard

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) continue as the most dynamic growth sector of the world aerospace industry this decade, report Teal analysts in their latest market analysis. New unmanned combat aerial vehicle programs, commercial, and consumer spending all promise to drive more than a tripling of the market over the next decade.

Teal Group’s 2015 market study estimates that UAV production will soar from current worldwide UAV production of $4 billion annually to $14 billion, totaling $93 billion in the next ten years.  Military UAV research spending would add another $30 billion over the decade. (For further details and study availability, contact the respective Teal sales representative in your area at http://www.tealgroup.com/).

“The market for UAVs looks very strong, increasingly driven by new technologies such as the next generation of unmanned combat systems, and the development of new markets such as civil and consumer drones,” said Philip Finnegan, Teal Group’s director of corporate analysis and an author of the study.

This year’s study includes consumer UAVs for the first time because of their rapid growth and the blurring of the commercial and consumer markets. “Consumer UAVs are showing that they can do many of the easier commercial missions such as simple real estate photography,” Finnegan said.

Civil UAV Market

“Our coverage of the civil UAV market continues to grow with each annual report, mirroring the increase in the civil market itself,” said Finnegan.  “Our 2015 UAV study calculates the UAV market at 72% military, 23% consumer, 5% civil cumulative for the decade.” Of the three areas, civil UAVs grow most rapidly over the forecast period as airspace around the world is opened, but it grows from a very low base.

“The Teal Group study predicts that the US will account for 64% of total military worldwide RDT&E spending on UAV technology over the next decade, and about 38% of the military procurement,” said Teal Group senior analyst Steve Zaloga, another author of the study.  The larger, higher value systems procured by the United States help drive the relative strength of the US market over the decade.

The 12th edition of the sector study, World Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Systems, Market Profile and Forecast 2015, examines the worldwide requirements for UAVs, including UAV payloads and companies, and provides ten-year forecasts by country, region, and classes of UAVs.

Teal Group analysts already cover the UAV market in their World Missiles and UAV Briefing, which examines the UAV market on a program-by-program basis. Sensor payloads are also treated in Teal’s Military Electronics Briefing. The sector study examines the UAV market from a complementary perspective, namely national requirements, and includes both a comprehensive analysis of UAV system payloads (authored by Dr. David Rockwell) and key UAV manufacturers (authored by Phil Finnegan).

The 2015 edition includes UAV market forecast spreadsheets, permitting data manipulation and offering a powerful strategic planning mechanism.

http://www.suasnews.com/2015/08/37903/teal-group-predicts-worldwide-uav-production-will-total-93-billion-in-its-2015-uav-market-profile-and-forecast/

 

Drone racing like ‘a real-life video game’

Posted on by mecicon

pauldowding

By: 

Forget package delivery. Drone owners have found a much more thrilling use for their radio-controlled flying machines: racing.

The hobby has soared in popularity over the last few months, with a rapid rise in the number of new tournaments across North America.

More than a hundred pilots converged in California last month for the United States’ first drone racing championship, and Canada is set to follow suit with a tourney in Collingwood on Friday.

Racing drones, unlike those flown by police, are small, weighing less than a kilogram, and can reach breakneck speeds — more than 100 km/h.

They’re controlled differently, too. Before a race starts, pilots don video goggles that let them see what the drone sees.

“The whole idea of putting on a set of goggles and flying this thing is like nothing else,” said Paul Dowling, the owner of Autobotix, a store that specializes in racing drones in Toronto.

“You are flying it. You will crash. You will feel like you crashed. It’s not uncommon to see someone flying and see them fall over when they crash.”

Jason Ambeault, project manager at a tech company, discovered drone racing after watching a YouTube video last December that showed a dozen UAVs whizzing through a forest in France. As an avid gamer, the feeling of immersion from a first-person perspective was a huge draw, he said.

“I’ve always been interested in remote-control cars and airplanes, from my great uncle years and years ago,” he said. “It’s like being in a real-life video game, basically.”

Now that he’s become an adept pilot, he hopes to win his first big race at the Collingwood Nationals. But he’ll face stiff competition with rivals from around the world, including the U.S and China.

Winning that race, he said, will require more than just a quick machine.

“It’s won in the corner,” he said. “If you can do efficient moves in the corners, then you’ll have a chance at winning. It’s about skills. The faster you are, the higher chance you have of crashing.”

In Toronto, rules surrounding the commercial use of drones remain murky. In April, Mayor John Tory’s executive committee unanimously approved a motion by Councillor James Pasternak asking city staff to report back on a “strategy governing the use of drones in the City of Toronto’s outdoor spaces.”

Drone flights are also regulated by Transport Canada.

But those restrictions have yet to dampen enthusiasm for the hobby.

“The market is growing exponentially worldwide by the day. It’s inconceivable the amount of growth in the past few months,” Dowling said. “People are starting to see that this is not a fad.”

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/08/18/gamers-gear-up-for-drone-racing-weekend.html

 

You Can Now Buy Special Ammo Just for Shooting Down Drones

Posted on by mecicon
Adam Clark Estes

You Can Now Buy Special Ammo Just for Shooting Down Drones1

Have you ever wanted to shoot a drone out of the sky but just didn’t have the right kind of bullets? You’re in luck, you violent-minded human, you. Snake River Shooting Products just started shipping its Drone Munition. “PREPARE FOR THE DRONE APOCALYPSE!”

The Idaho-based company says that the shotgun shells come with “high quality load that will effectively disable a drone encroaching your property’s airspace.” You should realize that shooting down a stranger’s drone might come with some legal consequences. That is, unless you do it in self defense. It’s unclear if what self defense will look like if the drone apocalypse does descend upon us in the near future. But maybe for new let’s not shoot robots out of the sky—unless you have a drone hunting license, of course.

http://gizmodo.com/some-people-in-idaho-made-special-ammunition-to-shoot-d-1724875105

 

 

 

Sort of like:

 

 

 

Drone business picking speed with a startup in Modesto

Posted on by mecicon

N9536T

Bianca Graulau,

The commercial drone industry is taking off, and Drone for Hire founder Thomas Davis wants to use the technology to help business owners, like farmers, work more efficiently.

“It allows farmers to survey large area of land in a very small amount of time,” Davis said.

Walking the field to examine the soil could take several days. Davis can capture the images he needs within hours.

“So, it gives them a first good visual of what they’re working with, if there are operational issue such as irrigation,” Davis said. “Perhaps there’s a disease in the crop.”

Davis said drones can also help the real estate and recreational industries. For example, golf courses can use an aerial video tour for advertising. Plus, the video can let owners know whether their sprinkler system is working properly.

“A lot of people don’t realize that it’s more than just going up and taking a picture,” Davis said. “That picture has to be handled, there’s an operation to keep the aircraft in the air and well-maintained,”

Davis developed Drone for Hire with his wife Mahndisa Rigmaiden. She passed last year. Now Davis, a single father, works with his brothers-in-law in hopes to grow the business.

“I’m trying to find enough pilots to fulfill the growing need.”

Drone for Hire’s rates are $7 an acre for farmers. For real estate, Davis offers a package that starts at about $350. His clientele is still in the single digits, but Davis said Drone for Hire is a dream in the making.

http://www.news10.net/story/news/local/modesto/2015/08/18/drone-business-picking-speed—startup–modesto/31894587/

Pentagon Plans to Boost Drone Flights 50% as Bernanke Warns Cutting Defense Spending Could Hurt Economy

Posted on by mecicon
Michael Krieger | Posted at 3:43 pm

Screen Shot 2015-08-17 at 3.33.34 PM

In the event you were becoming concerned that the U.S. government might be backing away from its longstanding policy of endless violence, militarism and bloodshed, fear not. If we know one thing for sure, it’s that defense contractors and the military-intelligence-industrial complex must earn. And continue to earn it will.

So despite the Air Force having a hard time finding pilots for its drones, the Pentagon still plans to ramp up drone flights by 50% over the next four years.

We learn from the Wall Street Journal that:

The Pentagon plans to sharply expand the number of U.S. drone flights over the next four years, giving military commanders access to more intelligence and greater firepower to keep up with a sprouting number of global hot spots, a senior defense official said. 

The plan to increase by 50% the number of daily drone flights would broaden surveillance and intelligence collection in such locales as Ukraine, Iraq, Syria, the South China Sea and North Africa, said the official, who provided exclusive details of the plan to The Wall Street Journal. It would be the first significant increase in the U.S. drone program since 2011, reflecting pressure on military efforts to address a cascading series of global crises.

While expanding surveillance, the Pentagon plan also grows the capacity for lethal airstrikes, the most controversial part of the U.S. drone program and its rapid growth under President Barack Obama . Strikes by unmanned aircraft have killed 3,000 people or more, based on estimates by nonpartisan groups.

Of course, the most offensive part about all of this, is that the “cascading series of global crises” mentioned by the WSJ, are the direct result of incredibly inept and destructive U.S. foreign policy in the first place. Recall the post from earlier today titled, Additional Details Emerge on How U.S. Government Policy Created, Armed, Supported and Funded ISIS. Here’s an excerpt:

Flynn said that it was among a range of intelligence being circulated throughout the US intelligence community that had led him to attempt to dissuade the White House from supporting these groups, albeit without success.

Despite this, Flynn’s account shows that the US commitment to supporting the Syrian insurgency against Bashir al-Assad led the US to deliberately support the very al-Qaeda affiliated forces it had previously fought in Iraq.

The US anti-Assad strategy in Syria, in other words, bolstered the very al-Qaeda factions the US had fought in Iraq, by using the Gulf states and Turkey to finance the same groups in Syria. As a direct consequence, the secular and moderate elements of the Free Syrian Army were increasingly supplanted by virulent Islamist extremists backed by US allies.

It should be noted that precisely at this time, the West, the Gulf states and Turkey, according to the DIA’s internal intelligence reports, were supporting AQI and other Islamist factions in Syria to “isolate” the Assad regime. By Flynn’s account, despite his warnings to the White House that an ISIS attack on Iraq was imminent, and could lead to the destabilization of the region, senior Obama officials deliberately continued the covert support to these factions.

“It was well known at the time that ISIS were beginning serious plans to attack Iraq. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey played a key role in supporting ISIS at this time, but the UAE played a bigger role in financial support than the others, which is not widely recognized.”

To add insult to injury, oligarch hero Ben Bernanke, the most destructive man of my generation, had the following to say about defense spending, courtesy of Market Watch:

WASHINGTON — Former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned Monday that reduced defense spending could have adverse long-term economic impacts, including undermining technological innovations that ultimately produce jobs in the private sector.

Speaking at a Brookings Institution event, Bernanke said, “By far the most important (impact), certainly in the United States, has been the linkage between defense military appropriations and broader technological trends. 

“That is one of the major sources of U.S. growth over time. We remain a technological leader. That’s one of our national strengths.”

Bernanke, Federal Reserve chairman from 2006 to 2014, is a full-time scholar and frequent blogger for the Brookings Institution and an adviser to hedge funds Pimco and Citadel. His memoir “The Courage to Act” comes out in mid-October.

Yes, yes of course. It takes incredible courage to print trillions and hand it to over to billionaires.

What are you suckers gonna do about it?

 

http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2015/08/17/pentagon-plans-to-boost-drone-flights-50-as-bernanke-warns-cutting-defense-spending-could-hurt-economy/

We’re not all bad: drone enthusiast

Posted on by mecicon

by Joanne Abshire

Posted Aug 17, 2015 8:06 pm PDT

Last Updated Aug 18, 2015 at 7:29 am PDT

File photo of a drone (iStock Photo)
Summary

Only a small number of hobbyists are responsible for bad reputation: Enthusiast

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – “We don’t all break the rules,” that from a local drone hobbyist after another unmanned aircraft entered the airspace over a wildfire near Oliver.

David Zheng sells drones for a living, he’s also a part of the group VANDrones.

He thinks it’s stupid there are some obstructing others from doing their jobs and saving lives.

“When you’re driving and you hear sirens you’re supposed to pull over and let the emergency through, but that’s basically what you’re doing is just staying in the middle of the road and not letting the emergency vehicles through.”

He says he knows 80 people like himself that follow Transport Canada guidelines and don’t invade people’s privacy.

He believes there is only a small minority of hobbyists who aren’t responsible.

http://www.news1130.com/2015/08/17/were-not-all-bad-drone-enthusiast/