UAS and Smallsat Weekly News Contents 2 Ehang Chooses
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UAS and SmallSat Weekly News Contents 2 EHang Chooses Autonomous Air Taxi Launch City 2 Louisiana woman shoots at small airplane, mistaking it for a drone 3 FAA Approves Solar Drone Flights Over Hawaiian Island 3 FlyTech UAV launches photogrammetry-based algorithm for transmission line modelling 4 U.S. Army Spends $100 Million to Pick a New Drone 5 DARPA Autonomous Drone Swarm Program Completes Urban Field Experiments 5 Switzerland Strives to Be Global Leader in Opening Skies for Drones 6 Drone Delivery Crash in Switzerland Raises Safety Concerns 7 200 Teams. 10,000 Engineers. A 500,000 RMB Prize. Inside DJI’s RoboMaster Competition 8 Bad Guys Will Have to Look Up: N.D. Sheriff’s Department Protects and Serves with Drones 8 NASA keen to learn more about safe drone flight in urban areas 9 VTOL Drone Conducts 51 Mile BVLOS Utility Inspection 10 Safeguard with Autonomous Navigation Demonstration 10 DJI’s White Paper Delves into North Carolina’s Drone Success 11 Atmos UAV Integrates MicaSense Precision Agriculture Payload 12 DroneResponders expands offering with new Technical Experts Program 12 Flytrex and Causey Aviation secure FAA nod for Californian drone food delivery 13 Lacuna Space aims to ride IoT wave with a 32-cubesat constellation 13 Why Drone Delivery of Food is Actually Important (Beyond Hot Wings) 14 FAA Approves Kansas for First BVLOS Drone Flight 15 UC Berkeley Researchers Say Drone Could Fly for Days with New PV Engine 15 NASA, Lone Star UAS Conducting Drone Traffic Management Tests 16 Kansas Sheriff’s Office Expanding Drone Use to Deter Criminal Activity 16 N.D. Sheriff’s Department Approved for UAS Flights Over People 17 Taking Drones in Agriculture to the Next Level: the SmartFruit Project 18 DJI and SkyPixel Launch Short Film Contest 19 Walmart Files Patent for Blockchain-Backed Drone Communication 19 Colorado Farmer Uses Drones to Maximize Yield 20 DroneUp Awarded First Multi-State Contract Providing Public Sector Access to Drone Services 1 21 You Can Watch Rocket Lab Launch 4 Satellites into Orbit Soon. Here's How. Page Robert Rea | Axcel Innovation | Charlottesville and Portsmouth, VA [email protected] | 757-309-5869 | www.axcelinnovation.com UAS and SmallSat Weekly News 10Aug19 EHang Chooses Autonomous Air Taxi Launch City Kate O'Connor August 8, 2019 China-based urban air mobility company EHang has announced that it has selected Guangzhou, China, as the first city in which it will establish a low-altitude passenger transportation network using its autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV). As part of the arrangement, EHang will work with the city government to build necessary infrastructure, design safety rules and market entry thresholds, and set up a command-and- control center “to ensure that multiple AAVs flying simultaneously in the city can remain in the air in a safe and efficient manner and can swiftly respond to emergencies.” “We are very excited about exploring the various meaningful ways in which AAVs can solve some of the stressors our congested cities face,” said EHang founder and CEO Hu Huazhi. “We are in conversations with other cities, not just in China, to develop safe, efficient and affordable autonomous air transportation.” EHang was selected by the Civil Aviation Administration of China as the country’s pilot company for passenger AAV development in January 2019. During its first series of public pre- programmed flights in Vienna, Austria, last April, the EHang AAV carried a total of 17 passengers. According to the company, the vehicle has successfully completed more than two thousand test flights. https://www.avweb.com/recent-updates/evtols-urban-mobility/ehang-chooses- autonomous-air-taxi-launch- city/?MailingID=129&utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=uAvionix+Opens+Two+Ne w+Facilities%2C+Gulfstream+Delivers+First+G600&utm_campaign=uAvionix+Opens+Two+New+Facilities%2C+Gulf stream+Delivers+First+G600+-+Wednesday+August+9%2C+2019 Louisiana woman shoots at small airplane, mistaking it for a drone Haye Kesteloo - Aug. 9th 2019 A Louisiana woman shot several times at a small airplane, mistaking it for a drone. “He’s coming back to taunt us,” she can be heard saying in a video of the incident. The police arrested the intoxicated woman and booked her into jail. Stacy Nguyen Rodgers, 40, from Monroe, Louisiana, fired three shots at the small airplane trying to bring it down as it flew over her property. 2 Page Robert Rea | Axcel Innovation | Charlottesville and Portsmouth, VA [email protected] | 757-309-5869 | www.axcelinnovation.com UAS and SmallSat Weekly News Rodgers confessed shooting at “the drone” with a “revolver style pistol” that was confiscated by the police. The police officers noted that she was intoxicated when booked into the local jail. Fortunately, none of the shots hit the intended target. Rodgers was arrested for “illegal use of weapons or dangerous instruments,” which is a felony. She was subsequently booked into the Ouachita Parish jail. She was released on Wednesday morning on a $500 bond. The small airplane that Rodgers shot at was spraying for mosquitos that had formed multiple mosquito pools that had recently tested positive for the West Nile Virus. https://dronedj.com/2019/08/09/louisiana-woman-shoots-at-airplane-mistaking-it-for-a-drone/#more-18241 FAA Approves Solar Drone Flights Over Hawaiian Island Jason Reagan August 08, 2019 Japanese drone company HAPSMobile has soared into a Certificate of Authorization from the FAA to fly HAWK30, a solar-powered unmanned aircraft designed for a telecommunications platform across the stratosphere of the Hawaiian island of Lanai. The company partners with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, which manages the Pan-Pacific UAS Test Range Complex, and the University of Hawaii to conduct stratospheric test flights. The university applied to the FAA for the COA2 on behalf of the partnership. The team will prepare for test flights at Lanai later this year. The trio also plans to hold information sessions for community residents to discuss safety considerations. AeroVironment, Inc. serves as HAPSMobile’s aircraft development partner. Last year, the company formed a $65 million joint venture with HAPSMobile. https://dronelife.com/2019/08/08/faa-approves-solar-drone-flights-over-hawaiian-island/ FlyTech UAV launches photogrammetry-based algorithm for transmission line modelling APPLICATION BUSINESS EUROPE NEWS ALEX DOUGLAS AUGUST 8, 2019 The Polish technology company FlyTech UAV recently launched long-range electric power lines modeling with fixed-wing aerial data. It has been developed to replace costly helicopter inspections. The algorithm allows for preparing the LiDAR- 3 quality data with aerial imagery which dramatically reduces total Page Robert Rea | Axcel Innovation | Charlottesville and Portsmouth, VA [email protected] | 757-309-5869 | www.axcelinnovation.com UAS and SmallSat Weekly News labor costs. FlyTech UAV’s flagship is fixed-wing BIRDIE, dedicated to surveying, agriculture and power engineering. It is equipped with a full-frame camera and PPK for survey-grade accuracy. Long flight time and unlimited cellular connectivity ensure efficient coverage. Also, the drone recently got a VTOL update for demanding terrain conditions. https://www.commercialdroneprofessional.com/flytech-uav-launches-photogrammetry-based-algorithm-for- transmission-line-modelling/?utm_source=Email+Campaign&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=45819-309500- Commercial+Drone+Professional+DNA+-+2019-08-10 12Aug19 U.S. Army Spends $100 Million to Pick a New Drone Rich Smith Aug 11, 2019 The U.S. Army is looking for a few good drones. As recently as a few months ago it looked like it had found the drones it was looking for, settling upon privately held Martin UAV and publicly traded Textron to provide "scout drones" for it to test as potential replacements for the RQ-7 Shadow drones (also built by Textron, incidentally) that it has been using up till now. In March, Martin and Textron were the only two companies (out of 11 competing) to win $99.5 million contracts to supply units to be tested as part of the Army's Future Tactical Unmanned Aerial System competition. Late last month the Pentagon announced that two new contestants have been added to the competition: Privately held Arcturus UAV, and Textron's publicly traded rival L3Harris. Textronis believed to be offering the Army its Aerosonde UAV, an 80-lb., 12-foot wingspan, catapult-launched drone with a range of 75 nautical miles. Martin UAV will partner with Northrop Grumman to bid its "V-Bat," a smaller vertical launch- and-landing UAV that's rated to travel 350 miles without refueling. Arcturus will be imitating Martin with a runway-independent, vertical launch-and-landing system called the "JUMP." Arcturus's robo-plane is larger than those of any of the others bidding -- more than 18 feet in wingspan. Finally, L3Harris is expected to offer its APEX drone, a 14-foot wingspan aircraft that launches by catapult and boasts a range of about 62 miles. https://www.fool.com/investing/2019/08/11/us-army-spends-100m-to-pick-a-new-drone.aspx 4 Page Robert Rea | Axcel Innovation | Charlottesville and Portsmouth, VA [email protected] | 757-309-5869 | www.axcelinnovation.com UAS and SmallSat Weekly News DARPA Autonomous Drone Swarm Program Completes Urban Field Experiments 09 Aug 2019 DARPA has announced that it has undertaken a second field experiment for its OFFensive Swarm- Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) program, during which teams of autonomous air and ground robots tested tactics on a mission to isolate an urban objective. Similar to the way a firefighting crew establishes a boundary around a burning building, they first identified locations of interest and then created a perimeter around the focal point. OFFSET envisions large swarms of collaborative autonomous systems such as UAVs and UGVs providing critical insights to small ground military units in urban areas where vertical structures, tight spaces, and limited sight lines constrain communications and mobility.