Category Archives: On the news

Breaking news: pink drone threatening US Senator’s privacy crashes – #droneparanoia

A recent episode is raising concerns about the issue of personal drones and the protection of privacy.

As reported in this article from the Washington Times, while some protestors were manifesting outside her house, US Senator Dianne Feinstein spotted a drone, right outside her window, staring a her. We see how this must have been a terrifying experience.

“I went to the window to peek out and see who was there, and there was a drone right there at the window, looking out at me” the senator said.

For a specialized blog such as Personal Drones, it is of interest to ascertain which kind of drone was used to spy on Senator Feinstein’s privacy.

Was it a predator drone?

Predator drone
Predator drone

Or maybe an octocopter equipped with a big camera?

Octocopter with big video camera - Source
Octocopter with big video camera – Source

Continue reading Breaking news: pink drone threatening US Senator’s privacy crashes – #droneparanoia

DHL plans to deliver medicines and urgent parcels by drone – DHL aerial delivery services

We have recently reported about DHL’s plans on integrating multirotors in the delivery chain of some mission critical goods such as medicines, see the original post here.

DHL quadcopter for the new drone delivery service - source
DHL microdrone for the new drone delivery service

The multirotors selected for the mission are the Microdrones md4-1000. Not so “micro” for the standards of this blog.

md4-1000 microdrone - Source
md4-1000 microdrone – Source

Continue reading DHL plans to deliver medicines and urgent parcels by drone – DHL aerial delivery services

Tales of quadcopters and water – A nice article by Eric Cheng on Make Magazine

Make Magazine has published a nice, entertaining and generous article by Eric Cheng on quadcopters flown over water.

Crashes and fly aways are of course part of the story, therefore maybe when doing footage on water environments it could be worth considering a specialized solution such as a a Quad H2O?

Quad H2O - Source
Quad H2O – Source

Continue reading Tales of quadcopters and water – A nice article by Eric Cheng on Make Magazine

Dutch Engineers create the world’s smallest autopilot – The Lisa/S flight controller

Bart Remes wants you to have a personal drone in the pocket. Lisa/S brings this goal closer.

Lisa/S
Lisa/S – Source

At 2×2 cm and just 2 grams, Lisa/S could well be the world’s smallest autopilot, except maybe the one from the Black Hornet (on which no details are currently available).

The Lisa/S autopilot
The Lisa/S autopilot

Lisa/S was created virtually from scratch by Bart Remes, project manager of the Micro Aerial Vehicle Lab at the Aerospace Engineering Faculty of the TuDelft, and it’s team.

Continue reading Dutch Engineers create the world’s smallest autopilot – The Lisa/S flight controller

GoPro goes anamorphic with Letus AnamorphX adapter

GoPro cameras are widely used in sports and are possibly the more popular action cameras on the market.

They are also possibly the cameras of choice to mount on a multirotor to shoot aerial video. A wide range of accessories, namely gimbals and video-out cables are available to mount and use a GoPro on a quadcopter or multirotor.

The typical, very wide field of view of the GoPro also makes these cameras useful to pilot in FPV, although many suggest to instead use a second, simpler board camera for the flying itself,  because possibly more things can potentially go wrong with the GoPro with respect to a simple camera with less functions. However the GoPro often remains the camera of choice to take the footage for video production.

A TBS Discovery quadcopter with a board camera for FPV and a GoPro for video footage -  Source
A TBS Discovery quadcopter with a board camera for FPV and a GoPro for video footage – Source

The GoPro wide angle lens gives GoPro images a distinct fish eye touch that is very easy to spot, as in the image below.

An image taken with a GoPro, with the characteristic fish eye look - Paul Toogood on Flickr
An image taken with a GoPro, with the characteristic fish eye look – Paul Toogood on Flickr

Continue reading GoPro goes anamorphic with Letus AnamorphX adapter

British Army and the Black Hornet PD-100 UAV

We recently made a post on the Black Hornet military drone.

The Black Hornet mini UAV
The Black Hornet mini UAV

It is a mini helicopter equipped with 3 cameras and a GPS, weighting 16 grams, that can can autonomously fly and broadcast aerial video for 20+ minutes.

PD-100 Black Hornet
PD-100 Black Hornet

Because of the size and weight, it is apparently strongly affected by wind.

According to the soldier in the video, “a life saver”, as it basically allows to see what’s ahead, before you actually get there.

Continue reading British Army and the Black Hornet PD-100 UAV

Citizens take down police drones to avoid aerial surveillance

In the following video, a Drone in a police mission in the city of San Francisco, shown performing a number of surveillance tasks

A screenshot from Alan Cornell's  "our drone future" video
A screenshot from Alex Cornell’s “our drone future” video

is taken down by a shooting citizen, specifically a blonde woman.

Citizen takes down drone - From "our drone future" video
Citizen takes down drone – From “our drone future” video

Continue reading Citizens take down police drones to avoid aerial surveillance

Multirotors autonomously build complex wall – The “Flight Assembled Architecture” installation

The research group of the Institute for Dynamics Systems and Control, led by Raffaello D’Andrea at the ETH of Zurich, in collaboration with a team of architects led by Fabio Gramazio and Matthias Kohler, presented an installation in which a swarm of quadcopters autonomously pick up sequentially 1500 foam bricks (500 gr each) and position them at the right place to build a  6-meter tall tower with a sophisticated shape.

The "FAA Tower" - Source
The “FAA Tower” – Source

Continue reading Multirotors autonomously build complex wall – The “Flight Assembled Architecture” installation

Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania develop grasping quadcopter inspired from prey birds

The Grasp Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania developed a quadcopter with a robotic arm, that is able to “grasp”, like an eagle does.

An eagle grasping a prey from water - Photo Peter Groneman
An eagle grasping a prey from water – Photo  Peter Groneman

The grasping action was successfully tested to a speed up to 3 m/s (7,2 Km/h).

Upenn robot quadcopter in the act of grasping a target object
Upenn robot quadcopter in the act of grasping a target object

Continue reading Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania develop grasping quadcopter inspired from prey birds

Multirotors for protecting endangered wildlife – Airware’s drones guard african rhinos

Using drones for surveillance is a somewhat controversial activity that entails several aspects, including legal ones, that have to be weighted and balanced for the best interest of all the parties involved.

In urban environments the use of drones could be an important tool for law enforcement, although such use requires some careful planning. This kind of use has to take into account, and balance with citizen’s right to privacy.

In other instances, multirotors were used by activists to monitor what they deem as illegal or disgraceful activities, for example on the treatment of animals on private land. Check out this story or this one, for example. Interestingly, both these stories deal with the protection of animals from mistreatment.

On the same line, but in an entirely different environment, a project have started, as a collaboration between Airware, a company that specializes in the construction of UAVs for a variety of applications, and Ol Pejeta Conservacy, a non-profit wildlife conservancy in Kenya supporting endangered species, tourism and community outreach.

Airwave's web site, click to visit
Airwave’s web site, click image to visit

Continue reading Multirotors for protecting endangered wildlife – Airware’s drones guard african rhinos