Tag Archives: UAV

Kaizen Kinetics: Affordable Engineering Services launches sister company

I am glad to publish the following press release by Kaizen Kinetics:

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Affordable Engineering Services launches sister company

Kaizen Kinetics

Kaizen Kinetics International (K2I Inc.) is one of North America’s premier unmanned systems companies with headquarters in San Diego, California and manufacturing operations in Vancouver, BC.
Kaizen Kinetics was launched out of the offices of Affordable Engineering Services, on Coronado Island. Continue reading Kaizen Kinetics: Affordable Engineering Services launches sister company

AUVSI letter to California members

I am glad to publish the following letter that AUVSI sent to it’s California members inviting them to take action in regard to Assembly Bill 1327. You can take action too, even if you are not a member!

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From: Mario Mairena
Date:08/12/2014 12:20 PM (GMT-08:00)
Subject: AB 1327, Adversely Affecting UAS

Dear California AUVSI Member:

As you know, Assembly Bill 1327 is moving expeditiously through the general assembly. AB 1327 was introduced by Reps. Jeff Gorell (R-44th), Steven Bradford (D-62nd) and Bill Quirk (D-20th). This bill regulates the use of unmanned aircraft systems by public agencies and the dissemination and use of any images, data and footage obtained by those systems. AB 1327 was passed by the House on January 29 by a 63-6 vote and on July 1 was read a second time and was ordered to a third reading in the Senate.

AUVSI’s position is that as it is currently written, AB1327 would fundamentally change current search warrant requirements used by law enforcement, which have been established by decades of U.S. Supreme Court case precedent, and they would treat manned and unmanned aircraft differently, although they are capable of gathering the same data. Continue reading AUVSI letter to California members

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

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

Black Hornet PD-100 PRS nano UAV – The perfect personal drone for military applications

An amazing little personal drone in the form of a micro helicopter has been in use for a while now, strictly for military applications.

The Black Hornet PD-100 nano UAV micro sized helicopter.
The Black Hornet PD-100 nano UAV micro sized helicopter – All PD-100 images are snapshots from the original video

Continue reading Black Hornet PD-100 PRS nano UAV – The perfect personal drone for military applications

Deer Trail is currently issuing unofficial licenses to shoot drones (25$ each)

Deer Trail, a small city in Colorado, has been releasing licenses to shoot surveillance drones, at 25$ each. The vote on releasing the licenses was actually delayed, maybe also because the FAA warned that shooting UAVs is a crime.
The licenses release looks more as a political/promotional move at the moment, as it appears that as of today no drone was seen flying over Deer Trail.

Here is a video that features the story:

Here are a couple of related files:

license_deer_trail

Source: http://www.deertrailcolorado.com/

 

Deer Trail drone shooting license
Deer Trail drone shooting license

Source: http://www.droneshooters.com/

UAV and law enforcement

Found this video that features a long interview to Prof. Alan Frazier on the subject of drone usage in law enforcement, in which he also answers questions from the public.
Prof. Frazier has a very particular curriculum, as he is both a Professor at the North Dakota University, Department of Aviation and Deputy Sheriff in the Grand Forks County Sheriff’s Department (link). This puts him in a strong position to deeply understand the technical and legal background of quadcopters, multirotors and more in general UAV usage, and to apply this knowledge in the field, as a law enforcement officer. For these reasons it is of particular interest to hear his views on the subject of UAV and law enforcement. Here’s the video:

For some quick examples of how drones were used recently by Prof. Frazier in the field, see this article