Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 19.62
September 06, 2018
…aircraft, above 400 feet, beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS), or flying near airports or controlled airspace. Since 2016, more than 1,800 waivers have been issued to operators across the U.S., with California leading the U.S. with 228 total waivers issued. In the drone integration program, the latest successful flight was WakeMed Health and Hospitals, which flew a Matternet drone in Raleigh, N.C. It demonstrated how drones can be used to deliver medical supplies to rural patients. Other flights noted by the FAA include: The Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership completed a long-distance drone delivery test, delivering an ice-cream cone…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 19.39
May 17, 2021
…as the first system for automated beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) operations with no humans on-site. The company said this approval gives it an exclusive first-mover advantage to unlock the commercial drone market by overcoming the need for costly visual observers to be on the ground during every drone flight. With humans removed from the field and data processing achieved at the edge, users can reduce data-acquisition costs by more than tenfold, said AR. American Robotics said Scout System consists of the following: Scout, a fully autonomous drone with advanced imaging payloads ScoutBase, a ruggedized base station for housing, charging, data…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 18.27
December 29, 2022
…robots. Regulatory approvals advance Now that beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) permission is available from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), more teleoperated and autonomous drone deliveries are possible. In July, Flytrex got FAA approval to double its delivery radius to 2 nautical miles. “2022 was also a milestone year from a regulatory standpoint,” Bash noted. “Two companies were granted Part 135 air carrier certification [to Joby Aviation and Zipline], bringing the total number of recipients to four [joining Wing Aviation LLC and UPS Flight Forward].” “The FAA issued a Type Certification and Production Certificate to a UAS [unmanned aerial system]…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 18.04
December 07, 2021
…most basic navigation functionality, particularly for beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) and autonomous operations. Due to the weak and vulnerable nature of the GNSS signal, it is extremely susceptible to jamming attacks that can currently be carried out over large distances with a $50 jammer bought online, said the partners. UAV developers or end users try to solve this problem by creating “safe landing protocols” in GNSS-challenged environments or by adding lidar, optical, or other sensors to their flight controllers. Such sensors can provide a reasonable source of positioning data, but only in some scenarios, according to infiniDome. The problem is…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 17.51
August 17, 2021
…help drone operations beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS) or in GPS-denied environments? Sweet: Yes – many enterprise robots are using 4G as a robust telemetry backhaul for tracking. 5G significantly increases network capacity to enable video, edge AI processing, and real-time command and control. 5G connectivity provides ultra-high reliability and low latency connectivity during flight, allowing drones to operate BVLOS. 5G’s low latency is especially useful in navigation scenarios where drones fly in GPS-denied environments. In this use case, drones can’t use GPS and rely on VIO to navigate in areas where the pilot’s view is obscured. 5G…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 17.48
October 28, 2021
…Aviation Administration (FAA) approval for automated beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) flights without a human operator on site. The Ondas subsidiaries will move their business functions to an 18,000-sq.-ft. facility that will include 6,000 sq. ft. of flex lab space. The Waverly Oaks Park in Waltham is also home to Vecna Robotics and Veo Robotics. Reese Mozer, co-founder and CEO of American Robotics, discussed how both the drone space and his company have matured with Robotics 24/7. Identifying the need “We looked at the drone space when we started the company in 2016 and saw a glaring problem,” Mozer recalled. “It's…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 15.33
December 05, 2023
…of regulatory efforts. The waiver greenlights safe nationwide drone BVLOS operations with no humans on site or the need for expensive radars, using remote pre-flight checks, extensive automation, and the ability to operate up to 30 drone-in-a-box systems simultaneously. It also completes the remote operations puzzle alongside Percepto's state-of-the-art drone-in-a-box hardware and autonomous inspection software. “For years, Percepto has been leading the remote inspection revolution - both on the regulatory and technology fronts,” said Percepto Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer Ariel Avitan. “Simply put, with large-scale remote inspections, we'll see fewer large-scale safety and environmental failures across critical infrastructure.” “Percepto…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 15.21
August 17, 2021
…in GPS-denied environments. “Situational awareness and obstacle avoidance enable BVLOS [beyond visual line-of-sight] and follow-me applications,” said Singh. “I'm really excited about unmanned aerial mobility—you could call Uber Elevate [acquired in December by Joby Aviation] and go from San Francisco to San Jose in a self-driven aircraft.” 5G and robotics “5G is fundamental to Qualcomm's vision of an intelligent wireless edge and distributed computing,” said Singh. “Before, AI was tied to the cloud, but now, it can be on the device. You still need to balance memory and power consumption. 5G makes a ubiquitous connectivity fabric for smart networks, and…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 15.13
December 28, 2022
…While it has received approvals for beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) flights, American Robotics continues to work on making commercial drones more accessible. Reese Mozer, co-founder and CEO of American Robotics, replied to the following questions from Robotics 24/7 about 2022 achievements and 2023 prospects: Uncertainty heightens drone demand How have drone suppliers responded to challenges such as chip shortages, geopolitical uncertainty, and shifting market demand? Mozer: Supply chain disruptions have certainly made the job of our manufacturing department more challenging, but not impossible. Part shortages can often be solved with forward-looking buying practices and clever sourcing strategies. Geopolitical uncertainty has…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 14.83
April 26, 2022
…2 enhances mission critical navigation, including beyond visual line-of-sight (BVLOS) to support safer, more reliable flight.” New system powered by Qualcomm ModalAI said VOXL 2 is powered by the Qualcomm Flight RB5 5G platform. It is integrated with a PX4 real-time flight controller, which the company says has “an eight-core CPU up to 15 TOPs [trillions of operations per second].” The board also has seven image sensors, TDK internal measurement units, and barometer. The company spun out of chipmaker Qualcomm Technologies Inc in 2018. ModalAI is a Blue UAS Framework manufacturer, which means it works with the U.S. Department of…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 13.83
February 17, 2022
…(FAA) to operate beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS). This makes it “impossible” for the drone-delivery industry to grow because somone must always monitor flights in the field, said IDTechEx. Countries such as Iceland have more permissive regulations. But this is because such countries are sparsely populated and therefore there are fewer commercial opportunities, the report noted. Some countries and regions have approved testing or semi-commercial drone delivery operations and announced deregulation plans for drones. The FAA has published proposed airworthiness criteria for the certification of 10 different unmanned aircraft systems, seven of which are used for healthcare, retail,…
Found in Robotics News & Content, with a score of 13.12
June 18, 2021
…and moving vehicles” beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS). DroneUp also provides drone services to government organizations in 11 states. Furner added that Walmart has “4,700 stores stocked with more than 100,000 of the most-purchased items, located within 10 miles of 90% of the U.S. population.” Hundreds of drone deliveries were conducted during Walmart's initial testing with DroneUp. “The trial demonstrated we could offer customers delivery in minutes versus hours,” said Furner. “In the coming months, we'll be beginning our first operation at a store in Bentonville, Ark.” “Conducting drone deliveries at scale is within reach,” Furner said. “DroneUp’s…
