In Lennox Head, New South Wales, Australia, lifeguards from the Australian Lifeguard Service were preparing for a training session to familiarize themselves with UAS equipment when a call came in about two distressed swimmers.
Approximately a kilometer north of the patrolled area, two men were swimming in powerful surf conditions, when someone noticed that they were having difficulty in the three meter swell.
At the time, lifeguard Supervisor Jai Sheridan was piloting a Westpac Little Ripper UAS, so he immediately responded, and within minutes of the initial alert, located the swimmers.
UAS
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Drone Delivery Canada expanding its testing program to the United States
Drone Delivery Canada (DDC) has announced that it is expanding its commercial testing program to the United States.
DDC is bringing its testing program to the Griffiss International Airport UAS Test Site in Rome, New York during Q1 of this year, and the company anticipates that the program will run through the “balance of the year.”
“We have very strong interest from multiple commercial customers in the USA that not only want to test our drone delivery platform in Canada, but also in their own Country as well,” says Tony Di Benedetto, CEO.
Unifly and HERE Technologies partner to enable airspace maps for UAS
Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) software provider Unifly and digital mapping and location services provider HERE Technologies have announced that they will work together to “jointly enable airspace maps for drones.”
The collaboration between the two companies will consist of two phases.
During the first phase of their collaboration, Unifly and HERE plan to enable an airspace map for UAS that covers both rural and urban areas, and marks out no-fly zones such as airports, residential areas and sensitive government installations.
Cicer One Technologies and AVIDRONE Aerospace partnering to secure UAS fleets
Cicer One Technologies Inc., which provides data privacy technologies, and commercial and industrial UAS manufacturer AVIDRONE Aerospace Inc. have announced a new strategic partnership that the companies say “ends the risks around cloud-based data capture services.”
Through the partnership, AVIDRONE’s proprietary flight control and mission planning software will be combined with Cicer One’s point-to-point, globally-accessible information management system to deliver a “secure, fully private, flight control and data capture” technology for UAS.
Weekend Roundup
This Week in the Unmanned Systems and Robotics World
In an effort to “meet the demands of future multi-mode transportation and business applications,” Toyota Motor Corporation President Akio Toyoda announced a new mobility service business alliance and e-Palette Concept Vehicle during CES 2018. The new e-Palette Alliance will utilize Toyota’s proprietary Mobility Services Platform (MSPF) to create a suite of connected mobility technologies and a flexible, purpose-built vehicle. (Toyota)
State Police Unmanned Aerial System program launches in New York
On Jan 10., New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced the launch of the new State Police Unmanned Aerial System program, which will be used to support a variety of law enforcement and public safety missions in New York.
Expected to be deployed in multiple locations across the state, the UAS, which will be operated by State Police members who are FAA certified and have undergone 32 hours of hands-on training with the systems, are expected to reduce response times and make operations more efficient and cost-effective.
Among many potential uses, the UAS can be used in dangerous situations and environments, such as natural disasters, to help keep State Troopers out of harm's way.
Kittyhawk adds new features to its Flight Deck platform for UAS
During CES 2018, commercial UAS operations software provider Kittyhawk announced new features to its Flight Deck platform, including the addition of an automated flight system to Flight Deck, which will work in conjunction with the company's recently released secure live streaming feature.
Using the new automation features, operators can plan missions in the Kittyhawk mobile application, and then execute the entire flight, from takeoff to landing, with unlimited waypoints.
Insitu demonstrates its ground-based UAS airspace situational awareness system
Insitu has announced the successful completion of a flight demonstration for its ground-based UAS airspace situational awareness system.
Under a program sponsored by the Queensland Government, Insitu, along with Boeing Phantom Works International, designed, developed, and tested the airspace situational awareness system in Australia.
The system is designed as one of the optional “layers” of safety to allow broad-area, beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) capability for commercial UAS operations, by providing UAS operators with airspace situational awareness, specifically to help detect and avoid so called “non-cooperative” traffic.
AUVSI Trusted Operator Program Takes Off
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Jan. 9, 2018
Contact: Tom McMahon, tmcmahon@auvsi.org, (571) 255-7786
DARPA selects Raytheon for Phase 3 of its CODE program for UAS
DARPA’s Collaborative Operations in Denied Environment (CODE) program seeks to extend the capability of the U.S. military’s existing UAS to conduct “dynamic, long-distance engagements of highly mobile ground and maritime targets in contested or denied battlespaces.”
With this in mind, DARPA has selected the Raytheon Company to complete the development of the CODE software during Phase 3.
Up to this point, the CODE program has conducted Phase 2 flight test series with teams led by Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, and the software open architecture and test-support framework has been validated. The teams completed several flight tests at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in California.