A drone is an unusual choice, as far as Christmas gifts go. But last year, it was exactly what Dave Anderson wanted waiting for him under the tree.
Captain Dave Anderson is a naturalist and conservationist who runs whale-and dolphin-watching tours in Dana Point, California. Last year, his wife got him a drone for Christmas, and he has been using it to capture footage he wouldn’t have been able to get otherwise. He said in the past, if he wanted aerial footage, he either had to charter a helicopter — which, besides being prohibitively expensive, were noisy enough to disturb the animals if you got too close — or call the local news and ask them to take their helicopter out and then “beg them for the footage.”
Now, he regularly takes his drone camera out over the water, and uploads the results to his YouTube channel.
“Drones are changing how we view wildlife. It’s changed how I view it. I’m seeing things I’ve never seen before,” Anderson told Fusion.
“I’ve been whale-watching for 20 years,” Anderson continued. “In my first year, I saw a lot. But over the last 19 years, I haven’t seen as many new behaviors as I’ve seen in just the last year with this drone. It’s amazing.”
Like any new technology, flying a drone comes with some risks — especially when you’re using them over open water. Anderson has lost two drones to Davy Jones’ locker in the past year.
(In one instance, a software update programmed the drone to automatically return to its charging base when it reached 30 percent of its battery life. Unfortunately, the drone reached this threshold while Anderson was using it out on his boat. The base was back on land. The manufacturer apologized and sold him a replacement at half price.)
So: Tracking and saving endangered animals. Transporting organs for transplant. Farming. Mapping. Cinematography. Photography. Delivering pizza. The future is here, and it’s a remote-controlled flying robot.
Drones are generally thought of in the United States as tools of war, but enthusiasts are encouraging people to consider the many potential applications of unmanned aerial technology. Recently, they got together to talk about all the ways drones can improve the world.
In December, several hundred photographers, conservationists, engineers, and other aficionados gathered at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena for the LA Drone Expo. Three dozen exhibitors showed off drones and drone-related accessories, including carrying cases, 3-D printers, cameras designed specifically for drone use, publications dedicated to the technology, and graduate programs in aerial engineering. A lineup of speakers and panelists, including Captain Anderson, presented their own drone footage and discussed how they used unmanned aerial vehicle technology in their business or passion. It was the first-ever commercial drone exposition.
The event was organized by the Unmanned Autonomous Vehicle Systems Association (UAVSA), which is part of the Tesla Foundation Group.
In other countries, drone technology is already being integrated into fields like healthcare, agriculture, entertainment, and search-and-rescue. Countries like India and England are looking into using drones to transport organ transplants, track endangered or dangerous animals, and deliver Amazon purchases. Cirque du Soleil taught them to dance. In the United States, we’ve been a little slower on the uptake. Jon Alvarez, the marketing director for the UAVSA, spoke with Fusion at the expo about why that is.
“The U.S. is the last market where we’ve had so much fear and miseducation about the product and drones to not implement that technology,” Alvarez said. But he understands: The first time he ever heard of a drone was in a CNN report about the war in Iraq.
“A lot of the applications (of drones) surprise people, because they think it’s only used for defense,” Alvarez said. “It’s not. It’s a tool that people can use to make the future better and make the world better.”
Right now, the UAVSA is working on building a community of both professional and casual drone users, as well as developing legislation to make sure drone usage doesn’t run afoul of FAA regulations. They’re also designing an app that would allow users to reserve airspace for commercial drone use.
Drones were available for purchase from several booths, starting at around $450. One booth showed off a drone that could be programmed to carry a disco ball around over your car as you drive. Another showed off an object avoidance program they were developing to keep drones from hitting things like trees, buildings, and other drones. (They did not immediately take us up on our suggestion to market it as a “drone Roomba.”)
The expo also inadvertently showed off the limitations of the technology. In the back of the convention space, there was an indoor area where you could try your hand at piloting a drone. An overeager participant flew it directly into the net, where it got stuck. Someone had to climb up on a ladder and use a big piece of cardboard to knock it back down to the ground, at which point the rotor broke, rendering flight impossible and the crowd (including this reporter) very disappointed.
Fusion asked Alvarez about one of the most pressing uses of drone technologies: How long until a drone will deliver us pizza?
“Within the next 5 years,” Alvarez predicted. “Within the next 10 years, drones will be a common sight.”
Source: http://fusion.net/story/35722/drones-could-change-life-as-we-know-it-in-america-once-we-get-over-our-fear-of-them/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialshare&utm_content=desktop%2Btop&utm_campaign=naytev&utm_content=554d4d1de4b0892017de2501
Pros: super smooth video, easy to set up, robust enough to survive a crash, fun to fly, two batteries in the box, GPSCons: graining in low-light conditions, difficult to control precisely, legislation on drone use restrictive, expensive for a toy
The tumbling price of drones and advances in the technology they contain is helping golfers cut their handicaps and creating a new line of business for pilots of umanned aircraft.
Cameras mounted to drones are being used to shoot tee-to-green films of golf holes, which act as an online guides that give players a fresh perspective of the hazards they face.
Specialist businesses which shoot and edit drones’ films are springing up, which they are marketing both as an aid for golfers to navigate tricky holes and a promotional tool for the clubs themselves.
“Video is becoming much more prevalent online and having this sort film is becoming a necessity for golf clubs,” said Mr Howarth , launched the business a year ago and has since filmed a dozen clubs, including Turnberry, where the Open was held in 2009.
Source: By Alan Tovey, Industry Editor 6:13PM BST 03 May 2015
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/engineering/11580115/Drone-pilots-making-a-living-from-flying-high-over-the-fairways.html
MEXICO CITY – Mexico has published rules governing the use of drones, allowing people to operate the smallest drones in daylight without a permit but with safety rules.Mexico's Transportation Department has established three classes of drones according to sThe smallest weigh 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) or less. They won't require a permit, but like all other drones must stay 9.2 kilometers (5.72 miles) away from airports and 900 meters (985 yards) from helicopter pads.
Medium-size drones are defined as weighing between 2 kilograms and 25 kilograms (55 pounds), and require a permit unless they're operated on the grounds of a flight club.
Under rules published Wednesday, large drones over 25 kilograms will require an operating permit and the operator must also have a pilot's license.
A drone casts a shadow while flying over sea ice in east Antarctica to collect data on climate change.
ANTARCTIC CLIMATE & ECOSYSTEMS CRC AND AUSTRALIAN ANTARCTIC DIVISIONScientists have successfully piloted drones over Antarctic ice floe from aboard a ship in a world-first operation they say has the potential to change the face of Antarctic science.
There is a precautionary ban on drones at sea under most Antarctic programs because of the potential to disturb wildlife and cross into controlled air space, among other things.
But a team of Australian scientists were given special permission by the American National Science Foundation to use the technology during ice breaker Nathaniel B Palmer's most recent voyage.
Research scientist Dr Guy Williams with the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) piloted the drone.
"This is probably one of the first times we've tried to deploy from an ice breaker in the sea ice," he said.
Dr Williams said the drone used SLR cameras to measure ice floes.
"We were just trying to test the acquisition of aerial imagery or mapping of the sea ice from the surface," he said.
Fellow Australian researcher Dr Alex Fraser from the Hokkaido University ran operations from the ship.
Dr Fraser said challenges included extreme cold, which can affect batteries, high winds and difficulties with magnetic compasses.
"The magnetic compass gets affected in these regions because the direction of the south magnetic pole is not the same direction as the south geographic pole," he said.
He said the technology opened up research opportunities.
"We can study the really big floes from space, using high resolution satellites, but to get down to the smaller scale floes we really need this kind of platform," he said.
The project was a scoping study for future drone use over Antarctic oceans.
Dr Williams said overall the mission was a huge success.
"There were challenges," he said.
"But we found we were able to fly safely and without impacting the overall logistics of the crews and ... we've brought back some data that we're able to explore."
Dr Williams said drone technology had the potential to change the face of Antarctic science.
"The sky is the limit really," he said.
"There's any number of opportunities for different sensors to be put on, for atmospheric profiling, for more advanced topographical studies of the surface of the sea ice."
Friday, May 1, 2015 - 6:05 p.m.
SANTA CRUZ >> About 550 people showed up Friday at Kaiser Permamente Arena on Friday, not to watch basketball, but to learn about what could be technology's next big thing.
The Drone, Data X conference had an international flavor with attendees from Ireland, South Africa, Germany, Australia, France, Greece and Switzerland, organizers said.
"Every home is going to have a drone pretty soon," predicted Parimal Keparekar, who works for NASA in air traffic management research, describing efforts to build a highway in the sky for them. "Right now there is no congestion management problem, but eventually there will be."
Hobbyists can buy a cheap quadcopter for $20. A model with a camera starts at $40.
Anyone can fly a drone "right out of the box" creating a potential for problems in national air space, noted Jim Williams of the Federal Aviation Administration.
"It is the FAA's highest priority to get the rules down," he said.
Typically it's 16 months from the time the comment period closes - last week for the proposed drone regulations - to when rules are finalized.
"We're doing everything we can to beat that," Williams said, noting more than 260 drone operators authorized under the Section 333 exemption, and more than 1,000 applications, in addition to more than 700 government operators.
This year, at the consumer electronics show in Las Vegas, there were 17 unpiloted aerial systems exhibits, which Williams said was "just amazing."
He said he urges drone makers to provide guidance to buyers, citing the KnowBeforeYouFly.org education campaign created by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. The association represents users in government, industry and academica, the Academy of Model Aeronautics, a hobby group, and the Small UAV Coalition, a trade association, with FAA.
To one man who asked about out-of-sight flying, which would not be allowed under the proposed rules, Williams said he expected sensor technology to improve, noting it has yet to be certified.
"We were told Santa Cruz is the drone zone in the USA," said Francis Vierboom, co-founder of year-old Australian startup Propeller, which aims to create a standardized mapping interface for the surveying and mapping industry.
Australia, which adopted rules before the U.S., has fined drone pilots for flying over bushfires and crime scenes to capture video and photographs.
Flirtey, a 2-year-old Australian company with a booth in the exhibition hall, has a trial in New Zealand to see if drones can search for missing people and deliver emergency supplies. Co-founder Matthew Sweeny said he spoke to investors at the conference, one of his objectives.
Andreas Raptopoulos of Matternet in Menlo Park talked about his pilot drone delivery project to start in Switzerland in July after experiments in Bhuhan and Papua New Guinea.
Paul Regen of Felton said he was impressed by the panoramic photos shown by Romeo Durscher, a Swiss native working for DJI Global, a Chinese company that is world's biggest supplier of civilian drones.
Durscher said he envisioned drones delivering pizza, bettering technology on "The Jetsons," the futuristic 1960s cartoon.
"Anytime you have a protest you know you have made it," he said, referring to residents upset by a change in the San Francisco Airport flight path sending noisy jets over their homes.
Aptos transportation consultant Myles Kitchen said he sees uses in motor sports, filming drivers on the race track, and in forensics, reconstructing accident scenes.
Doug Erickson of the Santa Cruz New Tech MeetUp, just back from China, saw "tons of drones" at the Silk Market, a huge shopping center in Beijing.
When he asked about the price of a DJI drone, he was told $4,000 then $600.
Conference organizer Phil McNamara said he was happy with the turnout and promised next year's would be bigger.
