Like most tools, the usefulness of a drone depends on who’s in control. There are number of examples that show how drones can be used to improve everyday life. If we extrapolate these applications into the next few years, perhaps we’ll see a future where everyone benefits.

The big difference between the older world of hobby RC flying and the new world of private drones is that the later can carry enough onboard computing power to achieve major levels of self-sufficiency. This is the technical reason why Quadcopters in particular have become so popular.

Here are the top ten things that will be capable by drones in the coming years:

Deliver Items:

China’s biggest internet retailer says it has begun testing drone-based deliveries to hundreds of customers.

Alibaba released a video showing how things will supposedly work from the moment a user orders an item and a drone is loaded and sent out to the moment when the item is delivered. It is using its drones to deliver orders for a specific type of ginger tea, helping limit the maximum weight of the packages to 340g (12oz).

Amazon, Google and parcel service UPS are among other companies carrying out more private trials of such aircraft.

Amazon has asked the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for an exemption from rules prohibiting the use of drones for commercial purposes.

Games:

Drones also have entertainment value. There are drones which are specifically made to play games such as fighting copter for drone-on-drone combat games. Their destructive properties can be channeled in such a way that allows humans to compete in combat without directly harming one another. Some groups have already started looking to “drone combat” as a sporting event. Can’t wait until robot wars goes to drone wars!

Monitor Crops:

Using drones for crop surveillance can drastically increase farm crop yields while minimizing the cost of walking the fields or airplane fly-over filming.

Drones can provide farmers with three types of detailed views. First, seeing a crop from the air can reveal patterns that expose everything from irrigation problems to soil variation and even pest and fungal infestations that aren’t apparent at eye level. Second, airborne cameras can take multispectral images, capturing data from the infrared as well as the visual spectrum, which can be combined to create a view of the crop that highlights differences between healthy and distressed plants in a way that can’t be seen with the naked eye. Finally, a drone can survey a crop every week, every day, or even every hour. Combined to create a time-series animation, that imagery can show changes in the crop, revealing trouble spots or opportunities for better crop management.

Capture unique footage of sporting events:

Drones have been used to film ski and snowboarding events at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, as you may have noticed. But the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for sports photography is far from a passing gimmick. In fact, you should expect more and more athletic events to be filmed by drone.

Drones are also more flexible than cable-suspended camera systems, which are present at most NFL games. While live transmission is tricky—it requires an extra transmitter, which weighs on the drone it can definitely be done!

Drones as servers:

Thanks to a staffing shortage, a restaurant chain in Singapore is bringing the flying robot machines inside to serve food and drinks.

One drone can whisk about five pounds worth of food or drinks to a customer’s table. But while the idea of a bunch of robots whizzing around a restaurant sounds futuristic, customers might also worry about how safe the drone servers are—and with good reason.

Read more: http://bit.ly/1CP1UZA

3-D Mapping:

Small, lightweight drones may look like simple model airplanes, but they can survey landscapes with thousands of digital images that can be stitched together into 3-D maps. Military and other government satellites produce similar maps, but emerging UAV technology can put that capability in the hands of small companies and individuals, to be customized and used for a seemingly endless variety of applications.

There are a number of really cool startups that are working on this out of Silicon Valley including DroneDeploy and SkyCatch.

Protecting Wildlife:

The U.S. government already uses drones to protect its lands and the species that inhabit them.

“The Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Land Management, and the United States Geological Service use UAVs, and by and large they use military surplus stuff, like the small Ravens, to monitor wildlife populations or map roads and wetlands for land management purposes,” said AUVSI’s Gielow in June. “It’s going to revolutionize how they go about this kind of work.”

Search and Rescue:

An injured victim of an automobile accident in Saskatchewan, Canada, in May 2013 may have been the first person to have his life saved by a search-and-rescue drone.

When Royal Canadian Mounted Police responded to a late-night rollover in a remote location, they found that the disoriented driver had wandered off. A ground search and an air ambulance helicopter with night-vision gear failed to find him.

Photography:

Real time live-view on your mobile device allows you take photos and videos from a completely new perspective.

Want one that can take pictures? Check out the DJI Phantom 2.

Ad making:

Ad makers say drones can give a more polished, cinematographic look with sweeping aerial shots that can make the TV spots stand out from the usual slash and burn of dark negative commercials. They could follow a candidate’s campaign bus down a road, take beauty shots of different places he’s visited and snap images of where he grew up.

Read more: http://politi.co/1KI7dJA

SOURCE: Ready Quadcopters: Latest News – Read entire story here.

DJI Inspire 1 Lightbridge

Part of what makes the DJI Inspire 1 so inspiring is Lightbridge.

The DJI Lightbridge is a digital video downlink in 2.4G full HD, making it an advanced FPV (First Person View) system.

Lightbridge transmits video up to 2km away straight to your mobile device or even to Cinemizer glasses, if you have them. This system will also send you live flight data: altitude, vertical and horizontal speed, GPS heading, signal strength, etc. With most drones, you have to buy Lightbridge separately, which costs about $1300. Plus, you have to hook everything up, which can be complicated. With other drones, you would even have to attach a Lightbridge transmitter to the body of the drone which would increase the weight and possibly decrease flight time.

But with the Inspire 1, Lightbridge is actually integrated, meaning it is already built into the drone. So with the Inspire 1, you have an all-in-one communication system with live HD viewing, and you don’t have to buy an additional Lightbridge system and hook it up to anything; your system is ready to go.

Some other features on Lightbridge are the master-slave mode, input support for dual video, mobile device and HDMI HD support, and advanced security.

With the master-slave mode, you can have one remote controlling the drone while a second remote controls the camera. Any additional remotes can also be linked up, but they will only be able to receive video. With the dual video support, you will be able to monitor both pilot and camerawork with the same system. The mobile device and HDMI HD support will actually increase functionality by charging USB devices. The advanced security ensures that only devices that are authorized can receive data from your Inspire 1 and camera. It protects from interference with great internal and external shields. And, you can recharge the LiPo battery, giving you 4.5 hours of operation.

Since Lightbridge will give you live video feed, you may be wondering if there is any latency. Latency is the amount of time that a video lags behind real time. You have the capability to hook up both an HD monitor and a tablet at the same time to view what Lightbridge is viewing. With the HD monitor, you will get very little latency, while with the tablet you may get a little bit more of delay on your video. However, any delay that you get will generally be less than a second. If you’re worried about too much lag time, make sure to hook up a higher-quality tablet or other viewing device as this will minimize latency.

You can even hook it up to Zeiss Cinemizer OLED glasses to give yourself a touch of the future. The glasses will let you view everything the camera is seeing—almost as if you were really flying.

The DJI Inspire 1 is miles ahead of its competition with its integrated Lightbridge system. It really gives you a sweet advantage with videography and photography. With this system, you have optimum control over your camera and viewing capabilities.

SOURCE: Drones Etc. – News – Read entire story here.

Price: $99.00

SOURCE: Ready Quadcopters: Popular Products – Read entire story here.

The Mesa County Colorado Sheriff’s Office, operating the Draganflyer X6 small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS), was the first to receive an FAA operational Certificate of Authorization (COA) and helped paved the way for other agencies.

Saskatoon, SK – May 12, 2015

It has become clear that small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (sUAS) are proven vital public safety tools, but back in 2008 that vision wasn’t as clear. The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) was one of the first U.S. public safety agencies to formally start an sUAS program, work with the FAA to secure an operational COA, and put the aircraft into service.

Draganfly Innovations Inc. teamed with the MCSO by providing two Draganflyer X6 sUAS helicopter systems and from there, the MCSO unmanned program literally took off. The commitment and persistence of the MSCO staff not only established one of the first public safety operational COAs, but a few years later, was the first agency to secure approval by the FAA to extend their COA countywide.

In recognition of these accomplishments and the significance of this program, the National Law Enforcement Museum will have one of the original MCSO Draganflyer X6 helicopter systems in its collection, available for research and display. The Draganflyer X6 and the MCSO paved the way for other U.S. agencies to start operating these fascinating aircraft that in turn, are saving lives, and being used to assist in protecting our officers.

About the Mesa County Colorado Sheriff’s Office
Mesa County is located on the Western Slope of Colorado, bordering the central Utah state line. The County consists of more than 3,300 square miles, with the Sheriff’s Office policing both rural and urban populations. The agency has a staff of about 250 people, including both sworn and civilian employees, and operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Their deputies routinely respond to a variety of situations in a variety of weather conditions, terrain, obstacles, and in addition, manage the only jail in the County. The Sheriffs have consistently balanced taxpayer funds with the use of efficient technology to do the best job possible on the streets of Mesa County.

About the National Law Enforcement Museum
A project of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, the 57,000-square-foot National Law Enforcement Museum will be located adjacent to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, DC’s Judiciary Square. The Museum will tell the story of American law enforcement through high-tech interactive exhibits, comprehensive collection of artifacts, extensive resources for research, and diverse educational programming. The Memorial Fund’s mission is to tell the story of American law enforcement and make it safer for those who serve. For more information, visit http://www.LawEnforcementMuseum.org.

About Draganfly Innovations:
Draganfly Innovations, the longest running manufacturer of multi-rotor helicopters in the world and the maker of the first civilian small Unmanned Aerial System (sUAS) to be credited with saving a life, designs Draganflyer helicopters, the best aerial vehicles in the world, along with Draganview control software. A recognized technology and industry leader, Draganfly shapes the aerial imaging and public safety revolution with its gyro stabilized camera payload systems and digital video down-link technology. Draganfly has reinvented the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and is defining the emergency services market with the Draganflyer Guardian, and X4-ES systems.

Read this press release on PRWeb.

SOURCE: Draganfly.com UAV News – Read entire story here.

Small Portable Ruggedized Humanitarian Response Vehicle

Purpose

Pathfinder inserted or dropped into place and be the first on-site in disaster zones. Small portable ruggedized humanitarian response vehicle encasing land and air combination as one unit with remote control and autonomous capability, including mobile phone type payload providing real-time feeds including video, images and on-board sensors to disaster assistance response teams.

Unit to be re-usable or disposable as its main objective is to preserve life and relay real-time environmental data.

Scope

Can be dropped from up to 100 meters and when on terra firma land speed capability of up to 25 MPH on flat ground with some off-road capability.
Once target location reached and if required, unit can deploy air support drone vehicle. Air support drone has a comms link to the land unit containing mobile phone type device to relay data to disaster assistance response teams. If relay data comms fail the land unit stores data locally for recovery.

Prototype

Use existing open source software and hardware, standard comm protocols and modify high performance electric off-road RC land vehicle and camera drone 

[the design is still in my head and the above image shown is my modified ftx carnage RC car (20-30MPH) and camera drone]

Inputs/ideas welcome and anyone volunteering to help me build it!

Cheers,

FlightBots.com – The Home of Friendly Drones

SOURCE: Everyone’s Blog Posts – DIY Drones – Read entire story here.

The Yuneec Q500 Typhoon is an awesome new player in the quadcopter market. It is meant to compete with the DJI Phantom and is a good deal bigger than the phantom. This bundle comes with the aircraft, a 1080P HD camera, a CGO2-GB 3 axis precision gimbal, the ST10 personal ground station, 2 batte..

Price: $1,299.99

SOURCE: Ready Quadcopters: New Products – Read entire story here.