Canadian machine vision firm Immervision has been working on providing low-light capabilities to aerial drones and a wider field of view for autonomous vehicle lidar.

Skygauge Robotics has closed a $3.3 million CAD seed round to expand its team as it develops drones to relieve humans of dangerous tasks such as infrastructure inspection.

Airdata UAV and Autel Robotics have partnered to offer a one-month free trial of the AirData Enterprise fleet management software to users of the Autel EVO Series II drones.

The Cave Circuit, the third stage of the DARPA Subterranean Challenge, was completely virtual, enabling teams to test their software and simulated hardware configurations in difficult environments.

University of California researchers are developing an autonomous mobile robot to sample leaves and measure their water potential.

Wisk said its partnership with NASA is the first of its kind and is intended to address key challenges and create a framework for autonomous passenger flight.

Robotics investments slowed somewhat in October 2020, but transportation, healthcare, and software remained strong.

Thales, a “deep tech” multinational, is working with the state government of North Dakota and other partners to provide the TopSky UAS Traffic Management System to scale safe and secure drone air traffic control.

VTOL drone delivery developer and service provider Volansi said it is expanding in Bend, Ore., to take advantage of the region’s talent pool and aviation technology expertise and scale its production and operations.

Spain-based drone maker Quaternium and fuel-injection system provider Löweheiser said they have set a new endurance record for hybrid-powered aerial drones by combining technologies in the HYBRiX system.

Virginia Tech hailed the U.S. Department of Transportation’s BEYOND program, which is intended to foster stakeholder engagement in safely integrating aerial drones into the U.S. airspace for commercial uses.

Exyn Technologies said its new ExynAero drone sensor system can map industrial environments in real time without a human pilot.

Volansi, which provides heavy-capacity, long-range, VTOL drone services, delivered temperature-controlled Merck medications in the first part of a three-phase pilot in rural North Carolina.

Kespry said its Kespry Perception Analytics cloud-based system is designed for industries including chemicals, pulp and paper, energy, food and beverage, and ports.

The Giumarra Companies and Reliable Robotics have partnered on an autonomous test flight program to streamline the supply chain from farms to retailers for fresh produce.

SkyOp said its new consulting services, along with its existing training curriculum and online offerings, can help enterprises realize ROI from drone deployments.

Skyward, a Verizon company, has received an FAA waiver for beyond visual line of site operations, enabling staffers to remotely pilot inspection drones during wildfires in Washington state.

MissionGO and the Nevada Donor Network have teamed up to deliver a kidney, corneas, and other human tissue, setting distance records for drone deliveries.

Emesent said its new beyond-line-of-sight autonomy technology will increase drone safety and efficiency in mining, construction, and disaster response.

Volansi said its latest financing, led by Icon Ventures, will enable it to rapidly scale up operations and sales in the U.S. and global emerging markets.

University of Texas at Dallas researchers found that last-mile delivery networks will become more decentralized and the delivery speed of the drones will increase as the technology matures.

Easy Aerial, which provides ruggedized drones as a service for commercial, government, and military uses, has raised funding that it said will help support its global expansion.