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 offers online education, consulting services for enterprise drone deployments
SkyOp said its new consulting services, along with its existing training curriculum and online offerings, can help enterprises realize ROI from drone deployments.
Skyward gets FAA waiver to fly inspection drones from home during Washington wildfire
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 successfully conducts drone delivery of human organs, sets distance record
MissionGO and the Nevada Donor Network have teamed up to deliver a kidney, corneas, and other human tissue, setting distance records for drone deliveries.
Autonomy Level 2 in Emesent’s Hovermap designed to ease industrial BVLOS drone flights
Emesent said its new beyond-line-of-sight autonomy technology will increase drone safety and efficiency in mining, construction, and disaster response.
Volansi closes $50M Series B funding for middle-mile, VTOL drone delivery
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.
Drone deliveries could change logistics networks, finds University of Texas at Dallas
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 raises Series A funding to scale autonomous drone services internationally
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.
CropHopper robot from HayBeeSee takes novel approach to field monitoring
HayBeeSee has been developing CropHopper, a quadcopter with flexibile legs that it says can gather more data in an energy-efficient way to help farmers manage crops.
Ingenuity Mars Helicopter reaches milestone in space
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter recharged its batteries for the first time in space by using the Perseverance Rover’s power supply.
UTM patents advance PrecisionHawk push for air traffic control for drones, manned aircraft
PrecisionHawk, which provides drone and data services to the energy and other industries, has received two patents for UTM, or a unified traffic management system for aircraft and drones.
Robotics investments recap: July 2020
In July 2020, autonomous vehicles, industrial automation, and surgical robots continued to receive funding at steady levels in comparison with the same period last year.
Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning helping Army advance drone swarms
Army researchers developed a reinforcement learning approach that allows swarms of unmanned aerial and ground vehicles to optimally accomplish various missions while minimizing performance uncertainty. Swarming is a method of operations where multiple autonomous systems act as a cohesive unit by actively coordinating their actions. Army researchers said future multi-domain battles will require swarms of…
MAVNet communication system enables remote piloting of drones over the Internet
Startup Horizon31 has licensed a global communications system called MAVnet from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory that it said could enable remote drone operations over the Internet.
FCC grants WiBotic 300 watt authorization for wireless charging of robots, drones
WiBotic said it has received the first FCC authorization for up to 300 watts of wireless power transmission for robots, drones, underwater vehicles, and industrial automation.
Skydio raises Series C funding for enterprise, public sector, consumer drones
Skydio has raised $100 million in Series C funding as the U.S. drone maker expands its offerings to enterprise and government markets. The company also named new executives.
Hologram Hyper card and software designed to widen IoT device connectivity
Hologram Hyper uses eUICC SIM hardware and software to help connect IoT devices such as robots, drones, and autonomous vehicles across cellular coverage zones.
Stop claiming that drones can do anything, says American Robotics CEO
Over the past decade, the abilities and use cases of drones have been overhyped, says Reese Mozer, CEO of American Robotics. He looks at the reality and offers a guide to commercially realistic opportunities.
Drone analytics firm Kespry releases Summer 2020 Aerial Intelligence updates
Drone analytics provider Kespry has announced its Summer 2020 Aerial Intelligence feature updates, and its CEO explains how drone inspections are evolving.
Microdrones offers four new 3D, lidar survey drones as a service
Microdrones said its new mapping and survey equipment is available as a service for 3D mapping and modeling applications.
Avular designs custom drones from the ground up with 3D printing
When off-the-shelf robotics is insufficient, Dutch company Avular turned to HP 3D printing for modular drones for a variety of demanding applications.
Drone services critical to safer, more economical utility inspections, says PrecisionHawk
Drone services are becoming increasingly important to the oil and gas and utilities industries, says PrecisionHawk, which has seen inspections grow as a share of its business.