Drone News & Articles

Custom-made, state-of-the-art medical drones with a flying range of up to 250km will be developed and trialled for delivery of potentially life-saving medicines in Northern Territory.

The project, Integrating drones into NT health, will also pave the way for future delivery of critical items such as cold-storage vaccines (COVID 19) in regional and remote communities, the iMOVE Cooperative Research Centre – part of the federally funded CRC Program – revealed today.

Australia’s first ever healthcare delivery drone trail for regional Australia will be undertaken in the Northern Territory, one of the most sparsely settled jurisdictions in the developed world with a significant Indigenous population living in remote communities.

iMOVE is funding the project in partnership with the NT Government Department of Health and Charles Darwin University (CDU), who will manage the trial under Associate Professor Hamish Campbell.

The project is already running with talks underway with manufacturers for suitable drone airframes capable of handling wet and dry seasons, and a maximum flying range of 250km.

Leading drone services consultants Hover UAV, who have managed projects for Google and developed cutting-edge shark detection surveillance technology, are advising on the project.

Drone pilots will soon be recruited and will undergo specialist training.

The Project will involve developing a drone test flight centre in the Northern Territory.

Key goals and milestones for the project include:

• Regular drone flights of up to 100km by the end of 2021
• Regular drone flights of up to 250km & regular transport of medical items to and from remote communities by July 1, 2023
• Further development into drone delivery of cold-chain items (COVID-19 vaccine)

iMOVE programs director Lee-Ann Breger, a specialist in transformational R&D, conceived the project and was heavily involved in bringing together the necessary industry and government partners needed to undertake the project.

‘There are about eight million people living in rural and remote parts of the country – that’s about a third of our population living in places where getting life-saving medical supplies is not only a race against time, but also a battle against the tyranny of distance, harsh landscapes and unpredictable elements,’ she said.

‘Regional communities face medical access and health supply issues. This doesn’t have to be the case. We have the technology to put an end to this deprivation, especially in remote Northern Territory First Nations communities,’ she said.

Breger said one of the project’s main goals was to create an efficient model so drone health delivery services could eventually be rolled out in other regional locations across Australia.

‘We are looking at developing capacity and ways of doing things to ensure sustainability of this service beyond the lifetime of the project. It’s ground-breaking and important work, with significant benefits for millions of people who live in regional areas.

‘Drones seem an obvious solution, a potential game-changer. In the not too distant future, if you see a drone flying overhead in the middle of nowhere there’s a fair chance that technology is on its way to help someone or even save their life,’ Breger said.

Written by suasNews | 12 Feb 2021

AgriTech is sprouting as an industry that attracts increasingly more investors. It aims to make farming easier, more data-oriented, ecological, and profitable. BIS Research predicts the global smart farming market to reach around $23 billion by 2022 and grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of almost 20% from 2017 to 2022. Such accelerated development is triggered by the increasing demand for crop yield and food production with the same resources. Technologies help agriculture businesspeople reinvent farming strategies and empower farmers with machine learning, IoT, big data analytics, and computer vision in agriculture.

Smart Farming Technologies as the Industry Driver

Also called the 3rd Green Revolution, smart farming is the way to innovate the agriculture sector by adopting smart technologies. In the years to come, it promises to bridge the gap between the latest tech solutions and the agricultural sector — a realm that is used to relying on the more traditional approaches.

The 3rd Green Revolution rushes into the industry with precision agriculture development, IoT solutions, satellites, sensors, geo-positioning systems, drones, and location-based services. For farmers, AgriTech paves the way to easier operational management, more efficient resource exploitation, and sustainable crop yield. IoT, advanced robotics, and automated machinery allow farmers to optimize their processes, while the data they receive from sensors can help farmers shape and alter their strategies.

When partnering with a software company, agriculture businesses should search for vendors with advanced expertise in artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data, and IoT. These tech areas can help farmers deal with the everyday challenges and pain points that are difficult to treat without software solutions. For example:

IoT agriculture sensors and location-based services solutions can record weather conditions, monitor fields, observe and track livestock and collect data from fields. The received information will help improve crop management and measure field efficiency.

Big data analytics can have an immense impact on improving decision-making. It will help farmers automate suggestions and recommendations, calculate the necessary crop orders, count plants, and predict yields.

Machine learning in smart agriculture means better crop management. Artificial intelligence is of great help when it comes to seed breeding, health monitoring, and harvesting.

Major Vectors of Smart Farming Development

AgriTech is a vast industry that combines different approaches and technologies, but the ones that have proven to be the most effective are precision livestock farming, smart green housing, precision farming, and using drones as well as satellites on farms.

Precision Livestock Farming

Precision livestock farming (PLF) is fueled by advanced technologies that allow keeping track of each animal. With this approach, farmers can optimize their contribution per animal and improve livestock management. PLF also delivers qualitative and quantitative results, enabling sustainable development.

Precision livestock farming brings together real-time data about AgriTech animal health, nutrition and location. Based on the results collected from sensors, cameras and image recognition software, farmers can monitor cattle welfare and increase livestock efficiency. Both wearables and beacons provide valuable insights on how to improve animal well-being through climate, ventilation in facilities or feeding.

Artificial intelligence, IoT, cloud computing, big data analytics, and platform solutions power the rise of smart livestock farming.

• Artificial intelligence comes in handy when you have to process data about dozens or hundreds of animals and generate results quickly and accurately.
• IoT technologies and connected devices create a unique network for communication and cooperation in real-time. Wireless IoT agriculture sensors and applications are valuable for decentralization and automated decision-making
• Platforms allow facilitating livestock management with a streamlined supply chain and distribution. They also handle real-time animal classification or deviations in animal populations.

Smart Green housing

Smart greenhouse farming replaces direct human supervision with automated sensors and monitoring systems. Systems like this help farmers monitor the environment and mitigate changes for better crop, vegetable, and fruit growth. Embedded systems and robotics help to control soil moisture level, light level, and humidity level for advanced plant growth.

Precision Farming

As equipment, tools, and approaches to farming are often outdated, the sector suffers from low productivity and profit. Technology can help agriculture deal with the issues that have been blocking its development for many years. Precision farming, or precision agriculture, ensures that plants and animals get the precise treatment they need. By implementing computer vision and AI solutions for precision agriculture, businesses can manage plantations, eliminate anomalies in the plant's well-being, and increase productivity by 40%.

By combining sensors, GPS, robotics, and cloud computing, precision agriculture technology can assist in strategic decision-making, production optimization, and crop sustainability. Smart farming allows to observe, diagnose and determine actions that refer to a single square meter of the plantation or an individual plant, in contrast with the traditional approaches that monitor the entire field as a whole.

Such plant-specific actions help farmers choose treatment by adjusting the soil moisture, light, and humidity levels for each plant. On top of that, the system can evaluate if the treatment actually works.

Automated growth tracking solutions allow businesses to modernize and automate their processes, resulting in better operational and cost-efficiency.

Drones and Satellites

Farmers can use the capacity of satellites and drones in agriculture for better, cheaper, and faster data collecting and processing. Drone- and satellite-based agriculture makes handling farms more accurate and productive.

Being the farmers’ “eyes” in the sky, drones and satellites can help with farm area measurement and management, yield estimation, plant health monitoring as well as disease, anomaly, and weed identification. Take a look at the issues that drones and satellites can solve and how their functioning differs.

Satellite monitoring

Satellites bring more precision to farming based on satellite imagery. Operating on a specified territory, satellites take high-resolution photos of fields or farming areas. Agriculture satellite data is stored in databases or in the cloud so that farmers could easily track plant welfare, compare growth dynamics, and forecast crop yield. This information gives insights into the most and least productive field areas, crop rotation, and state of vegetation.

Satellites used for agriculture help businesses automate data collection and processing. Predictive analytics of both entire fields and separate crops is also among the advantages satellites bring to farmers. However, there are cons of satellite-based agriculture as well, including high weather dependency, low picturing frequency (every 5–8 days), and low resolution of photos compared to drones.

Drone monitoring

Drone agriculture mapping software also helps farmers with data collection — it’s fast, precise and, what’s most important, mobile. Modern drones can take pictures that have a resolution in centimeters per pixel. AgriTech uses different types of drones, but the most powerful ones can shoot and process more than 2,000 field hectares a day. On top of that, most models are not weather-dependant and can take pictures even in cloudy or foggy conditions. The only thing that blocks drone work is the ban to fly in certain areas, the so-called “no-fly zones.” But if the drone only covers the territory of your farm, you’re good to go.

Heading for the Future of Agriculture

The future itself is driven by technology, as well as the future of agriculture. Technology is key to addressing acute problems in the global food system. A digitized world offers tremendous opportunities for farmers to use data collected from satellites, sensors, drones to make better-informed decisions and precision technology to flawlessly execute every decision. By adopting the latest technologies and resource-efficient solutions, agritech will be able to get to a new level, reduce costs, improve yields, and be more environmentally friendly.

Written by Quantum (Medium) | 16 Jan 2021

The good news? A new Boston Drone Film Festival is ON for 2021. The bad news? Like pretty much everything else, it’s virtual only. That being said, we do have the deets.

Drone Film Festivals have become pretty popular in recent years – largely because there are so many creators flying drones. The New York City Drone Film Festival has seen some awesome content over the years, with people pushing the envelope with every subsequent festival. This year will also see the second Boston Drone Film Festival.

We’re looking forward to it!

Festival Information: 

SCREENING + AWARDS via Festive

March 19, 2021/6 p.m.-10 p.m.

• Opening Ceremony
• Film and Photo Screening 
• Awards and Giveaways

DRONE CAMP via Festivee

March 20, 2021/11 a.m.-10 p.m.

• 3 Panel Discussions
• 12 Workshops
• 1 Demonstrations

Written by Scott Simmie | 26 Jan 2021

We have received confirmation that DJI is producing a remarkable new style of controller for its upcoming FPV drone. Plus, our earlier speculation on several of the product’s features have also been confirmed. If you read just one story about the new DJI FPV drone prior to its release…make it this one.

Brace yourself. Everything you’ve heard about the new DJI FPV drone (from us, at least) is true. We’ve already had one source, close to the testing of this product, confirm the key points of what we’d previously written (and which we’ll review again). That same source also told us, which we reported in this story, that DJI had produced a handheld, joystick-style controller that could be used to intuitively control the drone.

We’ve now had a second source definitively confirm that this device is coming – likely as a separate option.

From the outset, we’ve said that DJI’s FPV product will be a hybrid drone, offering something for everyone: Stable, DJI-style flight for beginners, some sort of intermediate mode, plus the equivalent of Rate mode – where you’ve got to be on the sticks all the time. We’ve said it will have the option of position hold, the ability to auto-land and Return to Home. Plus, obviously, GPS and at least forward obstacle avoidance.

All of these, confirms a second source, are true.

But perhaps most intriguing was the story we wrote back on January 6. It stated, based on a source close to testing, that the product would have some kind of joystick-style controller.

“There will also be an additional ‘controller,’ which is like a control stick that exists on fighter jet. Not sure whether DJI will release that accessory with the FPV drone though,” said our source.

This controller would know its own position in space and could provide intuitive control for pitch, roll, yaw and thrust. The concept was very similar to what Swiss startup MotionPilot had been working on:

Now, this is a certainty. We are assuming it will be available at launch, or introduced as an option that can be purchased later. We don’t know the price, but our guess is $199-$249. It could be as low as $149, but we doubt it.

DJI’s Controller

On February 4, we reported on the FCC filing for a device that looks pretty clearly like it’s a similar kind of motion-based controller. Colleague Josh Spires 1 Comment. There was also an image, and it’s pretty clear this the controller for the FPV drone:

Think, for a minute, of how revolutionary this product might be. What would be more instinct-based for controlling a drone than a handheld device that moves the drone the way you move your hand? So, picture your arm extended, holding this controller.

• Move your wrist toward or away from the ground for pitch (down and up)
• Tilt the controller left or right for roll (picture it at 45° instead of perpedicular to the ground)
• Twist the controller (angle your wrist left or right) for yaw
• Pull the trigger for throttle
• Click a button for stability

Remember when we pitched auto-landing? Well, our source suggests that this controller will have the ability to immediately switch the FPV drone into a stable hover. So, for example, if things were getting hairy and you thought you were losing control you could simply click a switch and the drone would stabilize, saving you from pricey repairs. Our source confirms it will have this feature, which obviously makes a ton of sense and is totally within DJI’s existing technology framework.

Revolutionary

Words like “game-changer” and “breakthrough” often get tossed around in the various tech spheres. But we believe this controller truly will be revolutionary. As someone who has now racked up 58 hours in the Velociraptor FPV simulator, I’ll say this kind of option is certainly going to be easier to learn than standard FPV control with sticks. (After all that time, I’d say I’m still just a confident beginner.)

And again, this fits perfectly into DJI’s plans for this drone: It will appeal to both beginners and experienced pilots. Training wheels for the new folks, but enough desirable smart features and great video for creators and people with FPV experience. It will break down the Barrier to Entry, at least in terms of knowledge, that prevents many from picking up FPV flying.

It’s pretty easy to visualize what it might be like to fly something using this new type of controller. And it’s hard to imagine anything more intuitive.

Finally, a quick review

We’ve previously predicted that this drone will be released around the end of February. But this final chunk of the story is more to review what we’ve predicted, and which has now been confirmed by a trusted source.

Ready? Here we go:

Beginners to Pros: You’ll be able to fly this drone right out of the box with the same trusted stability features that have vaulted DJI to global drone dominance. These features include:

• 
  
• Position hold (quickly switchable)
• Return to home
• Auto-landing, with downward sensors
• GPS
• The equivalent of Rate mode
• Forward obstacle avoidance

Great video quality: DJI is known for the quality of its video, and there’s clearly been a trend in popularity of the CineWhoop-style drones. This drone will carry on that tradition, with 4K, 60 FPS. Based on other drones, we’re guessing minimum write speeds at that setting of 100 MB/second.

Extended flight time: DJI is a leader in battery management and technology. We’ve already seen the battery, which is pretty substantial. We also know that people aren’t going to want to shell out $1299 – $1499 (our best guess at the price of the drone/goggles/radio combo) for something that burns through a battery in four minutes or so. Given that DJI is capable or producing consumer drones with flight times in excess of 30 minutes, we think it’s reasonable to assume extended flight time. Given the current draw of FPV flight, we don’t think it will be 30 minutes. Our source says the DJI FPV drone will have a 20-minute flight time, which we think sounds about right. (Maybe less if you’re in full Rate mode and gunning the throttle.)

User-replaceable parts: We noted, early on, that some exposed screws on the arm were anomalous when compared with other DJI drones. We speculated then it likely meant that some parts would be user-replaceable. We even went so far as to suggest that wiring would have plugs or some way of clicking together to avoid soldering. We’re sticking with that.

In closing

These features are all smart. They all make sense. And most of them will appeal to a broad swatch of drone pilots. There will be many FPV pilots who will embrace this, though not as a racing product (even though we think it will be fairly quick). But that’s not the real market here.

Experiencing FPV for the first time is really an incredible thing. Experiencing it via DJI’s FPV goggles makes it more incredible, and we expect V2 of those goggles will be released at the same time as this drone.

This drone, we feel, is going to tap into an entirely new market: Those who have not experienced FPV, and perhaps have never before even flown a drone. It will be easy to fly for beginners, yet offer the full acrobatic experience for those who already fly FPV. It will replace, for many, home-built CineWhoops.

As for that controller? This is going to catch on. There will be other drone manufacturers – perhaps even radio manufacturers – who will follow suit. This is reolutionary, and it’s going to be a thing.

In short, this drone is poised to shake up the consumer FPV drone industry.

And we can’t wait.

Written by Scott Simmie | 5 Feb 2021

Scottish thrill seeker Danny MacAskill released a new hair-raising cycling video. And almost as impressive as his nearly vertical ride down a mountain is the FPV drone photography that documents the mountain biker’s descent.

MacAskill takes on the summit of Sgurr Dubh Beag (Little Black Peak) on the Isle of Skye. It’s more than 700 meters above sea level.

“The remote location and steep face forced us to think outside the box. It meant we had to move away from traditional filming techniques, with us opting to shoot the entire film using GoPros mounted on myself and an FPV racing drone,” says MacAskill.

The 35-year-old cyclist starts off slow with an arduous climb up the 900-meter route. At the top, even MacAskill admits it’s pretty scary looking down at the Loch below. The plunge begins at about the 1:00 minute mark. And the FPV captures a really bone-rattling drop at 1:08.

“There is no safety involved – no rope. You make calculations as to what could happen if things go wrong. There is no way of stopping so you are fully trusting your brakes and tires,” he says.

MacAskill didn’t do this in one take, but there are some impressively long shots. And while few of us will be able to duplicate MacAskill’s mad skills, the FPV sequences are an inspiration to struggling drone pilots.

“Some of the places I was planning to ride were very extreme in terms of what’s possible to ride your bike down and staying in control. I would have probably been dead if I tried,” he says.

lt’s like a giant cheese grater, says MacAskill

The video lasts only six minutes and it’s worth watching the whole thing.

But there’s more for viewers interested in exactly how the mountain biker’s harrowing descent was done. MacAskill produced a Making of documentary with behind-the-scenes video that should provide a few insights for drone pilots.

Even a goat can slip

According to Scottish Field, MacAskill’s biking videos have been watched more than 300 million times. If you’ve enjoyed wiping the sweat from your palms, you might enjoy other MacAskill films, such as The Ridge and Wee Day Out.

“As much as I enjoyed riding the Dubh Slabs, the most memorable emotion was the relief and satisfaction heading back over the loch on the boat after finishing the filming, ” he says.

Mountain biking seems a natural subject for FPV photography. But MacAskill clearly sets the handlebars to unheard-of heights.

Written by David MacQuarrie | 4 Feb 2021

A drone pilot who works as a crocodile feeder at a Western Australia park nearly fed his aircraft to the animals when a crocodile lunged at his drone.

Johani Mamid took the incredible video at the Malcolm Douglas Crocodile Park in Broome last month.

The video shows a number of the animals hiding just beneath some duckweed. But when the drone gets too close, they fling themselves out of the water, jaws wide open.

Mamid says he’s surprised at how aggressively the animals reacted.

Still, we are talking about crocodiles here, Mr. Mamid …

‘”I was pretty confident the crocodiles weren’t going to get the drone but that was a risk I was willing to take,'” he told the Daily Mail Australia.

Mamid is a talented videographer and his whole video is worth a view. But if you’re impatient for the lunging, try 0:44, 0:56, 1:30 and especially 1:41.

close calls since starting as a tour guide last year.

“We definitely do fear them because of the level of respect we have for them. They have the strongest bite force out of any animal in the world,” he says. “Their teeth are designed to hold on and never let go.”

Mamid says he’s had a few Park workers must occasionally check the fencing around the reserve. A two-metre long bamboo stick is their only protection.

Crocodile lunges at drone

“Quite often the crocs will come out and try to attack us,” he says. “We go in pairs and whenever a croc comes near us we just whack them over the head with the bamboo. But sometimes the crocs will take the bamboo stick and then you’re surrounded by like 70 crocodiles. That’s why you go in pairs.”

As part of the visitor experience, the guides show tourists baby crocodiles with elastics wrapped around their mouths. But attaching the elastics is murder since the babies are as aggressive as the adults.

“I’ve been bitten and it hurts. They’re not going to kill you but they have razor-sharp teeth and do a bit of a head shake when they bite you,” he says.

Crocodiles lunging at drones is not uncommon

Mamid has a YouTube channel and hopes to help visitors learn more about and respect animals that are nearly as old as dinosaurs and about as friendly.

Written by David MacQuarrie | Jan. 23rd 2021

A West Australian company is set to collaborate with an innovative US firm to develop tech to enable drones to autonomously take off and land on AI-controlled vehicles, Charbel Kadib.

Homegrown Strategic Elements subsidiary Stealth Technologies will work on the project with Planck Aerosystems, which is expected to leverage its vision-based precision technology, capable of landing drones on moving platforms without GPS.

This would support the development of Stealth technologies’ Autonomous Security Vehicle (ASV) for perimeter security in sectors such as transport, energy, defence, government and utilities.

The Stealth and Planck collaboration aims to enable the long runtimes of the ASV to be combined with the high speed of drones.

This would allow the drones to be launched from the ASV at any time while on patrol, which according to Stealth Technologies could double the ASV’s surveillance coverage capabilities.

The collaboration also aims to allow drones to recharge once landed on the ASV before being relaunched.

According to Stealth Technologies, the perspectives of both the ASV and its drone can be combined to give an expanded patrol and surveillance dataset, enabling more AI use cases for mapping, navigation, object and person recognition, object and person tracking, and scene reasoning.

Stealth and Planck have also committed to assessing the potential of integrating mobile tethered drones with the ASV.

This is expected to give additional deployment options for drone-equipped ASVs to work at facilities located near to controlled airspaces and at those that have safety requirements, which normally preclude drone operation.

The project will specifically involve:

• Planck will provide autonomous control engine (ACE) technology for integration into Stealth autonomous vehicles, and any other technologies agreed by the parties;
• The parties will explore commercial, industrial and defence applications and opportunities;
• Planck will provide Stealth a royalty-free, non-exclusive, licence to use software for the purposes of the collaboration for duration of the term; and
• Stealth will pay for any hardware provided under the project, with any further payments to be agreed between the parties on a case-by-case basis.

Written by Staff reporter | November 6, 2020

In this cross-posting from The Conversation,  the University of Salford’s Antonio J Torija Martinez stares into the future to ask how we’ll cope when the drone of drones is everywhere. 

These days almost everyone has either flown a drone or listened to the nasty whining sound they produce. Although small drones (up to 20kg) are about 40 decibels quieter than conventional civil aircraft, they produce a high pitched noise – which people tend to find very annoying.

One NASA study found that drone sounds were more annoying than those made by road vehicles. And my own research has found that the noise of drones is less preferable than that of civil aircraft – even at the same volume.

Part of the problem is that drones often fly at relatively low altitudes over populated areas that are not normally exposed to aircraft noise. This is likely to lead to tensions within the exposed communities. Unquestionably, if the noise issues are not tackled appropriately, they could derail the wider adoption and commercialisation of drones and put at risk the significant societal benefits that they could bring.

For example, small to medium-sized drones are already used for multiple applications such as medical deliveries and the search for missing persons. Another innovation in commercial aviation is the development of electrical vertical takeoff and landing (and possibly autonomous) vehicles to transport people in cities.

Several “urban air mobility” vehicles, or “flying taxis” are currently being developed by different aircraft manufacturers. Both drones and flying taxis will produce sounds significantly different from conventional civil aircraft and will share similar issues regarding noise annoyance.

In 2019, I started a line of research which aimed to answer two big questions: how will communities react to these new vehicles with unconventional noise signatures when they begin to operate at scale? And how can the design of these new vehicles be improved to protect the health and the quality of life of the people living in those communities?

To answer the first question, we investigated how a drone operation could influence the perception of a series of typical sound environments in cities. As drones cannot be flown closer to people than 50m, virtual reality techniques were used to produce highly realistic scenarios with a drone hovering in a selection of urban locations.

This laboratory study found that the noise generated by the hovering of a small quad-copter significantly affected the perception of the sound environment. For instance, an important increase in noise annoyance was reported with the drone hovering, particularly in locations with low volumes of road traffic. This suggested that the noise produced by road traffic could make drone noise less noticeable. So the operation of drones along busy roads might mitigate the increase of noise impact caused in the community.

We are now testing a wide variety of drones, with different operating manoeuvres. We seek to better understand and predict human responses to the drone sounds and to gather meaningful evidence to further develop the regulation of the sounds they produce.

Perception-influenced engineering

By integrating human responses into the design process, the most undesirable noises can be avoided in the earliest stages of vehicle development.

This can either be done directly with subjective testing (human participants assessing and providing feedback for a series of drone noise samples) or through the use of so-called psycho-acoustic metrics which are widely adopted in the automotive industry. These metrics allow an accurate representation of how different sound features (pitch, temporal variations, tones) are perceived. We want to use them to inform the design of drones. For instance, optimising the position of rotors to make drones sound less annoying.

The combination of virtual reality techniques and psycho-acoustic methods to inform the design and operation of drones will avoid costly and inefficient ad-hoc corrections at later stages, going beyond the traditional approach for aircraft noise assessment. But more importantly, if drone manufacturers incorporate these strategies into their designs, they might just build machines that are not only efficient, but also, just that little bit less irritating.

Written by Adam Thorn | December 23, 2020

NSW Farmers together with Tocal College will be holding funded drone training courses in the region over the next few months, delivered by Molong farmer Ben Watts through his company BRALCA.

Farmers of all different generations and farm types are embracing drone use for a variety of applications, and a training course is the perfect starting point for those either keen to learn whether it is suitable for their farm and budget - or those who want to learn how to use them safely and effectively.

Eight ways farmers can utilise drones

1 - Safety: A drone can enable a farmer to see more of who and what is on their property. For example during harvest, a drone can tell where everyone is on the property and ensure they are all safe from harm.

2 - Spraying: Certain drones can be equipped with specialised sprayers that can spray affected crops with pesticide at a much more affordable price than a helicopter or crop duster. Digital mapping also allows the sprayed areas to be much more concentrated and specific.

3 - Seeding: Drones can be fitted with devices that propel a germinated seed through the air, planting them into the ground.

4 - Imaging: Allows farmers to evaluate how crops are faring, comparing paddocks through thermal imaging.

5 - Analysing soil health: Special cameras attached to a drone can detect things like moisture, nutrient and gas levels, at a much higher image quality than a plane or satellite.

6 - Mapping potential plant patterns: Mapping out pre-planting patterns with a drone saves precious man hours.

7 - Checking for diseases: Drone cameras will enable a farmer to check crops and pastures for pests and diseases, and pinpoint the particular trouble spots; which also cuts down on the amount of spray that is needed.

8 - Animal welfare: During lambing season, a drone would be particularly handy to ensure the flock is safe and sound. There is a lot of research currently being undertaken to evaluate the best ways to use a drone in regards to monitoring farm animals.

Farmers may be eligible for a $500 rebate from SafeworkNSW for the purchase of an eligible drone - though to be eligible for a drone rebate you must already own an agricultural quad bike or side-by-side vehicle.

While you can buy hobby drones for under $500, drones that are suitable for farm work start at just under $3000 and can go into the tens of thousands depending on what they are used for.

The Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has a fantastic website - https://www.casa.gov.au/drones - that outlines the rules, regulations and requirements of owning and flying a drone.

The do's and dont's of drone flying according to CASA:

You must

• only fly one drone at a time
• always fly your drone within visual line-of-sight (not binoculars or video screen)

You must not fly your drone

• higher than 120 m (400 ft) above ground level
• closer than 30 m to people
• over or above people at any time or height
• in a way that creates a hazard to another person, aircraft or property
• near emergency situations
• in prohibited or restricted airspace or closer than 5.5 km to a controlled aerodrome or airfield

Proposed dates and locations for training courses:

• Condobolin: February 2
• Tullamore: February 3
• Parkes: February 16
• Cootamundra: March 4
• Young: April 13
• Forbes: April 14
• Manildra: April 15

If you have any questions in relation to the training, please contact Catriona McAuliffe (NSW Farmers Regional Services Manager for the Lachlan and Upper Riverina) on mcauliffec@nswfarmers.org.au or 0488 100 005.

The current funding available is through AgSkilled, which is only available for those working in the grains, cotton, horticulture or viticulture industries.

Written by Kristy Williams | 20 Jan 2021

Like many of you, we’re super-interested in the upcoming DJI FPV drone. And today, we have some details from an insider to share.

The closer a product gets to launch date, the more leaks there are. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, since a growing number of people are in the loop as that date approaches. We know, for example, that many retailers have already had detailed briefings about the product. And, as we saw with the Mini 2, big box retailers receive the product well in advance of the launch date, meaning there’s a chance that shippers, salespeople – and sometimes even customers – will get a glimpse before the word is officially supposed to get out there.

Well today, we have some new information to share with you.

More details about DJI’s FPV drone

We’ve had some contact with someone who appears to be in the know. And they had some very interesting things to say.

For starters, we were pleased to learn that our original take on this machine came very close to nailing it. This piece had a fair bit of informed speculation. And we also were confident in our prediction in this story.

It’s getting closer…

Those stories were based on our knowledge of the company and strategies it might employ to make the new FPV drone as accessible as possible for beginners, but challenging enough for those looking for a full, cinematic FPV experience. Now we can tell you more.

Joystick controller?

We already knew about the controller that will ship with the combo. I mean, we’d seen pictures of it:

DJI's Digital FPV controller

Our source suggests that DJI may well have another trick up its sleeve: An optional joystick-style controller. Here’s what this person told us:

There will also be an additional “controller,” which is like a control stick that exists on fighter jet. Not sure whether DJI will release that accessory with the FPV drone though.

We tend to approach tips like this with healthy skepticism. What are the odds this could be true? Would it fit with an overall plan?

As far as we’re aware, no one has ever before released a joystick as a drone controller – though we have seen joysticks used for the remote operation of military-style drones. Plus, of course, countless gaming pilots have soared through LCD skies using a controller like this:

Might your next radio look like this?

What would be the advantage? Well, a joystick would be far more intuitive to use than sticks. And, as we know, plenty of FPV pilots spend scores of hours on a simulator before they feel comfortable enough to fly in the real world. A joystick would de-complicate a lot of that process.

A shift in how we think of FPV

This actually fits with what we’ve been suggesting all along: The DJI FPV will be a different kind of drone.

Think about this from the company’s perspective. The FPV world is already fairly well established. DJI is a newcomer to this sector, at least in terms of producing a drone. It’s aware that a lot of people are going to be examining this product with a very critical eye. And so it would make sense that a revolutionary new feature, which could really shake up the industry, might be an option for this drone.

Will a joystick be an option for this bird?

While we can easily picture a joystick and see its immediate advantages as a controller, we do have some questions. Most people are used to using joysticks from a stationary surface, with the device suction-cupped to a desk. There aren’t many desks out where you fly…so how would this work? Would you hold it with one hand while flying with the other? Would you sit on the ground? It feels a bit awkward to us, but the concept is so cool that it really feels like this could be a true option.

And, yes, we believe this could be a huge event for FPV. If this is true (and we’ve got a strong hunch this is) – and if pilots liked the feature – it wouldn’t be long before other manufacturers followed suit.

We still like to maintain healthy skepticism, and we note that no images have surfaced – despite all the other leaks – showing this product.

That being said, if DJI were planning to produce a joystick controller, it’s reasonable to assume this would be a very closely guarded secret.

Has the project been delayed?

We never did have an official unveiling date for the DJI FPV drone. But given that retailers were briefed on the product in December, we felt it was reasonable to assume a release sometime January. We’ve now heard rumblings that it will come out later in February. Here again, our source has some information.

“Another reason for the FPV delay is because they need to refilm some demo videos for the drone. The quality simply didn’t match their standard.”

DJI’s videos are superbly produced. The company puts a lot of thought – and money – into its video production. For us, it’s kind of hard to imagine how they could reach a stage in video production where they’d decide they needed to re-film parts of the production.

While the tease aspect fits some of DJI’s previous promotion, the overall promo just doesn’t make a lot of sense. Our guess is that someone cobbled this together either to confuse people or just for fun. If it truly came from DJI (and @OsitaLV doesn’t actually say that it is), you can bet that someone got a dressing down for producing such a sub-par video.

DJI Care Refresh

When we first started writing about the DJI FPV drone project, we suggested the last thing DJI would want would be warranty claims from new pilots crashing their FPV drones. We also suggested the new product would have some of the features we know and love from standard DJI products: Position hold, Return to Home, etc. Here, too, our source has some info:

“They also changed the DJI care policy,” said the insider. 

Originally CARE doesn’t cover full acro mode, but later they thought: this is too dumb; so now CARE covers all three flight modes. And yes, fpv drone does comes with standard, DJI style “position” mode. Ur previous analysis of the fpv drone is quite accurate.

We’ll see when DJI’s FPV drone is released

This is all pretty tantalizing stuff – and it all has a certain ring of truth to it.

The big news here, of course, is the prospect of a completely new type of FPV drone controller. The more we think about this, the more it fits.

Written by Scott Simmie | Jan 6 2021