Drone News & Articles

Since a ruling by the Federal Aviation Administration in 2014 that cleared the use of drones in film and TV production, the acquisition of footage by these unmanned flying machines has become de rigueur for aerial shooting in cases when cranes or aircraft are impractical or unsafe. 

As such, drones have been greeted enthusiastically not only by DPs, who deploy them to secure those hard-to-get shots and angles, but also by location managers, who are responsible for handling filming sites, permitting fees, logistics and safety. 

Mike Fantasia, a supervising location manager on a long list of high-profile films — including “Spider-Man: Homecoming” and the upcoming “Top Gun: Maverick” — has used drones for scouting and planning the details of shoots.

In fact, Fantasia, who is president of the Location Managers Guild Intl., believes in applications beyond just filming. “I can see a drone hoisting a light into the night sky, replacing a crane or manlift, or holding a silk to block or temper the light on a sunny day,” he says. The location pro adds that drones could “even deliver equipment to distant locations.”

A research project at ETH Zurich, the Swiss institute of technology, aims to simplify performance capture for animation. The technique demands multiple sensors shooting an actor from every possible angle. Only two camera angles are usually necessary at a given moment, with the system switching between the fixed sensors as the subject changes direction and orientation. In the ETH study, two drones follow the performer’s movements and automatically reposition themselves to maintain the necessary coverage. In addition to reducing the need to deploy sensors in all directions, the system uses machine-learning algorithms to anticipate the actor’s movements, preemptively repositioning the drones to maintain coverage.

Drones are also being used to carry another futuristic tool that’s quickly becoming important for visual effects: Lidar-capture equipment. Data collected by Lidar (a combination of the words “light” and “radar”) is obtained by sending light pulses across an area, detecting the reflected echo and using the delay to determine the distance of objects from the source. The information produces a 3D map of the area that can be imported into VFX software and altered based on the colors, shadows and behavior that a scene demands. Lidar-capture equipment isn’t much heavier than an everyday digital camera, so it’s well suited for drone flight.

But drones are not taking to the skies as much as some would like. One limiting factor, says Fantasia, is the ongoing discussion around public safety, which may preclude their use in many areas. Despite the FAA ruling, Fantasia explains, drone users face a lot of red tape and must coordinate with additional government agencies to secure permits. And when it comes to the fast-paced needs of TV production, one location manager says, waiting for drone approvals just isn’t feasible.

At issue most often is a rule that requires special permits for shoots that fly drones over individuals who aren’t part of the production, resulting in the time-consuming process of contacting anyone who’s affected. 

An Atlanta shoot of  “Spider-Man: Homecoming” covered about three city blocks, Fantasia says. “We had to contact every property owner to ensure that they were either inside or away from their house, and had to work with people to move a backyard birthday party.”

Philip Sokoloski, a spokesman for Los Angeles permitting agency FilmLA, notes that while there’s extra paperwork involved for productions that use drones, it generally takes no more time to secure a permit — about three days.

Regulations also vary among nations. Location manager Lori Balton, whose credits include the upcoming “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and Disney’s remake of “The Lion King,” was stymied on the latter production by rules prohibiting drones at national and state parks in the U.S. But most countries have no such laws, and drones were “invaluable,” Balton says, when she scouted locations in Central and South America for upcoming Disney film “Jungle Cruise.”

Filmmakers who use drones hope that eventually, as they become more prevalent and prove their safety, they will dispel many of the doubts that are hindering their widespread adoption. 

A shark-spotting drone will be used for the first time to keep surfers safe during this week’s Margaret River Pro, which was cancelled last year after two nearby shark attacks on the same day.

And the State’s Fisheries Department will drop an acoustic receiver in the water during each day’s competition to detect any tagged sharks swimming nearby, as well as provide its 24m vessel Hamelin and crew to “patrol the waters and provide on-water observation and monitoring”.

Organisers hope the extra measures — on top of moving the event to late May to dodge the annual salmon run — will keep visiting surfers safe and prevent a repeat of last year, when WA’s reputation as a tourism destination took a hammering after the contest was cancelled due to the shark threat.

Fisheries has confirmed there would be no change to the shark catch-and-release drum line trial underway in the South West.

That means, if the waves are suitable and the Margaret River Pro moves to Gracetown’s North Point, surfers will be in the water just a few hundred metres from baited drum lines designed to catch big sharks, unless large surf prevents the drum line contractor working.

The globe’s best surfers, including 11-time world champion Kelly Slater and current men’s world crown holder Gabriel Medina, are jetting into WA for the start of the event on Wednesday.

Surfing WA chief executive Mark Lane said the drone and acoustic receiver were new measures this year to “ensure the travelling surfers have confidence that their safety is being looked after”.

“After what happened last year, we want to make sure they’re feeling comfortable and able to do their best in the water,” he said.

Last year, two non-fatal shark attacks on recreational surfers Alejandro Travaglini and Jason Longrass, just hours apart at nearby Gracetown, threw the future of the event into doubt.

Ironically, Mr Travaglini was one of the workforce hired by Surfing WA to set up the contest site at Margaret River this week — the first time he has been able to work since the shark attack just over a year ago that left him with horrific leg injuries.

“I’m surfing again and it feels good to be working again,” he said. “I’m not 100 per cent. I definitely feel it after a full day. There is still nerve damage and pain. But I’m recovering and it feels good to be able to work, and to help set up the comp.”

He also threw his support behind the new anti-shark measures to be introduced this year.

“It’s a good idea to have a drone and the Fisheries boat. The extra measures are a good idea and hopefully will make it that bit safer,” Mr Travaglini said.

Medina and fellow Brazilian professional surfer Italo Ferreira both took to Twitter last year to say they felt unsafe in the water, and the event was cancelled amid speculation the World Surf League (WSL) would dump Margaret River from the elite professional circuit.

But Tourism Minister Paul Papalia secured a sponsorship deal that guaranteed its future until at least 2021.

Yesterday, Mr Papalia said everything possible was being done to minimise the shark threat but he said the event was held “in the wilds of the ocean and there is always some degree of danger”.

Contest director Kieran Perrow said the WSL was excited to return to Margaret River, which “always challenges our surfers”.

Last week, drone delivery service Zipline announced $190 million in new financing, bringing the company’s valuation to $1.2 billion dollars.  In the world of commercial drones – or any startup – that’s a big number, and a big achievement.  With drone delivery not yet fully implemented in most countries, how did Zipline make it?

Whenever Zipline comes up in conversation, I remember an interview I did with co-founder Keenan Wyrobek back in 2016 (Zipline had received $25 million in funding then and was launching their first program in Rwanda).  In that conversation, Wyrobek explained that the co-founders of Zipline didn’t start out as a drone company.  They started out to solve a problem.

“Our contract with Rwanda doesn’t even mention drones,” Wyrobek told me. “We’re couriers – drones were just the best way to solve the logistical problem of delivering supplies in that environment.”   Far from being a “solution in search of a problem,” as the saying goes, Zipline developed a solution around solving a critical problem for developing countries without an extensive ground-based transportation infrastructure.

It’s a significant point.  Governments who understand they are saving lives will adjust regulations to accommodate new technologies.  It’s in part the critical nature of the mission they perform that has allowed Zipline to grow so rapidly.

Since 2016, the company has expanded their reach and honed their offering.  They’ve done many things right – including developing centers of operation which are entirely staffed by local professionals and developing a delivery system that accomodates fragile payload without needing to land and negotiate the problem of the last 50 feet.  The proof is featured on the front page of their website – Zipline drones have completed more than 14,000 lifesaving deliveries.

Zipline’s achievements are worthy of note – and good for the drone industry as a whole.  14,000 deliveries are 14,000 flights proving that drone delivery can be done safely and efficiently: and that’s a message that can spread across continents.

The following is a Zipline press release.

INSTANT DRONE DELIVERY SERVICE ZIPLINE ANNOUNCES $190 MILLION IN NEW FINANCING

Will Help Support Zipline’s Global Expansion

Company Now Valued At Over A Billion Dollars

HALF MOON BAY, CA Friday, May 17th—Today, Zipline, the world’s first and only national-scale drone delivery service, announced it has raised $190 million in new financing, which values the company at over 1 billion dollars. The new funds will support the global expansion of Zipline’s lifesaving service across Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Americas and position the company to serve 700 million people in the next five years.

“There is a growing feeling around the world that technology is not benefitting the vast majority of people,” said Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo. “The old conventional wisdom has been that building a successful technology company requires exploiting people’s personal information or hijacking their attention. Zipline wants to establish a new model for success in Silicon Valley by showing the world that the right technology company with the right mission and the best team can help improve the lives of every person on the planet.”

About The New Funding

Zipline’s business is funded from three streams: both government and business customers pay for the use of Zipline’s instant delivery service; key philanthropic partners help to support the establishment of new distribution centers in low and middle-income markets; and venture capital investment supports scaling the company’s team and technology.

Zipline has raised a new round of financing in two phases over the last year to help support efforts to scale its team and technology across the globe. In the Spring of 2018, Zipline raised $70 million from Katalyst Ventures, Baillie Gifford, GV, Temasek, Bright Success Capital, Goldman Sachs, Oakhouse Partners, Toyota Tsusho Corporation and the Design to Improve Life Fund.

The company also raised $120 million in the Spring of 2019, which included additional investments by Baillie Gifford and a new investor, The Rise Fund, a global Impact fund managed by TPG. Ballie Gifford and The Rise Fund were joined by returning investors Temasek, GV and Katalyst Ventures. The new funding places Zipline’s valuation at over $1.2 billion.

The new investors join some of the most respected investors in the world including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Yahoo founder Jerry Yang, and Stanford University, who have helped to support Zipline mission to bring its life-saving service to every person on the planet. In total, Zipline has raised $225 million from investors since its founding.

The Global Problem

Access to vital health products worldwide is hampered by the last mile problem: the difficulty of supplying medicine from central storage to remotely located patients when and where they need it. In the U.S., this problem requires health systems to tolerate high medicine waste, expensive emergency trips, and sub-optimal care strategies. In far too many other areas, the same problem means that people in need of lifesaving care do not get the medicine they need to survive. Zipline’s medical drone delivery system is designed to eliminate this problem.

How Zipline Works

Zipline’s drone delivery service is dedicated to expanding healthcare access and saving lives around the globe. Health workers place orders by text message and receive their deliveries in 30 minutes on average. Zipline’s drones take off and land from Zipline’s distribution centers, requiring no additional infrastructure at the clinics it serves.

The drones can carry 1.75 kilos of cargo, cruising at 110 kilometers an hour, and have an all-weather round trip range of 160 kilometers. Each Zipline distribution center can deliver to an area of 20,000 km2​ ​, and typically serves 2-8 million people. Deliveries are made from the sky, with the drone descending to a safe height above the ground and air-dropping medicine by parachute to a designated spot at the health centers it serves.

Zipline’s Record To Date

Since launching its drone delivery service in Rwanda in October of 2016, Zipline has flown over one million autonomous kilometers. The company has made more than 13,000 deliveries, about a third of which have been in emergencies when someone’s life was on the line. Zipline now delivers more than 65 percent of Rwanda’s blood supply outside of the capital, Kigali.

In addition to its impact on lifesaving emergencies, Zipline’s just-in-time drone delivery service has helped transform the country’s medical supply chain. To date, this service has helped ensure that hospitals always have access to blood products, increasing the use of rare and specialized blood products by 175 percent and reducing waste and spoilage by over 95 percent. In December of 2018, the Government of Rwanda expanded its blood delivery partnership with Zipline by adding the delivery of 169 other critical and lifesaving medical products, like emergency vaccines, routine vaccines, and essential medical supplies. Zipline also launched a second distribution center in eastern Rwanda, allowing the company to provide lifesaving medicine to most of the country’s 12 million citizens within minutes.

In April of 2019, Zipline partnered with the Government of Ghana to launch the world’s largest medical drone delivery service. The revolutionary new service uses drones to make on-demand, emergency deliveries of 148 different vaccines, blood products, and life-saving medications. The service will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, from four distribution centers—each equipped with 30 drones—and deliver to 2,000 health facilities serving 12 million people across the country. Together, all four distribution centers will make up to 600 on-demand delivery flights a day on behalf of the Government of Ghana. Each Zipline distribution center has the capacity to make up to 500 flights per day.

The expansion of Zipline’s operations in both Ghana and Rwanda will increase the number of health facilities the company serves by almost 100x. In the last six months, Zipline has gone from one distribution in one country delivering blood to 21 hospitals to operating six distribution centers in two countries delivering more than 170 different vaccines, blood products, and medications to 2,500 health facilities serving close to 22 million people

Zipline’s Global Expansion in 2019 and Beyond

Zipline’s commercial partnerships with Ghana and Rwanda are expected to help save tens of thousands of lives over the next several years. Zipline’s goal is to serve 700 million people in the next five years. The company is hard at work catching up to demand to expand drone delivery services to developed and developing countries across Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Americas throughout 2019, including the United States. Zipline is working with the U.S. state of North Carolina to launch its medical drone delivery as a part of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) UAS Integration Pilot Program (UASIPP) in Q3 of 2019.

About Zipline

Zipline is an automated logistics company based in California. The company—which includes seasoned engineering and operations veterans from teams such as SpaceX, Tesla, Google, and Boeing—designs and operates an autonomous system for delivering lifesaving medicine to the world’s most difficult to reach places. Zipline’s mission is to provide every human on Earth with instant access to vital medical supplies. The most respected investors in the world support Zipline, including Baillie Gifford, Goldman Sachs, Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, GV, The Rise Fund, a global Impact fund managed by TPG, Toyota Tsusho Corporation, Temasek, Oakhouse Partners, Yahoo founder Jerry Yang, and Stanford University.

In the US, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) closely governs the deployment of drones for commercial purposes, limiting the potential benefits gained within and beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) and by autonomous drone flight. In September 2018, Xcel Energy was granted permission to launch the first BVLOS drone flight by a US utility for ongoing inspections. According to a CBS Denver Report, Xcel believes its drone program will cost approximately $200-$300 per mile, compared with up to $1,600 per mile for the cost of a helicopter for comprehensive visual inspection. As of the time of writing, Xcel is the only US utility to gain authorization from the FAA for an operational, non-pilot BVLOS program.

However, internationally (particularly in Europe and the Asia Pacific regions), recent utility drone activity within visual line of sight and BVLOS has picked up significantly over the past year. Major initiatives and new drone technology are growing the market for drones for utility asset inspection. A full analysis of the benefits of drones for utilities and the global forecast through 2026 can be found in Navigant Research's report, Drones and Robotics for Transmission and Distribution Operations. Notably, the forecast begins to grow exponentially in the early 2020s, especially in the Asia Pacific region, as regulations around the world are expected to be relaxed.

Indonesia

Terra Drone Indonesia, a segment of Japan-based Terra Drone Corporation, announced in April 2019 that it has successfully and effectively monitored and mapped transmission lines in Indonesia. In just 10 minutes, the fixed wing Terra Wing drone was able to monitor and map 2 km (1.24 miles) of transmission lines and four transmission towers. Together with Terra Drone’s in-house software, the data is analyzed and a 3D model is produced.

Australia

In January 2019, Israel-based automated drone company Airobotics was granted the first (and only) approval by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to operate multi-rotor, automated drones BVLOS with no aircrew needed. The automated platform by Airobotics is pilotless and completely automates the inspection process with on-demand, pre-programmed flight paths supported with payload dropoff and battery exchange modules in the field. Airobotics offers its solution to utilities for gas and electric infrastructure inspections where regulations allow.

South Korea

On March 10, 2019, Doosan Mobility Innovation, a subsidiary of Seoul-based Doosan Group, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Korean Electric Power Corporation (Kepco) and Daejeon Electric Power Research Institute. The MOU was for the continued development of hydrogen fuel cell-powered drones for long distance transmission line inspection. Doosan’s fuel cell drones can fly for up to 110 minutes, compared to the 10- to 30-minute flight time of many battery-powered drones equipped with cameras and sensors. These drones, powered by Doosan’s DP20 powerpacks, are to be controlled with a Kepco-developed communications and control platform and guided BVLOS along pre-programmed flight paths to inspect and monitor long distance transmission lines. Official pilot program details have not been announced, but Doosan has indicated that test flights are ongoing and that the service is anticipated to become available to utilities worldwide in late 2019.

Landfill operators have been putting cameras that capture imagery and data on drones for a few years to, for instance, calculate airspace. But a few innovators are working on a new concept: drone-bound sensors to measure methane and other gases and, in some cases, to do more.

One company is fine-tuning technology to automate the federally regulated surface emission monitoring (SEM) procedure. Another is doing interesting work with drones and laser. And a university researcher is looking to combine multiple drones’ abilities to boost their potential power.

Sniffer Robotics’ patent-pending technology programs a preplanned path that the drone flies.

“We designed the system to ensure that the New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) requirements for spacing (monitoring every 30 meters across the landfill) can be met. It collects samples from the required distance from the ground. And it reports gas methane exceedances to surveyors in the required timeframe,” says David Barron, chief technology officer for Sniffer Robotics.

A sample inlet is dragged across the landfill surface; a pump located on the drone transports the collected gas to the detector, which is also mounted on the drone. The device captures methane values and an image and tags the image with GPS coordinates. Exceedance information is pushed to a web portal along with associated imagery of that exceedance location.

“Alternatively, the surveyor walks the entire landfill at 30-meter spacing. It’s an exhaustive and hazardous job. Meanwhile, this technology measures methane concentrations five times faster than manual inspection and it does so in single-digit parts per million. So, it reduces injury risk for workers and increases precision and efficiency,” says Barron.

There are still technical challenges to overcome. But Sniffer has demonstrated core competencies at test sites and is in discussions with site owners and regulators about the solution.

“We are closing in on being able to execute surface emission monitoring per current NSPS regulations (primarily, Method 21). But we are cognizant that Method 21 was not enacted with any notion of drones automating the SEM procedure, so we have just begun talks with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). We need to make the regulatory community comfortable with the method and integrity of the data,” says Barron.

As Sniffer fine-tunes the features around compliance, site operators are still using the technology for methane monitoring.

Bridger Photonics has a prototype that incorporates a drone that flies a preprogrammed flight and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology, which illuminates a target with a laser. The technology enables measurement of gas that’s between the sensor and a specific point on the ground.

“If I know where the sensor is when the measurement is taken, and I know the distance between the sensor and where the laser beam hit the ground, then I know the coordinates of every point. I can say this is how much methane was in the atmospheric line between the sensor and this specific point on the ground. This allows me to make spatial maps of methane concentration for various purposes such as leak detection and emissions monitoring,” says Mike Thorpe, chief technology officer of Bridger Photonics.

The company, which has funding from the Environmental Research & Education Foundation, has proven the technology can map methane concentrations and identify hot spots and is now working to prove it can be an alternate technique to the Method 21 surface monitoring process.

Photonics is also beginning to work on a more efficient method for determining emission rates across whole landfills.

“We proved the method to measure emission rates at an oil and gas facility at Colorado State University. By fall, we will do the first landfill test to validate our results,” says Thorpe.

Researchers at the University of Michigan are mounting different sensors on one drone that test not only for methane but for other compounds like carbon monoxide to assess risk for underground fires and sulfites to help identify odor sources.

“By putting these [existing] sensors on one drone to scan the whole landfill, we collect data types for different purposes and get a more comprehensive picture of the landfill’s health or condition,” says Dimitrios Zekkos, an associate professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

He and his team are also building integrative pieces intended to work with these drones to devise a comprehensive system.

“You need to collect data, but there are other necessary components like a data acquisition board that we are designing to integrate with the rest of the system. The goal is to provide a landfill health assessment methodology where we can integrate big data from multiple sensors flown on a drone and for that drone to be able to process it and make decisions in flight,” says Zekkos.

While there is much to be vetted, Zekkos says what is known to date is, “You can get more and better data at lower costs by flying many sensors at one time on one drone.”

A crop-spraying drone has taken its first legal flight in South Africa - a big breakthrough which could radically transform farming in South Africa.

After a lengthy process, the DJI drone (the AGRAS MG-1P model) was allowed to fly earlier this month.

The South African Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) granted a licence to Durban-based ROC holder DC Geomatics, who operates the drone. The company proved drones equipped with crop spraying operation specifications are safe to use, passing CAA regulations. The licence is a major milestone for Tim Wise, who is planning to get at least 16 of these drones in the air in the country.   

His company, PACSys, together with the Agridoc agriculture division of DC Geomatics, teamed up 18 months ago to get the drones approved for commercial use.

It's been worth the wait, says Wise. He believes the crop-spraying drones can improve sugar cane returns, by being able to spray the 25% of missed land aircraft can’t really spray due to challenging terrain. This will be a massive boost to cash-strapped sugar farmers who are competing against low-priced imports, while battling water shortages and pests. 

“Farmers need every inch of the land to get the full value out of their production to make their margins,” said Wise.

Tim Wise. Photo Jay Caboz

Wise, who comes from a family of pesticide contractors, is one of the first registered drone-spraying pilots in South Africa. 

Drones are ideal for use in KZN.
The drones can be automated to fly on a fixed route and at a fixed height above the crop.
Small farmers may benefit 

The rolling hills of the KwaZulu-Natal sugar cane farms. Supplied.

Although sugar cane is the third largest food crop in the country by area (after maize and wheat), the average field size in the industry is between 5 and 10 hectares and planted in mostly undulating terrain, says Wise.  

By contrast, maize and wheat’s average field sizes can be as much as 200 hectares and are typically planted in flatter areas. 

In KZN, crops are typically sprayed from fixed-wing planes, microlights or helicopters.

Drones can get much closer to crops than planes - to approximately 1.5 to 3 metres above the plants. This allows for more precise application, and is close enough to spray almost 100% of field areas of this challenging terrain. 

It's important to get as close as you can when it comes to a process called ‘ripening’, which is when applicators apply chemicals on the cane to enhance sucrose production 6 and 8 weeks before harvest.

Overspray due to challenging terrain.

Traditional methods can also result in inconsistent and uneven application of ripeners, which is called "overspray". This in essence means the sugar cane is "effectively nuked", says Wise. The results can leave strips of unevenly ripened brown sugar cane that is of a lesser quality than evenly sprayed parts.

Overspray can also drift to neighbouring sugar cane fields that are not yet due for treatment. A reason why pilots will err on the side of caution leaving edges of fields untouched.  

Flying too high can result in overspray on neighbouring fields, which might not be ready for ripener. Supplied.

It also poses a challenge when applying insecticide, where inconsistent spraying could result in the pest developing a resistance to a remedy. 

The drones can be automated to fly a fixed route, at a fixed height above the crop.

This is thanks to sensors and GPS mapping on the drones that are smart enough to adjust their height according to the terrain. This allows for farmers to remove human error and maximize the surface area of fields. 

According to Wise, drones also more fuel efficient, using up to 60% less fuel (used in generators to charge the batteries), than in manned aircraft. 

Crop drones have worked on similar sized cotton fields in Xinjian, China, where 3,000 drones are being used to spray an area of more than 4,000 square kilometres. Here drones can cover 40 times the area a human would be able to spray in a single day. 

The drones have been waiting in storage. Supplied.

According to Wise, many small farmers have been denied quality aerial pesticide applications, because they are based in remote areas, or have fields that are too small to make it cost effective to spray using standard aerial application.

Drones can help these farmers as they can undertake multiple flights in multiple locations in one day, and can be transported from the back of a bakkie.

Before being able to fly commercially each of the drones will still need to be individually licensed. 

As a hobbyist (and occasional professional) drone pilot, I have often wondered what Hollywood filmmakers are flying with. This information is often kept under wraps, as many pilots are not allowed to discuss what films they work on or what equipment they use. We found one drone operator at AUVSI 2019 that was more than willing to share. Some of the cameras they use are surprising, and the drones that lift those cameras are some of the biggest in the business.

The variety of cameras that Hollywood is putting in the air is not surprising. While my Mavic 2 Pro is awesome, it isn’t on the short list of go-to cameras used in Hollywood. Every director has their favorite, and some of them even shoot on film. That’s right, film. The stuff that is spooled up on a reel. Whether digital or film, these cameras are not small and neither are the drones that lift them. You might suspect that DJI dominates on film sets like they do in so many other drone markets. For sure, drones like the Inspire 2 have an important role, but even the massive Matrice 600 has a maximum payload of about 5.5 kg (12 pounds). I met with the drone maker and operator XM2 Cine to learn more about the cameras used in the movies and the massive drones they build to carry them.

XM2 Cine

XM2 isn’t satisfied just making drones or just using drones to film – they do both. The Australia-based company builds and customizes the drones they need in order to be sure they have the best drone for the job. Their biggest drone, the Sierra has a maximum payload of 30 kg (65 lbs). With that kind of lifting power, the Sierra can carry more than 5 times the weight of the Matrice 600. You can buy one for your self, but it will set you back 100,000 Aussi bucks (about $70,000).

This beast of a drone carries 8 huge lithium batteries and weighs 150 pounds.

Despite being based in Australia, XM2 is no stranger to Hollywood. The list of movies and series that they have worked on includes Pirates of the Caribbean, Aquaman, and the upcoming Star Wars, Episode 9. They are specialists not only in traditional video capture but also in aerial video “plates” that are intended as backdrops for complex visual effects (VXF).

A small sampling of the projects that XM2 has worked on

The Cameras

When it comes to cameras in the air, directors are not willing to compromise. It should be no surprise that they often want to use the same cameras that they use on the ground. Here is a short list of just some of the cameras that XM2 has used on various movie sets.

• Arri 235 – If there were a film camera designed for a drone, it might be the Arri 235. At under 4 kg, the Arri 235 is about as compact as you can get for a 35 mm film camera.
• RED Monstro 8K – Forget 4K, the RED Monstro 8K can record 8192 x 4320 video at 60 frames per second on a 46 mm diagonal sensor. The compact body doesn’t come cheap, it costs about $80,000 for the camera body.
• Nokia Ozo 360° VR Camera – XM2 is no stranger to virtual reality. The latest Ozo camera sports 8 2K x 2K cameras ensuring that no matter where you look you have high definition. The XM2 Sierra can carry one on the top and one on the bottom of the drone.
• Arri Alexa 65 – The XM2 Sierra is the first drone in the world designed to carry the ultimate 6K digital video camera. With a 65 mm sensor, the Alexa 65 is the ultimate videography machine.
• Logmar Magellan 65 mm Film Camera – If you want big film in the air then the XM2 Sierra is up to the task. XM2 COO Aidan Kelly tells us that the Sierra has also carried 75 mm film cameras.
• XM2 Stingray – XM2 has designed custom payloads including the XM2 Stingray, an array of three Alexa Mini cameras.

See the table below for a more complete list of cameras that XM2 drones support.

The cameras and imaging systems that XM2 works with and the drones that carry them

The FAA Aerospace Forecast released May 1 (covering fiscal years 2019-2039) is in many respects similar to the 2018 version, though the agency underestimated the growth of Part 107 aircraft registrations, and, to a lesser degree, the increase in the remote pilot population. About 116,000 remote pilots held certificates by the end of 2018, approximately 10,000 more than the agency expected.

General aviation is another story, particularly piston aircraft and their pilots. Both are expected to decline at a steady rate of about 1 percent per year over the coming two decades.

“The active general aviation fleet is projected to remain around its current level, with the declines in the fixed-wing piston fleet being offset by increases in the turbine, experimental, and light sport fleets,” the FAA wrote. “The largest segment of the fleet, fixed wing piston aircraft, is predicted to shrink over the forecast period by 25,645 aircraft (an average annual rate of -0.9 percent). Unfavorable pilot demographics, overall increasing cost of aircraft ownership, coupled with new aircraft deliveries not keeping pace with retirements of the aging fleet are the drivers of the decline.”

Light sport aircraft are expected to buck that trend, reversing a decline seen in recent years. The light sport aircraft fleet is now expected to double in number by 2039.

Hours flown and active pilot certificates are two more measures the FAA tracks, and they mirror the trends expected to produce overall declines in piston airplanes and private pilots, while an increase in the turbine aircraft fleet (and turbine pilots, many if not most training for airline jobs or already employed as such) is expected to offset the declines, leaving the overall manned pilot population and flight activity little changed at the end of the forecast period.

“The number of active general aviation pilots (excluding students and ATPs) is projected to decrease about 13,250 (down 0.2 percent yearly) between 2018 and 2039,” the FAA wrote. “The ATP category is forecast to increase by 25,755 (up 0.7 percent annually). The much smaller category of sport pilots are predicted to increase by 3.0 percent annually over the forecast period. On the other hand, both private and commercial pilot certificates are projected to decrease at an average annual rate of 0.6 and 0.1 percent, respectively until 2039.”

At present rates, Part 107 remote pilots will outnumber instrument-rated pilots (of all certificate types) by 2023, if not sooner.

Hobby drones leveling off

The new forecast for the future GA fleet size, activity, and pilot population is largely consistent with 2018 predictions. The same can be said for the FAA predictions of non-commercial unmanned aircraft registrations and recreational drone pilots, who are not currently required to earn a certificate though Congress has empowered the FAA to require some amount of formal training for drone hobbyists. The FAA posits that the consumer drone craze appears to be winding down: “The pace of registration in 2018 slowed considerably compared to 2016 and 2017. Monthly owner registration now stands at half of what was observed a year ago.”

The FAA estimates that with more than 900,000 individuals now registered to operate one or more drones weighing .55 pounds or more, about 1.2 million small drones are being flown for non-commercial purposes, i.e., for fun. The number of hobby drones (always an estimate because an individual hobbyist can register any number of aircraft under the same number), grew 13 percent year over year.

“However, like in all other technologies including hobby items, (e.g., cell phones and video game consoles; and prior to that, video cameras, and video players), the trend in model aircraft is likely to slow as the pace of falling prices diminishes and the early adopters begin to experience limits in their experiments or simply eagerness plateaus.”

(Thank you, FAA, for giving us this opportunity to ponder “eagerness plateaus.”)

While the number of non-commercial drones is expected to plateau this year, climbing slightly thereafter to around 1.4 million by 2023, no such leveling off is expected in the Part 107 fleet. The FAA has much more data about commercial unmanned aircraft operations because every drone flown under Part 107 must be individually registered, Part 107 pilots were surveyed to get a better handle on how drones are used, and other factors.

“Given the trend observed in the registrations, information from the survey, review of available industry forecasts, and internal research, together with market/industry research, we project that the non-model fleet by 2023 will likely (i.e., base scenario) be three times larger than the current number of non-model aircraft. As the present base (i.e. cumulative total) gets larger, we anticipate the growth rate of the sector will slow down over time,” the FAA wrote. “Nevertheless, the sector will be much larger than what we understood as recently as last year. Given the accelerated registration over the last year, we now project the non-model sUAS sector will have over 835,000 aircraft in 2023 (i.e., end of 5-year period). Important to note here is that last year’s forecasted sUAS for 2022 (452,000 units) will be surpassed sometime towards the later part of 2019 or early 2020 if the present registration trend continues. This will shorten the forecast outcome period by almost 2-3 years.”

Drone job opportunities

The FAA survey results on the types of commercial operations being undertaken are consistent with other data collected by private analysts: About one in five operations conducted under Part 107 are flown for filming and entertainment (including live event coverage), and a similar number fall into the research, training, and education category. Utility and industrial uses across the electric and petroleum energy sectors have grown in number to represent about 16 percent of all Part 107 missions; real estate (13 percent) and construction industry applications (8 percent) are also leading use cases.

Regulatory changes now being considered could help drive operation numbers up in many of these sectors, and the FAA expects remote pilots will outnumber instrument-rated pilots (including private, commercial, and airline transport pilot certificate holders) by 2022 or 2023.

“RPs are set to experience tremendous growth following the growth trends of the non-model sUAS sector,” the FAA wrote. “Non-model activities may require almost 350,000 RPs in 5 years, a three-fold increase, providing tremendous opportunities for growth in employment associated with commercial activities of UAS. Potential for RPs may enhance even more if larger UAS are used in commercial activities and urban air mobility becomes a reality in the near future.”

AOPA first welcomed remote pilots to our ranks in 2017 and has since added thousands of pilots who hold only a Part 107 remote pilot certificate, along with tens of thousands more who hold one or more manned aircraft certifications and ratings in addition to a remote pilot certificate. The association offers many drone-related benefits for members, including discounts on training, conference admission, networking, the AOPA Drone Pilot newsletter, and discounted commissions and preferential access to certain jobs through PrecisionHawk’s Droners.io job matching network.

Urban air mobility

Uber has been working with aircraft makers of all shapes and sizes to create a network of on-demand air transportation connecting rooftops in cities around the world. In 2017, Uber set an ambitious goal of commencing revenue passenger flights in 2023, though the FAA has a somewhat less ambitious timeline in mind for the arrival of passenger-carrying electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. This new generation of aircraft may be initially certified to fly with human pilots, though some hope to make them autonomous on day one, and autonomy is the end goal for nearly all projects now on drawing boards.

The FAA noted NASA’s work in this arena, and that there are significant hurdles to clear before you can hail a ride to a rooftop.

“Studies sponsored by NASA were undertaken by two consulting firms and are presently under review from expertise within the government and academia. Executive summaries of the two reports suggest, broadly speaking, the following: (a) UAS may play a significant role in transforming short-haul urban air transportation, e.g., airport shuttle, air taxi, air ambulance, last-mile parcel delivery, etc.; (b) substantial financial and business opportunities exist, but there are significant technological, operational, and regulatory challenges including issues involving public perceptions and acceptance; and (c) gradual integration of sUAS into the overall system may facilitate integration of UAM by around 2030.”

The physics of eVTOL flight remain challenging, particularly with regard to batteries, which will have to get far more efficient than today’s models to sustain flights beyond 10-15 minutes without wings, though many minds are working on that.

Space shots

Virgin Galactic is on the cusp of shooting paying customers into space, and they are not alone in having such ambitions in the civilian spaceflight sector. Overall, including space cargo operations, the FAA anticipates the pace of permitted launch and reentry operations to continue picking up in the near term, with 50 or more launch and reentry permits expected to be issued in 2021.

“Looking further afield, there are several companies in the regulatory pipeline seeking authority to land commercial vehicles on the Moon, establish private-sector space stations, service satellites on-orbit, and establish launch sites using non-traditional technologies like railguns and tube launchers,” the FAA wrote. “Extensive FAA resources will be needed to determine how these unprecedented commercial space ventures will impact public safety and U.S. national interests.”

A drone light show was held in Bangkok on Monday to celebrate the completion of the coronation ceremony for Thailand's newly crowned King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

Vajiralongkorn became king after the 2016 death of his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who reigned for seven decades, but it wasn't until his formal coronation on Saturday he became a monarch with full regal powers based on the nation's traditions.

The drones were sent up into the night sky in a display of various images, such as a map of Thailand, a picture of the king and the words "Long Live the King."

Thailand’s king carried through Bangkok on second day of coronation activities

 The procession of elephants outside the Grand Palace Credit: Rapeephat Sitichailapa/AP

As part of the celebrations, 11 white-painted elephants gathered with their handlers before Bangkok’s Grand Palace to pay respect to the monarch.

Hundreds of mahouts, or handlers, dressed in royal yellow sang the royal anthem and knelt with their elephants before a portrait of King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

The elephants, which came from across the country and had their tusks garlanded, trumpeted at the end of the ceremony.

“I am delighted for His Majesty that everyone shows their respect to him, even the elephants showed their respect for him. And they did it so well,” said Phuraporn Gorgerd, one of those attending the event.

Thais consider white elephants a sacred symbol of royal power and an elephant adorned the national flag until 1917.

The south-east Asian country has had a constitutional monarchy since 1932, when a revolution ended absolute rule by kings.

Monarchs are still regarded as almost divine and seen as a unifying presence in a country that has suffered regular political instability as it rotates between elected governments and military rule.

The king and other top members of the royal family are protected by one of the world's strictest lese majeste laws, which makes criticism punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

America’s infrastructure is past its prime. The American Society of Civil Engineers gives it a D+ grade. The ASCE notes that many bridges, roads, the energy grid, railways, ports, airports, and water systems are past their designed lifespans. But maintaining infrastructure takes investment. For the decade spanning 2016 to 2025, we’ve managed to allocate less than half of what’s needed to maintain and repair surface roads and bridges alone. That leaves a gap of $1.1 trillion.

The work is expensive and slow, and it can be unsafe. Workers must drive remote roads, trim trees, climb towers, and work near high-speed traffic. And, they’re on the front lines after a natural disaster.  

Using drones to inspect infrastructure is part of the solution to the backlog. More importantly, drones can help us dramatically improve our preventive maintenance going forward. Drones can help to scope work faster and deliver better quality data regarding needed repairs. Plus, they’re safer than most alternatives and usually cost less.

Drones make it a lot easier to check interstate bridges for cracks, survey thousands of miles of transmission and distribution lines, monitor pipelines, and so much more. Here are eight examples of how drones are helping public agencies and engineering firms save money on infrastructure inspections, across the electric power, transportation, oil and gas, renewables, and water system sectors.

1. Drones for transmission and distribution lines

Engineers and field workers already use drones for many aspects of utility operations, including power line inspections. The cost savings are significant. During post-Hurricane Maria restoration work in Puerto Rico, a drone team from Southern Co. used drones to pull 72,000 feet of rope for conductor wire. Work that in the past would have taken six to eight months took just eight weeks.

We can expect even more efficiencies (time and money) as beyond-visual-line-of-site (BVLOS) inspections for transmission and distribution lines become mainstream for monitoring the millions of miles of electric lines crisscrossing the country.

2. Bridges, highways, culverts, underpasses, and overpasses

The cost of a single under bridge inspection vehicle (UBIV), required for traditional inspections, runs between $500,000 to $1 million, with per day operations ranging from $2,000 to $3,500. Lane or shoulder closures to accommodate this equipment adds between $500 and $2,500 per day to the cost. The Minnesota Department of Transportation found that using drones for bridge inspection offsets some or all of these costs depending on the bridge configuration and location. Their trial of drone-assisted inspections saved an average of 40 percent over traditional methods, and provided far superior data and reporting, like 3D modeling, which is leading to more informed decisions on investments in bridge maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation.

3. Drones for oil and gas pipelines

Oil and gas (O&G) and produced water (a salty byproduct of oil refining) are routinely transported through 10 million kilometers of pipelines worldwide. The global O&G industry spends $37 billion a year monitoring the above- and below-ground pipes. Drones can reduce traditional surveilling costs by nearly 90 percent, prevent environmental disasters, and head off property damage. Contamination from produced water leaks, for example, kills vegetation and can ruin an entire crop on farmland, with clean-up costs in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Drone inspections can swiftly survey hundreds of miles of pipeline, producing aerial imagery that pinpoints landscape changes that indicate pipeline leaks. Such early leak detection by drones is saving one Oklahoma pipeline owner up to 90 percent in remediation costs.

4. Other O&G infrastructure

Storage tanks, offshore platforms, flare stacks—UAVs provide far greater visibility on sensitive equipment far more efficiently. In-line nondestructive testing, leakage surveys, and LiDAR 3D imaging are a few of the solutions O&G companies use. One drone company conducted a full North Sea oil platform scope at 20 percent of the cost of traditional rope access inspection. Five live flare tower inspections saved an Egyptian petrochemicals firm $4 million in reduced shutdown costs.

5. Solar plant drone inspections

A global consulting firm estimates drones cut the cost of thermographic inspections of utility-scale solar farms between 30 and 40 percent. Data collection using infrared imaging for a 75 MW, 500-acre facility lowers inspection time from about a month to about a week, with fewer workers.

6. Wind turbine drone inspections

Drones mounted with infrared thermography allow wind power generators to examine blades inside and out, an advance leap over manual and ground-based camera inspections. One global UAS solutions provider delivers drone inspections of wind turbines at 30 to 50 percent lower cost than traditional methods.

7. Dams and other water system structures

Aqueducts, hydroelectric equipment, fish ladders on older dams, reservoirs, culverts, canal locks, and treatment plants are all essential infrastructure than can benefit from drones. Collecting dense point clouds by drones is an ideal application for dam inspections, and any structure with a complex shape. The highly accurate 3D and photographic models generated allow managers to keep eyes on the hardest-to-access places and move to a more proactive, predictive maintenance model. One Italian use case suggests inspection costs can be reduced by 40 to 60 percent as a result.

8. Drones for railroad inspections

Rail inspection was one of the first approved uses of BVLOS inspections in America. The U.S. alone has 170,000 miles of track (not to mention bridges, poles, yards, etc.) that require regular safety checks for wear and tear, vegetation management, rock falls, security, and post-weather-event evaluations. Drones dramatically speed up these inspections as well as topographical surveys done for new track and structures. Eliminating the need for “possessions” (traffic shutdowns during inspections) and reduced labor costs (the average rail inspector salary is nearly $74K) are two big areas of savings.

Beyond cost savings: drone inspections are a revenue play

As drones mature as a technology, government agencies, utilities, and enterprises charged with running infrastructure will look beyond its cost and risk benefits to drones as a revenue opportunity. Solar utilities will improve energy production based on more granular data from drone inspections; one generator estimated $42,000 in additional revenue resulting from repairs typically missed by a manual inspection. Reduced downtimes for wind turbines will improve output by over 75 percent according to one estimate.

And connected drones, powered by emerging 5G technology, will open up new opportunities for infrastructure inspections and maintenance no one’s yet thought of, making BVLOS, autonomous flights, and remote deployments part of regular operations.

Climate change increases the urgency

Weather-related power outages, coupled with aging infrastructure, cost the U.S. economy an inflation-adjusted average somewhere between $18 billion and $75 billion per year. The mega-storms that are becoming more common skew this to the high end. Utilities, government agencies, and private enterprises understand that deferred maintenance can’t wait any longer—and that ignoring things until they break will just cost us all more.

UAS provides infrastructure managers with better, faster, cheaper data that helps them identify components and structures at highest risk of failure. Drones make it possible to do inspections a lot more frequently, an important factor for aged infrastructure. Applied broadly, drone technology can hasten the big fixes that are needed.