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Xiaomi's Mi Drone is pretty affordable for what it does
We knew it was coming, so it's not a total surprise. But, the very fact that Xiaomi -- best known for its phones -- is getting into the drone business is a bit of an eyebrow raiser. Today, the company revealed the Mi Drone, a 4K camera-wielding quadcopter that looks more than a little like DJI's Phantom series. The two Chinese firms are now technically rivals, of course, as more and more companies decide they want a slice of the (apparently booming) quadcopter business. No one was expecting Xiaomi to reinvent the wheel, but there was a good chance it'd be competitive on price: 2,999 yuan (about $460), which is considerably cheaper than even DJI's $799 Phantom 3 4K. "We want everyone to be able to afford good products. That was why I set up Xiaomi in the first place," CEO Lei Jun added.
Xiaomi will launch its first drone on May 25th
Chinese consumer electronics maker Xiaomi looks set to add a drone to its range of products next week. The company has already begun teasing a May 25th launch event on its official forum, posting what appears to be a first look its new quadcopter and asking users to guess what the product will be called. Given the forum post has the title "Mi Drone," Xiaomi may have already given the game away.
UK government says BA plane strike probably wasn't a drone
Reports of a drone hitting a plane at Heathrow Airport may have been inaccurate. Responding to MP questions in the House of Commons, transport secretary Patrick McLouglin said: "The incident which was reported on the 17th of April, it's now thought that was not a drone incident." British Airways flight B727 was approaching the London airstrip at 12:50pm from Geneva, with 132 passengers on board. The pilot reported an object striking the aircraft, which spiralled into reports of a UAV.
DJI app helps you find fellow drone lovers
There's a social network for everything. Dog owners, foodies, gamers -- you name it, there's an app that will connect you with like-minded people. So of course, it was inevitable that one would eventually be made for drone owners too. DJI has taken the plunge with DJI+Discover, a major update to its DJI Store app on iOS and Android. It allows anyone to create a profile and connect with fellow drone enthusiasts, whether that's simply to hang out, get tuition or ask which model you should be buying next.
US Navy's solar drone flies from and lands on water
Unlike most quadcopters, the Aqua-Quad doesn't take off from solid ground. Dr. Kevin Jones and his team from the Naval Postgraduate School developed it to fly straight up from the ocean or any body of water. And it can land back on water after it has fulfilled its mission, staying on or under the surface until it's deployed again. According to New Scientist, the Aqua-Quad (PDF) could be used to replace sonobuoys to search for submarines, especially enemy subs that might be lurking in the depths of the country's oceans.
NASA's flying methane meter built for Mars finds work on Earth
Just as new military technologies often trickle down to civilian uses, a high-tech methane detector originally developed to detect gases on Mars has found a new role here on Earth. NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab built the the Open Path Laser Spectrometer (OPLS) and have affixed it to a standard quadcopter. And given that greenhouse gas emissions are currently at a 30-year high, according to the UN, this pipeline inspector can't come soon enough.
Delivery drone flies drinks and balls to golfers in Japan
Rakuten, just like Amazon, is experimenting with drones that can quickly deliver goods to its customers. Unlike Jeff Bezos' company, however, the e-commerce giant is starting small with a service designed for golfers. From May, players at a specific course in Japan's Chiba prefecture will be able to take out their phone and request some new golf balls or refreshments. A Mini Surveyor drone developed by the Autonomous Control Systems Laboratory -- a company from Chiba which Rakuten has now invested in -- will then fly them over from a base station near the course's clubhouse.
Even expensive police drones are easy to hijack, hacker says
Authorities shouldn't trust their UAVs too much, even if they're of the more expensive variety. Nils Rodday, a security researcher working for IBM, demonstrated at the RSA security conference in San Francisco how a high-tech, pricey police drone* can be hijacked. Someone with the skills can take over its controls from as far as a mile away, using only a laptop and a USB radio chip. According to Wired, Rodday discovered that it's possible to get in between a police/military quadcopter's controller module or "telemetry box" and its real pilot's tablet when he was a graduate student at the University of Twente in the Netherlands.
DJI's Phantom 4 comes with obstacle avoidance and 'speed' mode
Smarter, leaner, faster, stronger? That's the promise with DJI's Phantom 4, announced today, in what appears to be the most significant upgrade to the range yet. DJI's flagship consumer drone doesn't just get an aesthetic make over (though it did finally get one, of sorts), it also sports some new technology not even found on many pro craft: obstacle avoidance. There's also a new vision-based smart follow feature and a bevy of other upgrades. Let's get right into it.
British firm makes first quadcopter flight over English Channel
A British commercial drone company has sealed its place in the record books after successfully completing the first quadcopter flight over the English Channel. Earlier this month, Ocuair's custom-built Enduro 1 drone set off from the French coast "on an unusually sunny and calm morning," finally touching down in Dover 72 minutes and 35 kilometers later.
Explore the skies with this new USS Enterprise drone
At this year's Toy Fair Spin Master showed off its latest drone creation: a USS Enterprise quadcopter. It may not travel at warp speed, but it'll still arrive right on time for Star Trek's 50th anniversary this fall.
AirDog is the action-sport drone GoPro needs to beat (or buy)
I first learned about AirDog when the company's founder, Edgars Rozentals, pitched it to me over email. It wasn't the first drone that would follow you -- 3D Robotics had been doing that for a while -- but as far as I knew it was the first to make it a central feature (I'd learn about the Hexo+ a day later). The concept was simple: It wasn't just a drone that held a GoPro; it was specifically built for adventurous GoPro types.
Can drone racing become as big as eSports?
Is drone racing the sport of the future? That's certainly what the Drone Racing League, and a growing number of followers, sponsors and event holders seem to think. Taking a page from competitive gaming, quadcopter racing pilots are self organizing into leagues (there's also the Aerial Sports League, and Drone Worlds among others) and growing their competitions into a fully-fledged spectator sport. At least that's the hope.
A drone that can fly, float and dive underwater
In the future, there will be no escape from robotic observation. Proof (if proof were needed) comes in the form of Loon Copter, a drone developed by Oakland University's Embedded Systems Research Laboratory that can not only fly, but also land on and even navigate under the water's surface. The Loon Copter project has been around a while, but this latest prototype is much more polished, and a semifinalist in the 2016 Drones for Good competition.
Watch a smart drone fly through a 'forest' all on its own
Drones can already find their way around obstacles, but they're usually looking for obvious obstacles like walls. What about navigating through tiny spaces where there may be just inches to spare? MIT has the answer. It just demonstrated tiny quadcopter drones using cutting-edge algorithms (the same ones used in the walking Atlas robot) to wend their way through a "forest" of 26 closely-packed obstacles. The trick is to flip the usual pathfinding routine on its head -- rather than plan a course based on the obstacles, the algorithms look for free spaces and string them together to create a safe route. As the video below shows, the result is a drone that zips effortlessly around poles and wires.
3D Robotics: The future of drones needs to be smart yet simple
Quadcopters, drones, UAVs. Whatever you want to call them, they are an unavoidable part of our future according to 3DR CEO Chris Anderson. He should know, his company is the largest drone maker in America. Smart features that help enterprise and industry are pushing the limits of what's possible (and where it's possible). These are features that will trickle down the the drones you see on shelves. We spoke with him on stage to find out what likes ahead in the future of our skies.
Dear Veronica: The magic of electromagnetism!
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-362996{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-362996, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-362996{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-362996").style.display="none";}catch(e){} I'm at CES this week (are you watching our coverage?) but before we set up shop in Sin City, I picked out a few great questions from your guys about electromagnetism! Specifically, if an EMP can take down a drone, and if we humans are susceptible to electromagnetism in smaller doses. Devindra Hardawar has the intel on if we should be wearing our tin-foil coats 24-7 or not! Subscribe in iTunes, RSS or YouTube!
GoPro shows off footage from its first camera drone
GoPro's first-ever camera drone might not be ready until the first half of 2016, but that doesn't mean it will leave you completely in the dark about what this machine can do. The action cam company has posted its first footage from a prototype of the as yet unnamed quadcopter, and it's clear that the end product will at least merit a close look. The brief teaser shows extremely stable footage, pleasing colors and a very sharp (at least 1440p) picture. These certainly aren't novel -- just ask DJI -- but it's evident that GoPro isn't messing around with its entry into robotics.
3D Robotics' Solo drone is about to get a lot more useful
When 3D Robotics announced its Solo quadcopter, one of the more intriguing features was an accessory bay. Instead of opening up the Solo and wiring in, or screwing on an accessory (as is common with hobby drones -- including the ubiquitous Phantom 2), you would simply "plug and play." Until now, that's all we really knew, but today the company is announcing "Made for Solo" -- a program that will standardize, and encourage the development of third-party accessories for the self-proclaimed "smart drone." If you make infrared cameras, for example, you could make a version just for Solo and have it work seamlessly with the drone's GPS and smart flight modes. Basically, any gadget, sensor or product that could squeeze into, and be lifted by, a quadcopter could be integrated into the Solo as if it were native to the product.
FAA slaps drone video firm with record $1.9-million fine
It looks like the FAA is getting serious on unauthorized UAV flying. The department's just slapped SkyPan, a Chicago-based aerial video company, with a record $1.9-million dollar fine for violating flying regulations in its home city, and New York. The FAA states that SkyPan engaged in a total of 65 "unauthorized operations" between March and December 2012 -- 43 of them in NYC's highly restricted airspace.
