Some repair shops authorized by manufacturers to fix smaller drones already are having trouble keeping up with demand. For several weeks, a California company had a note posted on its website referring specifically to the Phantom drone: “Temporarily not accepting any new repairs at this time due to high volume. Please check back soon.” The message was recently removed.

While such waits might be frustrating for operators, it spells opportunity for repair shops keen to diversify and budding drone mechanics who could start lucrative careers repairing commercial drones without having to pay for a four-year college degree.

“I’m trying to hire two experienced drone technicians at $20 an hour and I can’t find anybody,” said James Barnes, who founded the New Jersey Drone Academy. “This gives kids in urban areas that can’t go to college now a chance to work at a trade and make decent money.”

Northland Community and Technical College in northwestern Minnesota has been teaching unmanned aircraft maintenance for larger military-type drones. It is expanding its program to include smaller drone repair, and school officials are promising a high-paying job after just one or two years.

“The reality is, the people coming out of the trade schools, the technical colleges, places like that, are the people out there getting jobs and they’re getting paid nicely to do it,” said Zack Nicklin, unmanned aircraft instructor at the school in Thief River Falls, Minnesota. “They’re making careers out of this.”

One of Nicklin’s students, Chris Rolfing, said he grew up taking machinery apart, seeing how it worked, and putting it back together. He signed up for drone maintenance and repair after serving four years in the military and hopes his skills will help local farmers.

“I grew up in a farming community and both of my grandpas were farmers so I would like to stay close to the agriculture business,” the 26-year-old said. “This spring I will be working with a few farmers doing some demo flights and getting my name out there to get my business started up.”

In addition to his repair business, Rohlfing plans to do his own business doing aerial photography, 3D mapping, and agriculture analysis.

Unmanned aircraft owners basically have three options when their drones need tune-ups or repairs. They can send it back to the manufacturer, send it to a repair shop or fix it themselves. Most of the smaller shops currently specialize in hobby grade or low-end commercial grade drones, specific to a few manufacturers. Those drones typically cost a few thousand dollars to buy, and about $150 to fix, not including parts.

The more expensive commercial drones generally need repair experts, many of whom have backgrounds in manned aviation.

Brad Hayden, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is the president and CEO of Robotic Skies, which is building a network of affiliated repair stations around the world. He currently has more than 120 service stations under his umbrella, most of which work on higher-end drones that cost $10,000 and up, and he plans to recruit more shops, as needed.

“The industry is always short of avionics technicians. That’s kind of the way it is,” Hayden said. “Our intent is to bring in enough service centers to always meet the demand. We are built for a volume market.”

Thomas Swoyer Jr., the head of the nation’s first drone business park, Grand Sky, is looking at creating a repair depot at the North Dakota park for medium and large unmanned planes. The only place to fix large unmanned aircraft now is on military bases and as more of them enter the market, Swoyer said they are going to “need a place to get retrofitted, upgraded and repaired.”

Barnes has an idea to turn used food vendor trucks into portable drone repair stations to move in and out of urban areas.

“I’m not sure we’re quite at the point where you would have them like your basic auto repair shop, with one on every corner,” Nicklin said. “I think one day we will definitely be there.”—AP

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DJI, a Chinese company, said in a paper released Monday that radio transmissions of an identification code, possibly the operator’s Federal Aviation Administration’s registration number, could help allay security concerns while also protecting the operator’s privacy. The paper suggests steps that can be taken to use existing technologies to develop an identification system, and that operators could include more identification information in addition to a number if they wish.

Anyone with the proper radio receiver could obtain those transmissions from the drone, but only law enforcement officials or aviation regulators would be able to use that registration number to identify the registered owner.

Law enforcement agencies and the U.S. military raised security concerns last year after FAA officials proposed permitting more civilian drone flights over crowds and densely populated areas.

In response, the FAA announced in January that it was delaying a public notice of the proposal while the agency works to address the concerns. On Monday, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta kicked off a three-day drone symposium in suburban Washington by announcing that the agency is forming an advisory committee to make recommendations on how to remotely track drones, as well as trying to facilitate a dialogue between government agencies and the drone industry on how best to address security concerns.

State and local authorities, as well as some industries, want to ban drone flights near certain sensitive sites, such as nuclear power and chemical plants.

“How can we make sure unmanned aircraft don’t gain access to sensitive sites? And after seeing how drones can be used for ill-intent overseas, how can we ensure similar incidents don’t happen here?” Huerta told the symposium. “These aren’t questions the FAA can or should answer alone.”

A key concern is that there are no means for security agencies to differentiate between drones that may pose security risks from those that don’t.

Brendan Schulman, an attorney for DJI, compared the identification transmissions to a car license plate. The lack of a license plate is a reason for police to stop a car for a further look while letting cars with proper plates continue to travel by, he said.

Last year, Congress directed the FAA to develop approaches to remotely identifying drone operators and owners, and set deadlines for doing so over the next two years.

Security concerns about civilian drones extend beyond the United States. Regulations have been proposed in Europe regarding technology to enable authorities to remotely identify drones, including by the European Aviation Safety Agency, the FAA’s counterpart. France and Germany have also called for remote identification technology. Italy and Denmark already include identification technologies in regulations that seem not to be enforced because a means of compliance doesn’t yet exist, the DJI paper said.

FAA and drone industry officials have been discussing the possible creation of an online network that could be accessed by a mobile phone so that drone operators can submit flight plans before taking off. Those plans would be available to law enforcement and other government agencies and possibly to the public.

Airlines and other manned aircraft operators already submit flight plans to the FAA in order to receive air traffic control services. In 2011, Congress gave operators the ability to block public access to their plans if they wish.

A remote transmission system is preferable to a network that attempts to track or record the location of all drones in real time, which would be far more complex to develop and would expose the confidential information of drone users, the DJI paper said.

That approach “would result in the collection and access to flight information by people who do not need it, such as far-away business competitors,” Schulman said.—AP

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The hunter twisted through the air to avoid trees, homed in on its target, fired a Kevlar net to capture it, and then carried the rogue drone back to its base like a bald eagle with a kill.

Airspace is among some 70 companies working on counter-drone systems as small consumer and commercial drones proliferate. But unlike others, it aims to catch drones instead of disabling them or shooting them down.

A demonstration at Airspace headquarters in San Leandro, California, showed a compact aircraft just a few feet wide, yet capable of sophisticated, autonomous navigation and accurate targeting of a drone in motion.

It is still early days in the drone-defense business. Security professionals both public and private worry about dangerous drones at military sites, airports, data centers, and public venues like baseball stadiums. But counter-measures carry risk, too.

For example, the U.S. Air Force recently tested experimental shotgun shells for shooting down drones. But if the drone carries a payload like a bomb or chemical weapon, it could still fall on its target.

Jamming the radio signals to the drone does not always work, either. Drones differ from “remote-controlled” aircraft because they can fly to pre-set coordinates autonomously. The fastest drones can reach 150 miles per hour (240 km), too quick for human pilots flying another drone to catch.

The technical challenge of safely stopping a dangerous drone appealed to Guy Bar-Nahum, one of the inventors of the Apple iPod and the engineering brains behind Airspace Systems.

“We are creating a very primitive brain of an insect, a dragonfly,” Bar-Nahum said. “It wakes up, sees the world and doesn’t really know where it is. But it has goals to capture the other drone, and it’s planning a path in the world and knows how to move through the world.”

The Interceptor must pack computing power and sophisticated software into that tiny drone brain. Unlike the emerging driverless car, it has to understand its environment without the benefit of an internet connection to a massive mapping database.

“My background is in physics, and it’s all about modeling the world” with math, Bar-Nahum said. “What we do in this lowly startup that looks to be a normal, military ‘take ‘em down’ kind of company is build machines that can model the world.”

The business model is challenging too. Currently, only law enforcement officials have the authority to interfere with another drone’s flight. Regulations also require a certified pilot to stand ready to intervene in any commercial drone flight and keep a line-of-sight view of the aircraft.

Thus Airspace Systems will not be selling its aircraft, but rather leasing a system, complete with operators and a mobile command center, to customers.

The New York Mets have an interest in using the system to protect Citi Field in New York City, according to Sterling VC, the venture capital arm of Sterling Equities, which owns the stadium and also invested in Airspace.

DETECTION AND DESTRUCTION

The danger from hostile drones became more clear in the last few months when the U.S. military said Islamic State fighters were using them to attack Iraqi troops in the battle over Mosul. The military news site Defense One reported ISIS was using an array of consumer-style drones, including an agile quadcopter version for dropping explosives.

At least 70 companies worldwide are working on various types of counter-drone systems, said Mike Blades, aerospace and defense analyst with Frost & Sullivan.

San Francisco-based Dedrone, for example, has raised $28 million in venture capital and is focused on detecting drone incursions. It now has about 200 customers, according to CEO and co-founder Joerg Lamprecht. Some are car companies looking to protect new designs from the automotive press and others are data center owners looking to keep drones from damaging critical rooftop cooling systems.

“Most of the market is going to be detection, something like a burglar alarm,” Lamprecht said.

DroneShield, an Australian company, also makes a detection system and has developed a prototype electronic jamming gun to ground a drone.

Airspace, backed by $5 million from Shasta Ventures and Sterling VC, hopes to bring its drone-capture system to market as early as this summer.

But Airspace’s approach has limitations. Chief among them: the Interceptor catches one drone at a time. To defend against multiple drones, Airspace must launch multiple machines.

“The swarm of drones is going to be the threat,” said Blades.

Beyond that, catching drones incurs expense and complication when simpler measures might do. Dedrone’s Lamprecht gives an example from a German customer that makes cars.

At its test track, the customer wanted to protect new car designs from drones’ prying eyes. When Dedrone detects an intrusion, the car’s driver hits a dashboard button to fire a fog bomb to obscure the car.

But James Bond-style diversions, or even forcing a drone down, may prove insufficient if a craft is hovering above a crowd with something dangerous, like an explosive or poison. In such a situation, capturing and carrying away the enemy drone may be the best option, even if it is complex and expensive.

For Airspace, perfecting a drone-hunting machine than can see – and chase – on its own is not as crazy as it may seem.

“This is an old ambition. You can read about it in Jules Verne or Aldous Huxley,” said Bar-Nahum. “That’s why autonomous movement is the next decade for me.”—Reuters

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Colonel Saeed Al Khaja, Head of the Aerial Support Department in the Public Security Support Department, said that the awareness campaign is part of the Department’s initiatives that comply with the Ministry of Interior’s strategy for coping with new developments. The campaign aims to raise awareness about the rules and regulations of using drones, according to the legal conditions of safety and security.

He added that the Light Aerial Sports System Implementation Committee decided at its last meeting to limit the use of drones in approved and identified areas by the General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), to guarantee the safety and security of users, public and private properties, and national facilities, who used drones, especially to check smuggling, taking of photographs and other risks.

Eng. Ismail Al Balooshi, Assistant Director-General of the Safety Sector in the GCAA, said that the authority seeks to co-operate with strategic partners to raise public awareness on the correct use of drones to guarantee public safety and security, while noting that strict legislations related to the use of drones were recently issued, as well as regulations that require owners to be registered for their licences.

He also stated that the resolution to register drones have been in force since 1st February, 2016, and added that necessary legal procedures will be implemented against violators.

He added that the aim of this legislation is not to prohibit the use of drones but to get it streamlined while highlighting the registration mechanism according to an organisational framework, as well as identifying specific areas and altitudes for the use of drones, which will contribute to enhancing performance and the services provided to owners.—WAM

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Transport Minister Marc Garneau on Thursday announced restrictions to curb the number of incidents in which recreational drones have come too close to planes. The incidents have more than tripled since 2014.

Recreational drone operators must now mark their drones with their contact information and cannot fly them at night or in cloudy conditions.

Drones will no longer be allowed to fly higher than 90 meters (295 feet), within 75 meters (245 feet) of any buildings, vehicles or people, or within 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) of airports.

Violators are subject to a fine of up to $3,000 Canadian (US$2,251), and up to $15,000 Canadian (US$11,256) for corporations.

“There is an urgent need to deal with this very serious safety issue, one that has been reported to me by municipalities, pilot associations, airports, the police and the airlines,” Garneau said.

“I’m taking strong measures now before a drone hits an airplane and causes a catastrophic event. That’s the kind of nightmare scenario that keeps me awake at night as your transport minister,” he said.

Commercial, academic and research drones will be exempted.—AP

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“Drones have become an indispensable weapon in modern warfare because they can play an important role in high-resolution reconnaissance, long-distance precision strikes, anti-submarine operations and aerial combat,” Wei Yiyin, deputy general manager of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, told the English language newspaper.

Insisting it has no hostile intent, China is investing billions of dollars to update ageing equipment and develop new weapons, including stealth fighters and aircraft carriers.

Its heavy defence spending, however, has unnerved a region already on guard over Beijing’s more assertive approach to disputes in the South and East China Seas and over self-ruled Taiwan, claimed by China as a wayward province.

Wei told the newspaper his company was also developing near-space and long-range endurance drones.

The paper described China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp as the country’s sole producer of cruise missiles, and said the drones also resembled cruise missiles.

China has stepped up research into military drones, hoping to take market share from the United States and Israel with its cheaper technology and willingness to sell to countries that Western states are reluctant to deal with.—Reuters

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Officials say the fire broke out around 6:20 p.m. Monday in the Bronx. Authorities say they used the $85,000 drone, which is equipped with high definition and infrared cameras, to determine the condition of the building’s roof as they contained the blaze.

FDNY Deputy Assistant Chief Dan Donoghue says crews knew to move when the drone’s visual feed captured the apartment roof beginning to fail.

The fire was contained around 8 p.m. Officials say two firefighters were taken to Jacobi Hospital with minor injuries.

An investigation into the cause of the fire is ongoing.—AP

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The Aviation Industry Corporation of China says the Wing Loong II that flew for the first time on Monday can carry up to 480 kilograms (1,058 pounds) of bombs and missiles.

The company known as AVIC says the drone has a wingspan of 20.5 meters (67 feet-3 inches), can stay airborne up to 20 hours and fly at a maximum altitude of 9,000 meters (29,500 feet).

Both the Wing Loong’s payload and cruising altitude are relatively modest compared to the MQ-9 Reaper in service with the U.S. military.

China has exported the original Wing Loong to numerous countries.—AP

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Using fuzzy logic, researchers at University of Cincinnati are programming drones so that they can make better navigational decisions on the fly that would eventually make drones autonomous.

“It’s the only realistic way that drones will have commercially viable uses such as delivering that roll of toilet paper to customers,” said Manish Kumar, associate professor and lead researcher.

According to Kumar, the problem of drones having difficulty in navigating their ever-changing is compounded when the drone tries to land on a moving platform such as a delivery van or even a US Navy warship pitching in high seas.

“It has to land within a designated area with a small margin of error. Landing a drone on a moving platform is a very difficult problem scientifically and from an engineering perspective,” Kumar said.

To address this challenge, the team applied a concept called fuzzy logic that helps the drone make good navigational decisions amid a sea of statistical noise.

Researchers successfully employed fuzzy logic in a simulation to show it is an ideal system for navigating under dynamic conditions.

Kumar and co-authors presented the study at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ “SciTech 2017 Conference” held in Texas recently.—IANS

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A drone launched from a UPS car roof, flew autonomously toward its destination, dropped a package and then returned to the vehicle, as the driver separately continued on a delivery route.

The Tampa-area test, which UPS said went as expected, came less than a month after UPS said it would push forward investment in automation and technology as the company, along with rival FedEx Corp, struggles with slimmer margins from e-commerce business.

“We see this as an exploration into this new technology,” said John Dodero, vice president of industrial engineering at UPS.

The company has conducted drone tests before, and is weighing other uses for the technology, such as in inventory control and helping inspect planes and vehicles within hangars and warehouses.

But UPS has no timeline for when drones might be put into wider use, Dodero said, partly because federal authorities are still developing regulations on how to use the technology.

UPS sees potential particularly in rural routes, such as in Monday’s test. Cities are dense enough that drivers typically have deliveries grouped relatively close together.

But rural routes are more spread out, and thus more expensive. If drones can handle some of those deliveries, the company can be more efficient along those areas and lower some costs, Dodero said.

He declined to say whether the company’s workforce could be trimmed by attrition as UPS expands drone delivery.

“We have no idea how all that will play out until we find out how to integrate them into the business,” he said. However, Dodero added UPS is not looking to use drones as a replacement for drivers.

“UPS is never looking to replace our UPS drivers,” he said, calling them “the face of our company.”—Reuters

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