How drones are helping design the solar power plants of the future

Katie Fehrenbacher for T he Guardian:   At the edge of a plot of muddy farmland, a few miles down the road from the University of California at Davis, an engineer takes a few quick steps across crop rows and lets go of a three-foot drone. Within seconds, the device – which weighs less than 2lbs and carries a powerful camera – ascends hundreds of feet into the cold, clear, blue sky and begins to snap detailed photos of the ground far below, including a long row of large solar panels mounted on steel poles. This flight is just a test, demonstrated by Kingsley Chen, the drone fleet coordinator for SunPower at the solar company’s research and development center, which is under construction and about a two-hour drive northeast of the San Francisco Bay Area. The drone will enable SunPower to survey a wide region and help design a solar power farm that can fit more solar panels on a piece of land, more quickly and for lower costs than it previously could.   Con'td...

AirMap and senseFly Partner to Advance Safety for Commercial Drones

New partnership delivers robust airspace intelligence and unmanned traffic management solutions to senseFly's largely autonomous commercial drones

Nevada-based Consortium using Drone America UAV Completes First Long-Distance Beyond Line of Sight Urban Package Delivery

Nevada Team records longest Unmanned Aerial Package Delivery flight in the U.S.

Embark Unveils Self-Driving Truck

Embarks truck uses a combination of radars, cameras and depth sensors known as LiDARs to perceive the world around it. The millions of data points from these sensors are processed using a form of Artificial Intelligence known as Deep Neural Nets (or DNNs) that allow the truck to learn from its own experience-much like humans learn from practice.

Airborne Response Unmanned Aircraft Systems Make History at Miami-Dade Fire Rescue and US Army Joint Maritime Exercise with Drones and SmartBalloon Aerostats at Seaport

Multiple UAS provide live high-definition video feeds to incident commanders to provide increased situational awareness and command and control capabilities.

How a College Kid Made His Honda Civic Self-Driving for $700

Tom Simonite for MIT Technology Review:  Brevan Jorgenson’s grandma kept her cool when he took her for a nighttime spin in the Honda Civic he’s modified to drive itself on the highway. A homemade device in place of the rear-view mirror can control the brakes, accelerator, and steering, and it uses a camera to identify road markings and other cars. “She wasn’t really flabbergasted—I think because she’s seen so much from technology by now,” says Jorgenson, a senior at the University of Nebraska, Omaha. Others are more wary of the system, which he built using plans and software downloaded from the Internet, plus about $700 in parts. Jorgenson says the fact that he closely supervises his homebrew autopilot hasn’t convinced his girlfriend to trust the gadget’s driving. “She’s worried it’s going to crash the car,” he says.   Cont'd...

Robotic Surgery a Key Factor Driving Down Hospital Length of Stay

With robotics protocols, hospital length of stay (LOS) after some thoracic procedures at LVHN has declined significantly.

Rules of the (Driverless) Road: How Federal Guidelines Will Impact Innovation

Although some experts fear that rules and regulations might limit innovation, most see this step by the Federal government as a clear sign of validation for the imminent future of automated automotive transportation.

Go Unmanned Partners with DroneDeploy to Increase Software Line

Go Unmanned adds DroneDeploy to its commercial mapping software suite to provide more diverse options for data processing.

AMA and DJI Launch Joint Drone Safety and Training Program

Worlds Largest Model Aircraft Organization and Leading Drone Maker Expand Public Safety and Education Efforts

DroneDeploy Selected by CNH Industrial for Intuitive New Drone System Targeting Ag Customers

North American Distribution Agreement Offers Economical Path for Growers to Act Upon Drone Data Insights

New Software to Coordinate Entire Work Cell

This new software is the first of its kind to connect all of your devices from a single controller, which extends the smart, flexible power of our robots to the entire work cell and provides unparalleled speed to deployment.

Dynatect to Showcase JANUS Protective Machine Door Actuator at Automate 2017

Dynamic motion and protection company Dynatect will present the latest generation of protective door drives in booth # 1069 at Automate on April 3-6, 2017. Janus protective door drives allow safe, efficient, and cost-effective automation of machine doors.

Online Insurance Portal Launched for Unmanned Aircraft Systems

Leading Aviation Insurance Provider Offers Easy Access to Drone Insurance

AeroVironment Advances Research with Farmers and University Partners; Adds Multi-Crop Support to Its Intuitive Quantix Drone and Decision Support System

-Research program entering third year to expand the agronomic analytics and capabilities of the companys innovative drone and analytics platform -AeroVironment growing its library of supported crops to provide targeted analytics with more precision and value to producers in key agriculture markets -Findings to provide a deeper understanding of how multispectral data can be used to speed awareness and empower faster decisions for greater yields

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