Category: Commercial Drone Applications

A critical advisory group on regulating the commercial uses of drones failed to reach a consensus on recommended security safeguards, likely hampering the development of the U.S. market for using larger remote piloted aircraft. The group of about 70 industry and law enforcement experts reported to the Federal Aviation Administration earlier this month that it split over what types of drones should be subject to tracking requirements, the Wall Street Journal reported. The report has not been made public. Companies are already using the unmanned aircraft to perform all sorts…

Humans are limited. We can’t fly, breathe underwater, or survive in high temperatures. So we’ve left much of our scientific endeavors to instruments that extend and collect information beyond our senses, like seismometers that detect waves moving through Earth, lidar instruments that can measure elevation, and sensors that can determine the salinity of the oceans. Increasingly, a new technology is furthering scientists’ ability to capture Earth’s vast, unreachable spaces: drones. These remote-controlled vehicles—sometimes called unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) or autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV)—can travel to hazardous places humans try to…