During a recent visit at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada’s Minister of Transportation Jeff Yurek showed his support for the innovation and growth of the autonomous vehicle industry within the Canadian province.
Ontario has updated its Automated Vehicle Pilot program to allow for more testing of emerging technologies, as well as to support future sales of the next generation of automobiles. These actions are a part of a recent package to create jobs by eliminating red tape and burdensome regulations.
Regulatory
Regulatory
Airobotics receives waiver to operate UAS BVLOS from Remote Operations Center in Australia
Airobotics has announced that it recently obtained the first and only Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) approval in Australia to operate automated UAS from its Remote Operations Center (ROC) beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) with no aircrew needed at the client site.
Remote pilots are located at a designated Remote Pilot Station (RPS) within Airobotics Australia’s ROC. They are operating more than 1,000 kilometers away from onsite systems at the customer sites.
According to Airobotics, this new “man on the loop” level of operations allows human operators to supervise flights without the need for “man in the loop” pilots to intervene in flight operations.
Meet the IPP Sites: Collaboration plays integral role in North Dakota DOT's IPP efforts
When the UAS IPP was initially announced over a year ago, governments, municipalities and companies across the United States envisioned conducting landmark UAS operations in an effort to push the industry forward and make this technology a regular part of society.
One of the entities with interest in participating in the program was the North Dakota Department of Transportation (NDDOT), which initiated a conversation with the Northern Plains UAS Test Site — located in Grand Forks — to collaborate on the pursuit of this endeavor.
“We felt it would be a stronger project pulling in key stakeholders across the state,” Russ Buchholz, UAS integration program administrator at NDDOT, tells Unmanned Systems.
FAA moves forward with rulemaking on UAS flights over people, safety, traffic management
In a move that could further accelerate the unmanned aircraft systems industry, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration today announced a notice of proposed rulemaking for the operation of small UAS over people, as well as another about the safe and secure operations of drones.
In addition, it announced three contracts for UAS test sites to develop an unmanned traffic management (UTM) program that will be separate from the existing air traffic management system but is expected to complement it.
Canada's new UAS rules set to go into effect on June 1
On Jan. 9, Canada’s Minister of Transport, Marc Garneau, announced Canada’s new rules for UAS, which will go into effect on June 1, 2019.
The rules will apply to all UAS pilots flying UAS between 250 grams and 25 kilograms (.55 pounds to 55 pounds) that are operated within the pilot’s visual-line-of-sight, regardless of whether the UAS is flown for fun, work or research.
Transport Canada says that the new simplified rules reflect a great amount of consultation with Canadians and the industry, with the final regulations introducing two main categories of UAS operation—basic and advanced—that are based on distance from bystanders and airspace rules.
uAvionix selects Leesburg, Virginia, as the location for its 'HQ2'
Amazon isn't the only company to select northern Virginia for its second headquarters. On a smaller scale, uAvionix has announced plans to establish an office location in Leesburg, Virginia.
Known as “HQ2,” the location was selected after uAvionix compared important criteria such as transportation options, talent availability, and local craft beer quality during a nationwide search for the perfect location.
Expected to open in Feb. 2019, HQ2 will focus on business operations, development, and regulatory engagement, especially in the UAS market.
Meet the IPP Sites: North Carolina Department of Transportation and partners using UAS to deliver medical supplies in North Carolina
During AUVSI’s Xponential conference and exhibition in Denver, the North Carolina Department of Transportation was informed that it had been selected as one of the 10 participants for the FAA’s UAS Integration Pilot Program (IPP).
The main focus of NCDOT’s proposal for the UAS IPP is working with global drone delivery companies to establish a network of medical distribution centers that can use drones to make medical deliveries, says Basil Yap, the head of NCDOT’s UAS program and lead on the IPP work.
Currently, couriers are the primary form of transport of blood and other supplies to hospitals and testing facilities, but NCDOT believes that UAS could get these supplies and test results to medical providers much faster.
Tennessee's Rutherford County to use Vantage Robotics' Snap UAS for commercial ops over people
Rutherford County, Tennessee has received an FAA waiver to conduct commercial UAS operations over people, becoming the first and only county government in the U.S. with this capability.
The county will utilize Vantage Robotics’ Snap UAS for these operations in both emergency and non-emergency situations.
“We’re excited at Vantage, both to be continuing to pave new ground for safe and legal UAV use near people as well to see Snap contributing to public safety,” Vantage says.
This landmark FAA waiver comes a little over a year after the FAA granted CNN a “first-of-its-kind Part 107 waiver” that allows the media organization to fly a small UAS over people. Like Rutherford County, CNN also utilized the Snap UAS.
Meet the IPP sites: Drones join battle against mosquitos in Florida’s Lee County
Florida has a big problem. Actually, it’s a very small problem, but there are a lot of them: mosquitos.
Fighting mosquitos has long been an existential problem for the state, home to swamps and miles of coastal marshes. The land is flat, it’s warm year-round and there’s a lot of water, all things the biting insects love.
“We can grow more mosquitos here than anywhere else on Earth,” says Eric Jackson, the public information officer for the Lee County Mosquito Control District, which is enlisting new technology to join the fray: drones both big and small.
