Aviate, Navigate, Communicate

By Chris Stonor
Airwards, formed last year, claims it is the “first global awards platform to recognise groundbreaking drone work”, reports sourcesecurity.com.  And with an industry predicted to be worth USD42.8 billion by 2025, unmanned craft continue to transform a number of industries from medical and agriculture to transport and construction.
Airwards goal is to be ‘the’ unifying global awards scheme highlighting best practice in the drone industry. The Association of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (ARPAS-UK) is behind the company, a non-profit platform, which champions the breadth of pioneering work accomplished by unmanned craft.
Time is running out for submissions to Airwards 2021. Closure is mid-March with the winners announced in late May. These categories span a wide range of drone sectors including technology, operations, supporting services, specific industries/fields and giving back, with a people’s choice category voted for by the public.

Airwards founder, Richard Nichols, said, “We’re on a mission to advance the drone industry by championing the broad range of positive use cases from across the globe. 2020 proved a pivotal moment for the industry, so we believe the time is now for companies to come together and share their impactful drone work.”
He continued, “Airwards will be looking for outstanding examples where drones are leading the way in innovation, responsibility and impactful real-world solutions.”
The company has been established not only as a way to bring the drone community together in one place, encouraging cross-industry collaboration, but also to raise awareness of positive drone uses with the wider public, ultimately working towards greater public acceptance.
Nichols adds, “We’re really looking forward to finding some incredible drone projects in our inaugural year and showcasing the inspiring stories behind them.” Awards are grouped by discipline, with entries to technology, operations, supporting services and industry/field categories starting from UKP49 for start-ups.

Innovative: Promoting pioneering ideas successfully challenging what a drone is /can be.
Responsible: Recognising the key aspect of safety in every drone flight to advocate legitimate behaviour as a standard best practice.
Real-world: Asking the question: ‘How are drones making a difference?’ by demonstrating quantifiable outcomes and tangible solutions.
Categories
Technology (Counter Drone Systems (Anti-Drones), Sensors and Payload, Software – Captured data management and analysis, Software – Enabling flight and operational management)
Operations (Airspace Management, Delivery, Survey and Inspection)
Supporting Services (Consultancy, Insurance and Financing, Repair and Maintenance, Training and Certification)
Industry/Field (Agriculture, Construction and Planning, Defence, Security and Surveillance, Energy, Media, Events and Creative, Medical and Healthcare, Transport)
Giving Back (Conservation and Environment, Education and Research, Emergency Response and SAR, Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief, Public Safety)
People’s Choice (Organisations: External Advocate, Startup, SME, Enterprise, Person: Rising Star, Industry Impactor Disruptor)
 For more information
https://www.airwards.online
(News Source: https://www.sourcesecurity.com)Continue Reading

By Chris Stonor
Up to five inches of snow fell across parts of England at the weekend bringing many people out of their Covid-19 lockdown to build snowmen, throw snowballs and toboggan.
Below is drone footage taken on Sunday morning over the Cotswolds village of Kingswood, Gloucestershire that shows the beauty of a white blanketing of snow.
Watch footage
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/drone-footage-shows-beauty-english-090000539.html
(News Source: www.yahoo.com)

Meanwhile, here is drone footage (perhaps, less scenic!) of England’s snow covered town of Bracknell in Berkshire, also taken on Sunday morning.

Watch footage
https://www.getreading.co.uk/news/reading-berkshire-news/snow-covered-bracknell-captured-majestic-19689994
(News Source: https://www.getreading.co.uk)Continue Reading

By Chris Stonor
Wingcopter, a German-based developer of drones, announced this week that it has raised USD22 million via a series A Funding, reports nordic9.com. Investors are led by American VC Xplorer Capital and Futury Regio Growth Fund of Germany, as well as contributions from Futury Ventures and Hessen Kapital 111.
Wingcopter aims to expand and develop its areas of flight testing, certification, production (including a new U.S. facility), and software development specifically focused on ground and flight control software, as well as embedded systems, software architecture, and cloud infrastructure. The company is also advertising for 13 new staff positions.
https://wingcopter.com/careers

Wingcopter, founded in 2017 by Tom Plümmer, Jonathan Hesselbarth and Ansgar Kadura, is a manufacturer of unmanned craft aimed to improve the lives of people worldwide via commercial and humanitarian applications.
The company focuses on the delivery of medical goods as well as parcels and food, and operates the Wingcopter 178 Heavy Lift, which provides both one and two-way delivery, covering distances of up to 120 kilometers. The drone can accurately lower a package through a winch mechanism, or land at the point of destination and return to its origin with a new payload.
In addition to manufacturing and selling drones, Wingcopter also aims to use the new financial investment to expand its drone-delivery-as-a-service offering.
These services offer customers an opportunity to benefit from Wingcopter’s technology and BVLOS (beyond visual line of sight) flight operations experience on five continents without having to own and maintain a fleet of drones, hire and train pilots, or run operations themselves.
Visual presentation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1LngmJGfV8
For more information
https://wingcopter.com
(News Source: https://nordic9.com)Continue Reading

By Chris Stonor
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is bankrolling WeRobotics to improve the World Health Organization’s (WHO) understanding and use of drone delivery, reports stattimes.com. This far-reaching project is being co-ordinated by WHO’s African Regional Office (AFRO).
Presently, the primary area where WeRobotics deploys continuous drone deliveries is in Ghana with Zipline, WHO Ghana and Ghana Flying Labs, alongside Madagascar with Aerial Metric, WHO Madagascar, and Madagascar Flying Labs. The company has recently completed a major delivery project in Northern Ghana with Zipline and will soon begin deliveries in Northern Madagascar in partnership with Aerial Metric.
Previous UAMN article on WeRobotics:
https://www.urbanairmobilitynews.com/medical-pharmaceutical-transport/dominican-republic-werobotics-announce-latest-partnership-with-pfizer-for-medical-drone-delivery/

The purpose of this project is to improve WHO’s operational understanding of drone delivery services to transport medical patient samples. This includes gaining a better understanding of the workflows, technical and regulatory requirements, costs, and time-savings from using existing drone delivery systems such as Zipline’s in Ghana and Aerial Metric’s in Madagascar.
While the project serves as a comparative analysis of drone delivery in both countries, its purpose is not to suggest that one system is better than the other. Instead, the aim is to build WHO’s internal understanding of drone delivery services to make the most of the various systems and models that already exist.
WeRobotics aims to share these insights later in the year, along with the design of an operational study, once all the drone deliveries are complete and the data analysed.
Meanwhile, the company will also begin the next phase of this multi-year project with WHO/AFRO and the Gates Foundation. More details on these projects is expected to be shared towards the second half of 2021 once in operation.
Visual presentation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ5kj_xDn54
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHFaB3Pd9uw
For more information
https://werobotics.org
https://www.gatesfoundation.org
(News Source: https://www.stattimes.com)Continue Reading