World Leader in Professional UAV Autopilots
It would be hard to overestimate the damage done to the drone industry by the various organizations that represent general aviation in North America. AOPA, EAA and COPA have all put the onus for sense and avoid entirely on the drone industry and claim their members have no responsibility to accommodate this growing industry. Sense …
Everyone is researching new battery chemistries that will push drones into the next category of flight endurance. There is an expectation that this new chemistry is just around the corner. While this may be true, it's not guaranteed. The problem is that the industries driving the development of next-generation batteries are very different than the …
There is a lot of discussion these days about electric cars and the future of the internal combustion engine. Slowly, electric cars are creeping into our consciousness. You probably know one or two people who have one, brave early adopters helping to work out the bugs. Even though I still drive a car with an …
Our lives have been defined - no transformed, by the availability of cheap, powerful, and ubiquitous computing power. Whether it is the multicore gigahertz processors that power my phone and laptop; or the scores of micro controllers that make just about everything in my car work - everywhere you look there's a computer doing something …
XPONENTIAL (AUVSI for those of us who have been around for a while), has come and gone for another year. 2019 was just as busy as previous years. The same core exhibitors were there this year as in past years and there is a fair amount of churn at the periphery. Lots of small companies …
This past September, Airware surprised everyone by suddenly closing. The surprise was heightened by the fact that, only a few days prior, they had announced the opening of their Tokyo office and a partnership with Mitsubishi. When I first heard of Unmanned Innovation, later to be known as Airware, they were just one of a …
The bi-annual Farnborough International Airshow wrapped up a couple weeks ago. I've lost track of how many MicroPilot has attended. It’s certainly more than 15 years since we attended Farnborough for the first time. The highlight of the flight demonstration portion of this year's show was a loop by a C-130 Hercules. This certainly upstaged …
Flex is your enemy. It's important that your drone's airframe is rigid. The motors on a drone are very powerful with very fast response times. An airframe that isn't stiff enough will allow its arms to flex, which in turn changes the orientation of the motors. This makes control more difficult and it will increase …
There is an odd museum just off the autobahn between Frankfurt and Stuttgart. Normally, museums have a curated feel about them; this one feels more like a bunch of stuff. There's a Stuka dive bomber sitting next to a giant pipe organ. There is this bizarre frankencar named Brutus, created by dropping a massive 46-liter …
Watch the temperature. All sensors sense what you want plus temperature. This means you should be careful to avoid any sudden change in temperature. While your autopilot will adjust for changes in temperature, accuracy will decrease while the temperature is changing. For example, if you have air vents that allow increased air flow as the …
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