[Max]

In just over a few short years, Multirotors (called "Drones" by the media) have made all kinds of news, and some of it is bad. This has produced a lot of haters out there, sadly, some of them are our fellow modellers that feel threatened by this new technology

In that time, I have read and witnessed drones being used for many GOOD purposes. And lately they have been coming fast and furious. I believe drones will contribute more to the benefit of mankind than it will detract from it.

I thought I would start a thread where we can post links to news articles and news stories that show the positive uses for drones, both present and future. Hopefully readers and hobbyists will be motivated by these stories to do something similar in Canada or create a new niche for drones that will work to serve us better worldwide.

[Max]

AMBULANCE DRONE
Flies to site of heart attack victim and carries a built-in Defibrullator

This application will make it a life-saver! )

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and...ttack-survival

+ YouTube Video

‘Ambulance Drone’ Could Drastically Increase Heart Attack Survival

November 5, 2014 | by Lisa Winter

photo credit: TU Delft

Nearly a million Europeans suffer from a cardiac arrest each year, and only 8% will survive. Once the heart stops beating, it takes about 4-6 minutes for the brain to die. Sadly, the average response time for ambulances is about 10 minutes. Alec Momont, a graduate student at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), has designed a drone that provides a professional response within a single minute. This could potentially increase the cardiac arrest survival rate to an astonishing 80%.

“It is essential that the right medical care is provided within the first few minutes of a cardiac arrest,” Momont said in a press release. “If we can get to an emergency scene faster we can save many lives and facilitate the recovery of many patients. This especially applies to emergencies such as heart failure, drownings, traumas and respiratory problems, and it has become possible because life-saving technologies, such as a defibrillator, can now be designed small enough to be transported by a drone.”

The ambulance drone prototype reaches top speeds of 100 km/h, reaching patients within 12 square kilometers (7.4 square miles) within one minute. The drone is able to fly autonomously, locating the destination via GPS coordinates. It has a carbon composite body and weighs 4 kg (8.8 lbs), with the capacity to carry an additional 4 kg payload. There is a defibrillator built right in, and the emergency operator who took the phone call can provide instructions in order to use it properly. The drone has the added benefit of an on-board live cam and audio connection, allowing the operator to actually observe the scene and ensure that the defibrillator pads have been applied correctly.

Though defibrillators are commonly available in public areas in case of emergency, 4 out of 5 cardiac arrests occur at home where the equipment likely isn’t available. Additionally, the amount of people properly trained in administering CPR or using a defibrillator is not very high. Even those who have been trained may become unnerved when faced with a real life emergency.

“Currently, only 20% of untrained people are able to successfully apply a defibrillator,” Momont continued. “This rate can be increased to 90% if people are provided with instructions at the scene. Moreover, the presence of the emergency operator via the drone's loudspeaker helps to reduce the panic of the situation.”

There are some steps that need to be taken before these devices can be used in a real emergency. Though the drone is able to fly autonomously, it needs to improve its ability to avoid obstacles. Drones are currently not legally permitted to fly autonomously in the Netherlands, though legislation is predicted to change in the coming year.

Each unit is expected to cost €15,000 ($24,000), and Momont has stated that many medical professionals have already shown interest in the system. He predicts they could be used in as little as five years.

[davidmc36]

I seem to remember an article about this being done/tested for remote parts of Africa too?

http://rt.com/news/190432-dhl-drones...ivery-germany/

[Max]

Drones used to survey quake damage

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/l...826-story.html

+ YouTube Video

A new video from a privately owned drone shows an aerial view of the damage caused by Sunday's 6.0-magnitude earthquake that rocked Napa, Calif.
lRelated Napa, Calif., quake: Scores of homes uninhabitable, many without water

L.A. Now
Napa, Calif., quake: Scores of homes uninhabitable, many without water

Crumbling bricks, cracked facades, a collapsed carport and broken glass are among the images that appear in the nearly seven-minute video posted on YouTube .

Evan Kilkus, the video's creator, said the footage was intended to be educational and to show "builders and building owners" the potentially destructive power of earthquakes.

"This video is also intended to show how a quadcopter/drone can be used to help and assess damage," he wrote.

On Monday, Napa city officials said at least 49 buildings had been red-tagged, and more than 100 had been yellow-tagged.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimated the earthquake may have caused as much as $1 billion in damage.

In filming the video, Kilkus said he was cautious while flying his quadcopter and often asked for permission to film.

This was a real eye opener. Usually you would not get to see this level of detail at all on the damage.
ghost of schabarum

He did not fly his device over large crowds and maintained a close proximity to the machine.

"Of the 300-400 people around me during the five hours of off-and-on filming, not a single person objected to its use, and many people were fascinated by the tool," Kilkus wrote.

For breaking news in Los Angeles and throughout California, follow @VeronicaRochaLA. She can be reached at veronica.rocha@latimes.com.

[Max]

Humanitarian drones to deliver medical supplies to roadless areas

Especially in remote Africa!

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...ads-technology

Humanitarian drones to deliver medical supplies to roadless areas
Greek entrepreneur Andreas Raptopoulos saw drones being used to deliver pizza and set about solving a real problem

Andreas Raptopoulos, CEO of Matternet, which is developing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, for accessing remote and hazardous areas. Photograph: Barry J Holmes/Guardian

When Domino's sent two pepperoni pizzas on a 10-minute drone flight last summer in a publicity stunt to demonstrate how takeaways may be delivered in the future, Andreas Raptopoulos reacted with scorn.

"This is total nonsense. Why the hell would you do that? The public risk to transport a pizza around when you can do it perfectly well with all of the infrastructure you already have there? Why don't you use the same technology to save somebody's life when a mother needs medicine or a child needs medicine instead of it being stuck on a lorry on a muddy road. To me, this is where technology works best," the Greek entrepreneur said.

Raptopoulos had had his eureka moment about the possibilities opened up by drones two years earlier. The night before a presentation at Silicon Valley's Singularity University – which aims to encourage business leaders to use technology to solve humanitarian problems – it had struck him that a network of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) could deliver medical supplies across parts of the developing world inaccessible by road.

That idea soon became a start-up called Matternet – a network for transporting matter – which aims to help the one billion people who do not have year-round access to roads.

Raptopoulos said the new system would be used to leapfrog the building of infrastructure, in the same way mobile networks have overtaken fixed lines in poorly connected countries.

In this case, eight-propeller UAVs can be used to transport small items weighing up to 2kg, establishing a potentially lifesaving connection decades before a modern road network could be built.

"Somehow the world caught on to this idea of using a technology [drones], which has a really bad reputation, for a really good cause and try to give the developing world not an example of following what the west has done but to figure out that there is a better way – to do for transportation what we did for communications," Raptopoulos said.

In sub-Saharan Africa, 85% of roads are inaccessible during the wet season, cutting off huge swaths of the population and hindering the transport of medical supplies, he said.

There are three parts to the system delivering medical goods: the UAVs themselves, landing stations where packages can be dropped off and transferred, and the software that ensures vehicles get securely from point to point. Because of their short battery life, networks of drones are needed to work together, shuttling between ground stations, said Raptopoulos. "Instead of one vehicle running for 60 minutes, there would be six for 10 minutes each," he said. "If you only fly between those [ground station] points, you know where those points are and [what is] around them. If there is a mountain, you know how to avoid it."

He added: "Then your job becomes connecting those two ground stations in the same way every time. Our concept is having those ground stations physically placed where you need them in order to put loads in the system."

The operating system would also ensure that drones would not collide with each other.

Matternet has carried out test runs in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Lesotho, in the middle of an Aids epidemic, has been identified by the company as somewhere the system could usefully transport laboratory samples around the countryside. A pilot is planned there for later this year.

The company is part of a hope that came from the Singularity University that drones could become less a military tool than one with practical uses in the developing world.
Matternet founder Andreas Raptopoulos Andreas Raptopoulos, CEO of Matternet, at its Menlo Park headquarters in Palo Alto. Photograph: Barry J. Holmes/Barry J Holmes

"When you think of all the robotics companies in the world, I don't know any whose first customer was not military. This is how robotics companies are built," Raptopoulos said. "We thought: screw that, we are going to replace the military with the humanitarian.

"I have a huge bias but I have not seen any application that I think is more important, more inspiring. We have this impression of robots being scary and taking our jobs. What if you took them to a place that really needs them and save lives?"

Most of the nine Matternet staff are based in a Palo Alto office, while the remainder work from London. Four investors have put money into the company and it aims to raise between $3m (£1.8m) and $5m more in its next round of funding, in exchange for an undisclosed stake in the company.

Aid agencies are being targeted as first users, Raptopoulos said, and pharmaceutical and logistics organisations will also be approached. Sales to the military have been ruled out. Ideally, villages would be able to buy the drones and base stations and transport items between themselves.

"Anybody can basically set up the transportation networks. It is decentralised. You don't need governments, you don't need big companies," Raptopoulos said.

"We won't replace trucks and trains but we are talking about helping these people leapfrog so that they have basic healthcare and maybe not build roads in the way we have. The thing I am spending most of my time on is how we show that this system can work in the field.

"Then, once we prove that and start scaling, there are all sorts of problems, like how do you make sure you have safety at scale and that thieves are not stealing [the drones]. I call them happy problems." He added: "We are set up as a for-profit company and our goal is to change the world and we believe that profit will follow that. Somehow I feel the companies of the future are going to be like that."
What it costs

Approximate costings from Matternet put the price of unmanned aerial vehicles at £6,000 each and ground stations at £3,000 each. A network of five ground stations and 10 UAVs, as well as setup and training, would cost a charity in the region of £90,000, according to Raptopoulos. An eight-propeller drone can carry 2kg and travel 10km in good weather. Batteries need to be replaced every 600 cycles. "If [charities] know that this works and they know that it saves lives, it is not that big an amount," he said.

[Max]

Person lost in the woods in Canada has their life saved by a Mountie drone with FLIR

http://www.theverge.com/2013/5/10/43...-search-rescue

+ YouTube Video

Canadian mounties claim first person's life saved by a police drone

By Carl Franzen
on May 10, 2013 12:23 pm
Email
@carlfranzen

As the US continues to grapple with the idea of letting drones fly through the country's airspace, our neighbors to the north have reported a new milestone for unmanned aerial technology: the first life saved using a drone. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the province of Saskatchewan announced yesterday that they successfully used the small Draganflyer X4-ES helicopter drone to locate and treat an injured man whose car had flipped over in a remote, wooded area in near-freezing temperatures. Zenon Dragan, president and founder of the Draganfly company that makes the drone, said in a statement: "to our knowledge, this is the first time that a life may have been saved with the use of a sUAS (small Unmanned Aerial System) helicopter."

""this is the first time that a life may have been saved" by an unmanned helicopter"

The injured driver, whose name has not been released, managed to call 911 from his mobile phone, but he didn't know his location and couldn't guide emergency responders to him. Police deployed a regular, manned helicopter equipped with night vision to try and find him, but they weren't able to in an initial sweep of the area. After several hours without any sign of the accident victim, they decided to try a Draganflyer drone with an infrared camera, flying it toward the last recorded location from his cell phone's GPS. Check out video of the harrowing rescue from the RCMP below:

The drone's infrared camera picked up three heat signatures, one of which turned out to be the man, who was "curled up in a ball at the base of a tree next to snow bank" and unresponsive, as the RCMP recounts in its official news release. Emergency responders took him to a hospital for treatment. "Without the UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] and FLIR [infrared camera], searchers would not have been able to locate the driver until daylight," the RCMP news release adds.

While a handful of other police agencies in Canada and the US have previously admitted to using drones in search-and-rescue operations, there haven't been any reports of these operations finding an injured person in time to get them medical attention. The first "drone arrest" was claimed by police in the UK in 2010.

[Max]

Vancouver Aquarium uses hexacopter drone to monitor whale pods

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/britis...pods-1.2774525

+ YouTube Video

Vancouver Aquarium uses hexacopter drone to monitor whale pods
Drones give biologists new insight into health of killer whales
By Kirk Williams, CBC News Posted: Sep 22, 2014 5:10 PM PT Last Updated: Sep 23, 2014 8:27 AM PT

Vancouver Aquarium
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Vancouver Aquarium killer whale experts have teamed up with American researchers to monitor and record images of Northern Resident killer whales using a drone.

Hovering 30 metres above pods of orcas, the drone's camera allowed scientists to see the whales from a much different perspective than from a nearby vessel. Some whales were clearly pregnant, a condition not always visible by boat.

"This will help us understand how often they lose calves in the first few months of life. It's something we've always wanted to know. We know a lot about the calving rate, but we don't know how often stillborn or neonate or early childhood births occur," said Dr. Lance Barrett-Lennard, the Aquarium's senior marine mammal scientist.

Barrett-Lennard teamed up with U.S. researchers Dr. John Durban and Dr. Holly Fearnbach from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in San Diego.

Killer whale flips 'sea lion' into air in YouTube video
False killer whale calf recovering at Vancouver rescue centre
Other whales were quite thin, their reduced girth evident from the air. Scientists could easily detect a condition known as "peanut head," where the white eye patches taper inward on underweight animals. One female, named I-63, was so thin she disappeared from the pod a week later and is presumed dead.

More than 60 flights were carried out over Johnstone Strait in August.

The APH-22 marine hexacopter captured the images of 77 Northern Resident killer whales and five transient killer whales.

Barrett-Lennard said most of the whales appeared to be in good condition as there was an ample supply of chinook salmon in the area to feed on.

Scientists plan to keep using the drone since it doesn't have any impact on the whales and the information it provided was so valuable.

[Max]

Drone used to monitor vineyards in the Napa Valley

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/11/prweb12319253.htm

St. Helena, CA (PRWEB) November 11, 2014

VineView and SkySquirrel Debut New Specialized Vineyard Drone in Napa Valley on November 13
Specialized vineyard drone will debut at Rootstock in Napa Valley on November 13, brought to market by joint venture between SkySquirrel and VineView.
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“What we see missing in the current drone marketplace is a commercial-grade unmanned aerial system delivering a turn-key aerial imaging solution for growers,” said SkySquirrel Technologies CEO and co-founder, Tim Stekkinger.


VineView-SAI, Inc., a St. Helena-based remote sensing company established in 1999, is partnering with SkySquirrel Technologies Inc. (SST), a commercial Unmanned Aerial System (drone) company based in Nova Scotia, Canada.

VineView and SkySquirrel will be displaying their Aqweo (*) agricultural drone at The Concept Bar at Rootstock, the Napa Valley Grape Growers’ trade exhibition taking place on November 13, 2014 from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. at the Napa Exposition Fairgrounds (575 Third Street, Napa 9455.
More information at http://www.skysquirrel.ca/vineview.

VineView is contributing its 15 years of experience in remote sensing of vineyards and other high value crops to the development of a fully integrated drone system for high resolution imaging of vineyards, citrus and nut crops. “Partnering with SST allows us to bring the technologies we’ve developed to new markets as well as provide additional options for our current customers,” said Matt Staid, Ph.D., President of VineView. “Canada has been a leader in supporting the commercial use and testing of unmanned aircraft, allowing us to start using this new platform sooner than would otherwise be possible.”
SST has been developing and testing its robust, portable, commercial drone system for the past 2 1/2 years. “What we see missing in the current drone marketplace is a commercial-grade UAS delivering a turn-key aerial imaging solution for growers,” said SST CEO and co-founder, Tim Stekkinger. Other manufacturers are focusing on the drone itself, whereas the Aqweo delivers a complete GPS-guided system, including customized onboard imaging equipment which allows for crop-specific imaging.

“This breakthrough product will allow the user to collect accurate, consistent measurements of crop conditions and upload them to a cloud environment for automatic data processing. The resulting maps will go far beyond basic vigor mapping and can be viewed in the field from a tablet device,” explains Stekkinger. “The partnership with VineView allows us to offer calibrated aerial imaging data, which is of much higher quality than anything on the market today.”

The system will become available in Europe, Canada and South America early next year; availability in the U.S. depends on FAA restrictions currently under review.

Based in St. Helena, VineView has been providing remote sensing services to the wine-grape industry in California, Oregon and Washington since 2002. VineView uses state of the art equipment and image processing techniques to deliver high-quality imaging products from multispectral and hyperspectral systems. In addition to calibrated vigor maps and infrared images, VineView also offers RedleafMap™ (leafroll and redblotch mapping) and has developed H2OstressMap (water stress mapping). Aerial images are a valuable tool for many aspects of vineyard management and can help growers improve grape quality, identify disease, save time and resources and reduce the environmental impacts of farming. More information at http://www.vineview.com.

Based in Nova Scotia, SkySquirrel Technologies Inc. develops drone-based technology for monitoring crop health, with a primary focus on improving crop yields and reducing costs at commercial vineyards. It offers an effective way to optimize agricultural inspection and field monitoring operations. The company was founded in May 2012. Based in Canada, it also has a presence in Switzerland and California. More at http://www.skysquirrel.ca/ .

Available for interviews on 11/13:
Matt Staid and Melissa Staid, Vineview and Richard van der Put, SkySquirrel: contact Julie Ann Kodmur, 707/963-9632

[GayeDar]

Connecticut Fire Chief Uses Drone to analyze danger of Explosives near a fire

[bcsaltchucker]

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/dro...he-snowy-bronx