AirVūz News: World of Drones 05/18/20

Published 05/18/2020 08:46

Welcome to the World of Drones! Your weekly news fix on all things drone related.

he popular DJI Mavic series may soon be unavailable in the US. Drone company Autel Robotics has won a patent dispute against drone manufacturer DJI over infringement on patent 9,260,184, which is owned by Autel. The US International Trade Commission ruled that DJI violated the patent for the locking mechanism used to lock the propellers to the motors, which was filed in 2013. The patent is also for the foldable arms used to prop a drone off the ground. The ITC chief administrative law judge has recommended that a cease and desist order is given to DJI which would stop the importing of numerous DJI drone models, including the Mavic Pro, Mavic Pro Platinum, Mavic 2 Pro, Mavic 2 Zoom, Mavic Air, and Spark. Autel has filed a petition to get DJI’s Phantom and Inspire series included in this ban and requested DJI post a 9.9% bond during this 60-day review. No word from DJI yet on how this will impact the yet to be released Mavic 3. 

A Minnesota man who shot a drone out of the sky with a shotgun is now facing felony charges. Last week an unnamed man was flying his drone over Butterfield Foods, a meat products producer, trying to prove that chickens were being slaughtered because of the covid-19 pandemic. Two of Butterfield’s employees confronted the man and shortly after the drone was shot down. The drone pilot claims the drone was worth almost $2000.  The man who shot the drone, Travis Duane Winters, is now facing two felony charges: criminal damage to property and reckless discharge of a weapon within city limits.

The Singapore Police Force is testing surveillance drones that operate autonomously. The self-operating drones sit in a box ready to be deployed. They take off, land and even recharge their batteries autonomously. The drones flight paths are configured and monitored remotely by an operator in a command center. The drones can fly within a few hundred meters of the drone box, they are equipped with cameras that have high-zoom capability and can stay in the air for at least 30 minutes. The two trial drone boxes are at an industrial estate monitoring the area for crimes such as housebreaking and theft, but the plan is to use more of these drone boxes in residential areas later in the trial. 

This week on our newest original show, “AirVuz After Hours,” hosts Jacob Blaeser and Tyler Mason chatted with the newly appointed president of the Drone Racing League, Rachel Jacobson. Rachel comes to the DRL from the National Basketball Association and talks about her time in the NBA, what excites her about drone racing, and what to expect from the DRL's new sim racing league.

The Top 5 Drone videos uploaded to AirVuz.com last week in no particular order: “Memories of Lockdown 2020.” by ArturCarvalho, “Lockdown Part 2” by Bachir_Photo_Phactory, “New Zealand From Above 4K” by hamza_mujtaba, “Corey Bracone - 2020 Action Reel” by Corey BNC, and “Wild Australia | Cinematic 4K UHD Travel Film | DJI Mavic 2 Pro Drone” by Alexander Schmidt Photography. And the Drone VIdeo of the Week and the winner of $250 is Corey BNC with “Corey Bracone - 2020 Action Reel”. Content creator Corey BNC is a professional drone pilot based out of NYC. His impressive demo reel showcases some of his aerial footage that has been used in many hit television shows. His 2020 Action Reel will now move on to our Drone Video of the Month contest where he could win an additional $500. 

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