Uncrewed Views

Commercial UAV News has often talked about providing solutions for real-world problems, rather than having a solution in need of a problem. But how do companies put that solution first and what does that look like? We spoke with Naya Choi, Director of Product Marketing at Qii.AI, who specializes in end user experiences and end user interfaces, about why putting human-centric design at the center of product development is integral to avoiding the pitfalls that leads to creating a product nobody needs.

The relationship between technology and farming is complex. To really understand the challenges of bringing drone technology into the agriculture industry, it requires a deep look into the history, culture, and legacy of farming and farmers and their relationship with the government. As a heavily regulated industry with a lot of government oversight and dependencies on government funds, breaking into this industry can be a challenge. But as Robert Blair, Owner of Three Canyon Farms and Advisor at Aigen, talks about in this episode of Beyond Part 107, technologies like drones are becoming a game changer for those who are adopting them.

Interview with Arjun Garg, Former FAA Chief Counsel and Partner at Hogan Lovells

Regulation and type certification has always been recognized as a necessary element for commercial drone operations to provide meaningful return on investment for industries. Yet, the process in getting landmark regulations enacted has been historically slower than what the industry has wanted and needed, despite federal mandates to the contrary.

In an article written for Bloomberg Law, Arjun Garg, Former FAA Chief Counsel and Partner at Hogan Lovells, emphasized that regulators, like the FAA, need to establish regulatory frameworks to “Unleash the Commercial Potential of Drones.” Commercial UAV News talked with Garg to discuss potential alternative regulatory frameworks for getting the commercial drone market to operate at scale faster, as well as what it means to appropriately assess risk, how industry and regulators can facilitate a smoother type-certification process, the current and historical challenges with regulators and the drone industry, the BVLOS ARC, and more.

What does it mean to define, build, and then scale a drone program in energy and utilities? Demonstrating value isn’t always a clear one to one correlation—there are intangibles such as increases in safety, efficiency, and time. We reconnected with the speakers at this year’s Industrial Facilities panel from Commercial UAV Expo Americas to talk about what a successful drone program looks like. Zacc Dukowitz from Flyability, John Delp from AECOM, and Larry Barnard from Chevron discuss how they presented the benefits of using drones from an end user and manufacturer’s perspective to key stakeholders to initiate a drone program, how they measure and communicate the value of their drone program, and the use cases they see are the most valuable in the Energy and Utilities sector.

Diversity is vital for everyone in the drone industry on multiple levels—it is essential for growth and innovation, and it is good for business and public perception. Yet, this topic can get easily overlooked for various reasons. In this podcast, I have a candid and in-depth conversation with Jason San Souci—Chief Architect at Juniper Unmanned, Co-Founder of Neurodiversity Works, and host of the podcast, Do You Know Drones? (among many other things)—about what is at stake if we don’t look to bring diverse minds and experiences into our industry and what we can do to attract diverse talent.

With Zipline celebrating 5 years of drone delivery in Africa, Commercial UAV News reached out to learn what that process has been like, what we can learn, and how having just-in-time medical supply delivery is impacting populations, supply chain stability, and the very structure of healthcare.

Among the many trials that the Gulf of Finland 2.0 (GOF 2.0) Integrated Urban Airspace Validation Consortium has conducted in recent months was a cross-border beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flight from Helsinki, Finland to Tallinn in Estonia. This trial sought to test, validate, and collect data on how these types of operations can be conducted safely near live airports and in dense airspace.

Funded by the SESAR Joint Undertaking under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, GOF 2.0 is providing Europe and the entire Drone Industry with valuable data and lessons learned. We spoke with Gokul Srinivasan, Director of Technology at Robots.Expert, a member of the consortium, to get an exclusive in-depth look into the trail.

DroneAnalyst’s Market Research is taken from well over a thousand global contributors throughout the industry from software and hardware to service providers, agencies, and businesses, which make them dug in a way that is helping everyone develop a fuller understanding of the drone ecosystem. In this Podcast, we speak with David Benowitz, Head of Research at DroneAnalyst, to dive into the health, growth, and trajectory of our industry in 2021 and beyond, gaining deeper insights into what this year’s 2021 report has to say about things like DJI, where there is consolidation, maturity, income growth and stability, and more.

Drones aren’t only proving to be an essential tool for inspecting infrastructure, they are also a significantly greener option. In this podcast, we speak with Brendan Groves, VP of Regulatory and Policy Affairs at Skydio, to explain why, what programs are out there to fund these projects, and more.

Commercial UAV News sat down with Troy Mestler, PhD, CEO of Skyfront, to talk about the practical concerns of drone design for the industry. At Skyfront, Mestler has led his team to achieve record-setting drone flights, making him an ideal person for our topic today. In this podcast, we discuss the benefits and limitations of various powering solutions for end users, achieving flight and operational efficiency, how drone manufacturers make critical design choices, and more.

In our first episode of Beyond Part 107, Commercial UAV News sat down with Editorial Director Jeremiah Karpowicz to look back on the early days of the commercial drone industry and discuss the ways it has evolved and what that means for us today.

In this short introduction, find out what the Beyond Part 107 podcast is all about with host Danielle Gagne, Editorial Analyst for Commercial UAV News.