Drones are being used to deliver post to a remote Scottish island in a trial by the Royal Mail.
A two-week test of autonomous flights between Kirkwall and North Ronaldsay in the Orkney Islands is being undertaken with Windracers to help better connect remote island communities.
The mail is being carried by a twin-engine, UK-built unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which can transport 100kg of post of all shapes and sizes – equivalent to a typical delivery round.
Letters and parcels will be delivered by the local postie in the usual way when they reach the island, which is further north than the southern tip of Norway and is home to around 70 people.
The trial is part of the Sustainable Aviation Test Environment project based at Kirkwall Airport.
Nick Landon, chief commercial officer at Royal Mail, said: “The trialling of drone technologies is just one of the ways we are supporting our postmen and postwomen to deliver an amazing service, while reducing our carbon emissions.”
If the trial is successful, the technology will be considered by Royal Mail to support delivery to very remote areas and addresses across the UK.
UAVs can fly in poor weather conditions, including fog, because they are uncrewed, and unlike boat services they are not affected by tides.
Sarah Moore, local postwoman for North Ronaldsay, said: “North Ronaldsay is a very remote area of the UK and I’m proud to be involved in an initiative that will help Royal Mail to do all we can to keep all areas of the UK connected.”
This is the third drone trial that Royal Mail has taken part in over the last year.
Continue reading: https://www.insider.co.uk/news/drones-carry-post-remote-island-25148041

The drone corridor between Rome and Syracuse will host the first-in-the-nation 5G test network for unmanned aircraft that could one day revolutionize commercial and private drone use.
The drone corridor is the area in Central New York were drones are federally authorized to fly outside of the line of sight of the operator.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Tuesday MITRE Engenuity Open Generation 5G Consortium will bring 5G to the 50-mile drone corridor between the two Central New York cities.
Rome Mayor Jacqueline Izzo said there are numerous potential uses for 5G drone usage after it passes testing. This includes commercial delivery and private uses, such as bridge inspections and surveying disaster sites during emergencies in real time.
"There are a multitude of potential uses, so this 5G corridor will become an important training area to move from a test environment to an everyday use in commercial airspace," Izzo said.
Expert thoughts
David Tewksbury runs Hamilton College's GIS & Tech Support for Geosciences and is a Federal Aviation Authority certified UAS Pilot. He thinks the current drone regulations — flying 400 feet above the ground and remaining in the sight of the operator — are adequate for the everyday user and is doubtful 5G technology will be incorporated for the general UAV user.
Tewksbury believes 5G will make commercial drone usage beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) safe and possible.
Looking into the future, Tewksbury sees drones developed for the general consumer market having increasing capabilities and automation, just like cellphones. This will lead to FAA-imposed flight restrictions due to the hazards drones present to manned aircraft when flown irresponsibly, Tewksbury said.
Continue reading: https://www.aviationpros.com/aircraft/business-general-aviation/news/21241006/5g-drone-testing-coming-to-central-new-york

The more information we have about our national transport infrastructure, the better we can build for the future.
Intelligent transport systems, autonomous vehicles, the mass rollout of 5G and the growth of the Internet of Things IoT are collectively set to have a profound effect on the way we navigate our world in the coming years. Increasingly, geospatial data and the expertise to harness this information will be essential to enable new and compelling use-cases.
According to a study commissioned by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Ltd (SMMT), connected and autonomous vehicles are set to add £51bn a year to the UK economy by 2030, so there’s plenty to be excited about when it comes to innovation.
Connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) need to know where they are at all times, as do the organisations in charge of them. For this reason, and many others, consistent, reliable geospatial data must be the baseline for any use-case related to smart transport and autonomous vehicles.
For a small island such as Great Britain, Ordnance Survey datasets provide the baseline for us to be acutely aware of the space we have, and how best to plan the infrastructure that will enable smart transport use-cases. Whether this is through the availability of dynamic, real-time information provided by sensors on a car, or updates to topographical features delivered via APIs, the availability of trusted data is essential – as are those with the skills to work with and validate this data.
The amount of contextual information about roads and the vehicles on them will increase as the presence of IoT devices and 5G networks increases. These two advances in technology will enable sophisticated telematics that will reveal previously unseen insights into road infrastructure and driving behaviour, all of which will provide valuable data that can be harnessed to improve transport systems.
Telematics can identify blackspots, for example, by providing data on road conditions and driver habits in certain locations. Harsh braking in fair weather on a certain section of road may cause occasional accidents, but if instances occur with a higher frequency in periods of poor weather, this can be addressed through road modifications, lower speed limits or roadside enforcement. The more data we have, the better we can build for the future. Again, the geospatial element of the data is paramount, which is why software developers and data scientists will be crucial for understanding, organising, and creating useful applications with this data.
Continue reading: https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2021/10/data-standards-and-digital-skills-will-unlock-innovation-in-transportation/

Hurricane Sam, at its peak, was the most powerful storm so far this season. It topped out as a high-end Category 4 with maximum wind speeds around 155 mph, spending eight consecutive days as a major hurricane before finally beginning to weaken.
It was the strongest hurricane ever observed so far east so late in the calendar season, according to meteorologist Phil Klotzbach.
And now, scientists know what the storm looked like from the inside out. Last week, NOAA researchers sailed a drone straight into the heart of the hurricane.
It was the first time NOAA had successfully piloted a seagoing drone inside a hurricane. The agency hopes to use scientific data, collected by special sensors on the vehicle, to improve future hurricane models and forecasts.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better storm, a Category 4 hurricane,” said NOAA scientist Greg Foltz, a co-lead on the project, in an interview with E&E News.
The feat was accomplished with a special floating vehicle designed by Saildrone Inc., which specializes in oceangoing, data-collecting drones.
Continue reading: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/noaa-sailed-a-drone-into-the-heart-of-powerful-hurricane-sam/

When you think of a story about federal agencies joining forces, “feel good” might not necessarily be the descriptor you’d reach for. But, in this case, we at the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) think we’re onto something.
We have a story to tell that includes cool technology and the best minds in government research and development coming together to keep our country, and the skies above it, safe.
We are all familiar with drones, or as they are more formally called, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). They are becoming more and more ubiquitous, and are being used for everything from backyard fun to military operations. Relatively inexpensive, small, and easy to deploy, they can be controlled with a specialized remote control, an app on your phone, or they may be programmed to autonomously follow a predetermined mission. And, as the technologies for UAS continues to improve, so has the potential for them to be used in illegal and dangerous ways.
In order to deal with these emerging threats, novel and innovative technologies need to be researched, developed, tested, and deployed—which is why S&T launched two unique efforts related to UAS Traffic Management (UTM) and Air Domain Awareness (ADA).
Continue reading: https://www.hstoday.us/federal-pages/dhs/safely-integrating-our-airspace-in-the-age-of-drones/

A combination of sensors, blockchain technology, and the cloud is poised to deliver almost real-time tracking of food as it leaves a farm or fishery, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration wants to help the technology behind food traceability along.
The FDA has named 12 companies as winners of its New Era of Smarter Food Safety Low- or No-Cost Tech-Enabled Traceability Challenge, pulling the winners from more than 90 submissions from around the globe. The challenge sought companies that could improve food traceability from harvest through packaging, shipment, and finally, consumption. The businesses also had to provide this traceability in a manner that was easy to implement without IT expertise and at a low cost.
 
The contest was created as part of a 2020 FDA program to make food safety and traceability a priority. The idea of tracing food “from farm to fork” has been talked about for the last decade as food distributors battled recalls and saw opportunities in providing consumers with more information about their food. Ethically caught fish or fair-trade coffee are examples of selling consumers on a traceability story.
Both those efforts are industry-specific and often driven by a larger seller or distributor as opposed to an open standard that can be used across different food producers.
Continue reading: https://staceyoniot.com/the-fda-investigates-bringing-the-iot-to-food-supply-chains/

Paul Calver, Chairman and CFO of The Data Analysis Bureau, examines how Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are enhancing manufacturing operations across the board.
Manufacturers are resetting priorities around resilience, sustainability and operational excellence, and meeting the immediate challenges of securing supplies and recruiting workers.
AI and machine learning ML powered technologies are playing a vital part in accelerating manufacturers’ capabilities in these areas and achieving their goals to capture market share and remain globally competitive.
What is AI and ML? Artificial intelligence is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs, and machine learning is a branch of AI which enables a machine to automatically learn, using data and algorithms, without explicitly programming, and can gradually improve its accuracy over time.
Manufacturers have been adopting physical technologies, such as robotics and automated machine tools, for many decades and have recently started to focus on additive manufacturing.
But as manufacturers become more aware of the power of data, many are turning to advanced data analytics, AI and ML, supported by IoT platforms, to leverage their key data assets. The adoption rate of these technologies is increasing rapidly.
A recent survey from The Manufacturer and IBM reported that 65 percent of manufacturing decision makers were working towards adoption, implementation or use of AI and ML.
This trend is set to accelerate with AI and ML in the manufacturing market expecting to grow at 57.2 percent CAGR over the next five years as manufacturers realise the low hanging opportunities enabled through data.
From our experience working closely with leading manufacturers across industry and as a successful recipient of an Innovate UK award to build a global predictive analytics service, we want to share with you a vision of AI and ML applications inside and outside the factory.
Continue reading: https://www.themanufacturer.com/articles/the-uses-of-ai-inside-and-outside-the-factory/

Industrial equipment, products, or solution providers and manufacturers contemplating or planning IoT, face many unknowns. Foremost among these is what IoT will provide, how much it will cost and how long it takes.  In addressing the first, the web is full of blogs, marketing, information (and propaganda) about all the wonderful things IoT will do for your products, so yet another blog is certainly not needed. It suffices to say that properly implemented, ‘IoT-ing’ your business has a lot of upsides.
Correctly done, it most likely does not have that much downside. Understanding the second and third (how much it will cost and how long it will take) is more difficult as there is a myriad of views and frankly opinions coming from suppliers, vendors, opinion makers, engineers, IT, and others in many cases selling their specific solution. There’s nothing wrong with that, but figuring out what the answers are can be both confusing and challenging.
Dividing the Problem
One way is to divide the problem into relevant parts and look at their components and parameters. IoT solutions and implementations can be either very many (10+ moving parts) or few. One example of the latter is describing them as only two parts, The Front End (IoT Thing) and the Back End (The Rest).
In this view, there is a simple division:

1. The IoT product, device, system, or equipment – the ‘IoT Thing’.
2. ‘The Rest’ – internet connectivity, data handling and processing, and applications.
   [/LIST=1]
   The reason for this division is that it separates IoT solutions into a part that you, as a supplier of equipment products and solutions, are experts at, your Thing. This is the business you are in, and your engineers, marketers, sales, manufacturing, and managers know all about it. This is separate from the part you may not know well, the Rest.
   Let us start with turning your Thing into an IoT Thing. As an implementer of IoT solutions, this is where you begin. The Thing is part of your company’s offering, whether it is a device, control panel, physical equipment (machines, controllers, elevators), or an asset, system, or solution you want to connect to the Internet as part of an IoT solution.
   Continue reading: https://www.iotforall.com/where-is-the-development-cost-and-complexity-in-iot

This year marks a major milestone for the security industry: 25 years ago, my company, Axis Communications, introduced the first internet protocol (IP) camera. Might not sound like a big deal, but this marked the beginning of the shift from analog surveillance to today's network solutions. Without the IP camera, modern video/audio solutions and analytics would not be possible. And even as cloud computing has experienced a major rise over the past decade, today's organizations are re-embracing the network edge.
Twenty years ago, another first occurred: the first IP camera with built-in edge analytics (video motion detection) was released. Today, edge devices use analytics for a broad range of purposes, ranging from security to business intelligence, but in the early days of analytics, limiting factors like bandwidth, processing capacity and storage issues hampered the technology's ability to find mainstream success. As these elements have improved, so has the power — and usefulness — of modern analytics.
The prevalence of hybrid systems incorporating both cloud and edge solutions has helped analytics live up to its early promise. Edge devices are reemerging as an essential tool for today's organizations, and the broad range of available analytics tools have helped those organizations make improvements that go far beyond security.
The Rise Of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an overused term — today, it is often applied to anything that has to do with any form of digitalization, even if it doesn't technically qualify. It is the relatively recent rise of more complex forms of artificial intelligence, including machine learning and deep learning, that has boosted camera/sensor capabilities. Today, high-powered Deep Learning Processing Units (DLPUs) are enhancing and opening opportunities for new analytics applications. Without this technology, modern analytics would not be possible.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/10/05/the-edge-has-re-emerged-to-challenge---and-complement---the-cloud/?sh=248e56bd7ebd

GlobalData named Microsoft and AWS as “Very Strong” vendors in GlobalData’s most recent Enterprise IoT Platform report published in September 2021. In the last six months, both vendors announced several key platform enhancements.  New tools for access control, edge computing, visualization, and Digital Twins improved these vendors’ IoT portfolios. Microsoft’s new role as a board member in the LoRa Alliance was also a significant ecosystem addition.
Enterprise IoT platforms transform data collected from devices and machines to help customers build applications that automate processes, improve products, and help business leaders make decisions. Once data is collected, the platform provides data storage, processing, management, and manipulation along with filtering and visualization options. The platform may send data to an edge computing device, public or private cloud, or remote data center for further processing and analytics.
An enterprise IoT platform also provides tools for application enablement; elements may include visual application modelling, design tools, processing rules using business logic, security and access management, reporting, and real-time or historical analytics
Over the last six months, the enterprise IoT platform market benefited from new capabilities that were added by leading vendors as well as new partnerships. Most of the vendors GlobalData analyzed in its report (which include AWS, Google, IBM, Microsoft, SAP and PTC) added to their portfolios in Q2 and Q3. Of these vendors, we rated AWS and Microsoft as “very strong” providers in this period.
Across our key buying criteria, they demonstrated a clear mastery of major requirements, particularly data collection, manipulation, management, and analysis – all capabilities that allow IoT to be transformative. They also announced platform enhancements that provide clear benefits to enterprises leveraging IoT for business process improvements and developers seeking to propel new use cases.
Of particular note were the following AWS and Microsoft enhancements. AWS added Amazon Managed Grafana, a data visualization service that enables customers to query, correlate, and visualize operational metrics, logs, and traces, as well as IoT data. Earlier in 2021, it announced commercial availability for IoT SiteWise Edge, for processing industrial equipment data on the customer premise.
Further vendor developments
Meanwhile, during the past six months, Microsoft joined the board of the LoRa Alliance, adding to its ecosystem opportunities in the key LPWAN technology segment. The vendor also launched Azure Active Directory access control for IoT Hub service APIs, which enables companies to grant specific API access permissions to users, and manage identities with role-based access control.
Continue reading: https://www.verdict.co.uk/enterprise-iot-platform-report/

I spoke with Blair Newman, CTO at Neuton, about how “TinyML” is used to deploy machine learning on tiny microcontrollers at the edge.
Among the topics we covered: 

• What’s the state of edge computing? There’s some confusion about the idea, and how it relates to cloud – let’s define it.
• What is TinyML? How does it facilitate edge computing?
• I came across these two statements in my research – let’s talk about what they mean:

“TinyML is used only for the inference part of machine learning.”
“Newman and Warden believe that in a timeline of 5 years we’ll start seeing training on the edge too. Techniques such as federated learning will be increasingly important there.”

• What is AutoML? How does it relate to TinyML?

Read more and listen to the podcast: https://www.eweek.com/networking/neutons-blair-newman-machine-learning-for-edge-computing/

We define edge computing as the ability to place some amount of processing and data near the sources of the data as well as near the systems or humans that need quick access to the processing.
It’s a simple idea, and certainly nothing new. However, the popularity of edge computing continues to gather steam as we move more systems to centralized public clouds and modernize related applications and data stores.
As a result of this migration, we now recognize that not all modernized applications and data stores should only exist in a central location. Thus, the ‘new’ option of moving them to the realm of edge computing, specifically, to the edge of public clouds.
Much of the initial confusion with edge computing came from erroneous messaging from the tech press (and even from some companies) that edge computing was a replacement for cloud computing and other notions that were incorrect at their core.  Yes, there are questions that need to be answered when any new hyped technology concepts hit the technology zeitgeist. However, once when we understood the concepts of edge and cloud computing in context of each other, the patterns of synergy began to emerge.  Hopefully the confusion will continue to subside.
The Edge of What?
What drove the concept of edge computing was the rise of IoT and other technologies that are distributed to be optimized for the systems and humans that leverage them.
For example, it doesn’t make sense for a self-driving automobile to send all data and requests for data processing over a cellular network to some centralized system in a public cloud. The only way self-driving cars will work is if they can maintain data and processing at the edge, meaning, in the car.  This allows the data and processing to occur with little or no network latency, providing fast enough reactions that you don’t hit a tree.
However, edge is not just for devices anymore.  Edge clouds are now an option for those who want to have a small cloud instance in their data center. This allows local processing and data storage with much less latency than if the data and processing requests were sent one thousand miles away to a public cloud server that is shared with hundreds of other tenants.
The idea is to keep some but not all public cloud services on the edge clouds while still supporting a symbiotic relationship with edge clouds and their public cloud overlords.  They can work together as needed for storage and processing, sharing data and processing tasks. System developers have the option to deploy data and applications on the edge cloud, the public cloud, or within applications and data sets that are divided between the two.
Microsoft’s Stack and AWS’s Outpost are the best examples of edge clouds.  However, other smaller cloud providers have exploited the desire for some enterprises to leverage edge clouds as well.  The larger cloud players often look at edge clouds as a path to their public clouds, which typically have more services and benefits.  However, some enterprises will opt for edge cloud over public clouds ongoing.
 
Continue reading: https://www.eweek.com/cloud/why-we-often-misunderstand-the-synergy-between-edge-computing-and-cloud-computing/

Emerging markets are ripe with promises. 
Since the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto published the Bitcoin whitepaper over 10 years ago, blockchain has existed in a realm of magical realism. Associated closest with Bitcoin, and confined to a fantasy as intangible as the technology itself, blockchain’s value was tied to speculation and libertarian ideological canon. 
But blockchain is bigger than Bitcoin: The technology lays a new digital infrastructure for the global economy rooted in decentralization and security. Although blockchain has been tied to theoretical models and promises, the industry is fast hurling toward the adoption, which will turn these visions into reality. Billions of dollars in institutional capital are entering cryptocurrency markets, while corporations are taking the lead in implementing blockchain to protect highly sensitive data. 
To get to adoption, and go from theory to execution, use cases are crucial. Within Silicon Valley, a frenzy is underway among blockchain startups to deploy effective use cases demonstrating blockchain technology in action. This competition is healthy and is establishing fundamental rights around an individual’s data in the process.
Continue reading: https://www.worth.com/how-blockchain-crypto-startups-battling-protect-individuals-data-security/

In 2015 The Economist magazine hailed blockchain as “the trust machine”, capable of replacing governance structures, displacing institutions, and bringing a new level of transparency to transactions and information, with implications across public life.
In the years since, the technology has produced trillion-dollar decentralized financial markets and a slew of innovation over blockchains especially in financial services, with the rise of bitcoin, stabelcoins, decentralized finance or DeFi, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), and other industries such as shipping, logistics and supply chains are starting to scale use cases.
OECD research, however, shows little breakthrough in blockchain innovation in government and minimal impact in the public sector - the technology is often described as a solution in search of a problem. While the technology is rapidly maturing, we are starting to see governments take an interest in blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) in areas such as tax, standards and certification, digital identity, and data privacy.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/lawrencewintermeyer/2021/10/06/will-the-revolution-be-tokenized-governments-blockchain-and-the-digital-space-race/?sh=5b68a97f5170

“Okay, Google, what’s the weather today?” “Sorry, I don’t understand.”
Does the experience—interacting with smart machines that don’t respond to orders—sound familiar? This failure may leave people feeling dumbfounded, as if their intelligence were not on the same wavelength as the machines’. While this is not the intention of AI development (to interact selectively), such incidents are likely more frequent for “minorities” in the tech world.
The global artificial intelligence (AI) software market is forecast to boom in the coming years, reaching around 126 billion US dollars by 2025. The success of AI technology is forcing many existing companies to transform their business model and shift to AI. However, along with the advance, there is an increasing worry about the biases in the algorithm development of all these tools.
Continue reading: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2021/10/05/how-to-prioritise-humans-in-artificial-intelligence-design-for-business/

Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly enmeshed in our daily lives. Consider Instacart and Doordash, whose A.I.-powered food-delivery apps played a vital role for many of their customers during the pandemic.
Those are just two businesses out of the hundreds that I could cite. As Fortune’s chief Alan Murray wrote, companies are undergoing “the great digital acceleration,” a race to muscle up on tech including artificial intelligence.
For a deep dive on the use of A.I. in business, you'll want to attend Fortune’s inaugural conference specifically about the technology: Brainstorm A.I., to be held Nov. 8 and Nov. 9. in Boston. The event will feature lessons learned from the executives spearheading corporate A.I. projects and from researchers developing the cutting-edge technology.
Moderna CEO Dr. Noubar Afeyan will discuss the promise of A.I. in healthcare, while Stanley Black & Decker CEO Jim Loree will explain how he and his tool company’s A.I. chief, Dr. Mukesh Dalal, are using machine learning to turbocharge their business.
Continue reading: https://fortune.com/2021/10/05/brainstorm-a-i-why-you-should-attend/

In his autobiography, Miles Davis complained that classical musicians were like robots.
He spoke from experience – he’d studied classical music at Juilliard and recorded with classical musicians even after becoming a world-renowned jazz artist.
As a music professor at the University of Florida, which is transforming itself into an “AI university,” I often think about Davis’ words, and the ways in which musicians have become more machinelike over the past century. At the same time, I see how machines have been getting better at mimicking human improvisation, in all aspects of life.
I wonder what the limits of machine improvisation will be, and which human activities will survive the rise of intelligent machines.
The rise of machine improvisation
Machines have long excelled at activities involving consistent reproduction of a fixed object – think identical Toyotas being mass-produced in a factory.
More improvised activities are less rule-based, more fluid, chaotic or reactive, and are more process-oriented. AI has been making significant strides in this area.
Continue reading: https://www.nextgov.com/ideas/2021/10/why-improvisation-future-ai-dominated-world/185873/

For years, knowing how to code was seen as something that could help a student and job applicant set themselves apart. A new skill seems to be moving into that space: drone piloting.
At Carroll University, students can now for the first time minor in aviation science and unmanned aircraft systems.
Director of Aviation Sciences Michael Mortensen said a feasibility study was conducted to assess how having a drone pilot license on their resume could set Carroll graduates apart. He got his license the first day it became available in Wisconsin.
“The companies out there are seeing a use with drone technologies,” he said. “You’re starting to see engineering companies form drone divisions.”
“It’s nascent technology and it’s starting to grow. I’m seeing more and more positions open up.”
In class Thursday, Mortensen held a drone in his hand and showed the sensors that can be mounted underneath to gather data and measure whatever metrics students might choose. Students will learn a bit about 3D modeling so they can build platforms for the drone sensors and print them in the library — they’ll also utilize the MIT App Inventor to design a mobile app displaying the data their drones pick up.
Continue reading: https://www.gmtoday.com/business/carroll-university-unveils-drone-piloting-minor/article_4e93e0ba-2529-11ec-8b0e-435d44b84d05.html

Opinion: Australia is a world leader in drone technology. From surveying to agriculture to deliveries and passenger transport, Australia is at the cutting edge of drone hardware, software, payload capabilities and logistics support.
For the industry to continue on this trajectory and for widespread commercial adoption to follow, regulation needs to keep pace.
As a nascent industry, drone technology can be perceived as relatively unproven. More precisely, the data points are widely scattered, being spread out over time and between alternative modes and solutions. What industry experience exists represents vastly different approaches implemented by diverse players, ranging from universities through start-ups to well-established aerospace companies and commercial operators.
The regulatory challenge then is quantifying risk based on imperfect information and a relatively short track-record. The sensible approach so far has been to focus on outcome-based approvals where each mission is judged on the risk assessment and mitigations declared by the proponent. This has allowed progress with some world-leading trials taking place in Australia. But it is a labor-intensive process that necessarily takes time – a considerable barrier to commercial adoption as it requires advanced planning with uncertain timelines around when a mission might be approved to be carried out.
Continue reading: https://www.innovationaus.com/regulation-needs-to-keep-pace-with-australias-soaring-drone-industry/

UNITRANS Africa’s 50-year involvement in cutting-edge agricultural innovations across the continent is set to soar to new heights after the company’s recent acquisition of a fleet of the world’s largest spraying drones.
Unitrans’ purchase of seven Chinese-made DJI T30 Agras drones, which were developed at a cost of over R400-million, is set to become a game-changer for the agricultural industry across Africa in general and the SADC region in particular.
The environmentally-friendly, low-cost T30 drones are already in operation in Malawi and Mozambique, with results exceeding expectations in the areas of spraying precision and the optimal utilization of chemicals, thereby reducing costs and ensuring each crop’s specific needs are met.
“Drones have so many advantages over planes, including being environmentally friendly,” says Unitrans CEO, Rob Hayworth. “Drones use batteries instead of fuel and can spray at night, whereas a plane cannot, thereby allowing for 24/7 spraying operations.
Continue reading: https://africasciencenews.org/firm-soars-high-with-cutting-edge-crop-spraying-drones-in-africa/

The Midland Fire Department is looking to create its own aerial program.
The city fire department is seeking bids for a drone to use during their operations, including search and rescue. The department already has six firefighters trained to pilot drones, with two already licensed.
One of these licensed drone pilots is Keith Jonas, a fire truck operator. He said firefighters began training in March of this year and they tests with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.
One area of use for a fire department drone is with search and rescue, since drones can cover an area far greater than a search party on foot in the same time span, Jonas said.
Continue reading: https://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/The-Midland-Fire-Department-is-looking-to-soar-16508715.php

The Russian post office is exploring blockchain technology for its parcel tracking system. According to top officials, the office could invest over $500 million into the system by 2025, with a working pilot expected in two years.
Known as Pochta Rossii, the national post office in Russia has been on a digital transformation mission in recent times as it seeks to stay competitive in the digital era. Blockchain sits atop the list of the technologies that the organization is exploring, Vladimir Urbansky, the director of digital products told local business daily Vedomosti.
Vladimir revealed that the post office expects to launch a ‘market-oriented’ blockchain-based tracking system by 2023. Describing the organization as a logistics chain, he emphasized that the new system will also allow it to provide the end-to-end tracking services.
Continue reading: https://coingeek.com/russia-post-office-exploring-blockchain-to-track-parcels/

Microsoft and 13 companies across nine Asia Pacific countries last month launched Code; Without Barriers to help close the gender gap in the region’s fast-growing cloud, artificial intelligence (AI), and digital technology sectors.
The program provides a platform to enable female developers, coders, and other technical talents to contribute towards inclusive economic growth, encourage innovation, and better reflect the societal makeup of their region.
“The balance between consumption and creation is changing. We see developers increasingly influencing every business process and function. This is why Code; Without Barriers was created. We identified an urgent need to increase the diversity of cloud, AI and technical talent in APAC, so every country can achieve their national digital agendas and have truly inclusive economic growth,” said Andrea Della Mattea, President for Microsoft in the Asia Pacific.
Continue reading: https://techwireasia.com/2021/10/microsofts-code-without-barriers-to-uplift-apac-women-in-tech/

Hogan Lovells was an associate sponsor of the Global ABS 2021 Conference held in London. Partners Sharon Lewis (Head of Financial Institutions Sector) and Michael Thomas (a partner in the financial services team), alongside Bryony Widdup (partner at DLA Piper) and Stefan Augustin (Co-Head of Structured Finance at ARC Ratings), discussed the role of blockchain and asset tokenization on structured finance and securitization transactions. We have summarized some of the key take-aways from the event.
While we still may be at an early stage of the evolution of blockchain for securitization, blockchain along with smart contracts, promises to transform many activities in our securitization industry. The question becomes not if but when, and when is now.
Blockchain has the potential to streamline processes, lower costs, increase transaction speed, enhance transparency and improve security, for all transaction participants, from issuer, to paying agent to investors, and for others such as auditors, third party opinion providers and rating agencies. Tokenization has the potential to partially replace securitization if not totally it.
Continue reading: https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/asset-tokenisation-on-blockchain-1400635/

Imagine a team of autonomous drones equipped with advanced sensing equipment, searching for smoke as they fly high above the Sierra Nevada mountains. Once they spot a wildfire, these leader robots relay directions to a swarm of firefighting drones that speed to the site of the blaze.
But what would happen if one or more leader robots was hacked by a malicious agent and began sending incorrect directions? As follower robots are led farther from the fire, how would they know they had been duped?
The use of blockchain technology as a communication tool for a team of robots could provide security and safeguard against deception, according to a study by researchers at MIT and Polytechnic University of Madrid, which was published today in IEEE Transactions on Robotics. The research may also have applications in cities where multirobot systems of self-driving cars are delivering goods and moving people across town.
A blockchain offers a tamper-proof record of all transactions — in this case, the messages issued by robot team leaders — so follower robots can eventually identify inconsistencies in the information trail.
Continue reading: https://news.mit.edu/2021/blockchain-robot-communication-1005