Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to Weekly Wings, your go to podcast from dronelife.com. we appreciate everybody tuning in and listening to get your industry insights. As always, joining myself is Samuel Stansberry and Terry Neff. Samuel, how are you doing this week?
[00:00:20] Speaker B: Doing well, trying to stay dry. We have some crazy weather rolling in right now, but otherwise good and excited to talk about some drone news.
[00:00:28] Speaker A: Awesome. And Terry, Terry, how you doing this week?
[00:00:30] Speaker C: Doing fantastic. Good UFC event, so nothing to. Nothing to hate on this weekend.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: Yeah, get your money's worth?
[00:00:38] Speaker C: Yeah, I got my money's worth. Dan Hooker fight single handedly sold the pay per view for me.
[00:00:42] Speaker A: Yeah, it was pretty epic. We're jumping right into it because there, there really is a lot that we're going to touch on in this week's episode. Looking at a few different pieces of news coming out of the drone delivery space and the drone tech spotlight, we'll look at an article with the US army looking at some anti drone technology and also how Ikea is using drones for inventory. We'll visit University of Texas to see how they are using a batting cage on steroids to advance their drone operations.
We'll be at the beach where I am not the biggest fan of, but we'll go there anyway. Look at how shark drone pilot is leveraging unmanned technologies to look at and monitor some shark activities. And we'll end looking at questions that people can start to look forward to as commercial UAV is just around the corner. And one thing I did want to share before we jump into the drone delivery piece is last week we talked about Orsted, the company that is involved in wind turbines.
[00:02:04] Speaker B: O r s t. Was that last week or two episodes ago?
[00:02:09] Speaker C: That was last week.
[00:02:10] Speaker B: Okay, I'm getting my timelines confused.
[00:02:13] Speaker A: Yeah, well, this I ended up finding because we didn't have any video. It was just photos from the discussion.
This photo is a close up of the drone itself. So we can see, looks like a quad, but has stacked motors.
So we're looking at an octocopter here.
And then there is this video which I wanted to play.
Oh, what happened there?
And so for folks on the audio only, big old drone, massive drone in the. In the water. You can see in the background dozens of wind turbines.
And this drone is carrying a very large orange bag.
And it could be about 30, 40ft hanging below the drone.
These wind turbines have these massive platforms.
So this is. Is how they are in the drone lowers this package on what looks to be a very large platform. What do you guys think about that? And then here's a boat. We're also sharing. Just doing some follow up here. I found out that this company has also integrated unmanned water vessels in order to go out and do potential pre surveys for new locations.
It has a wind, a sensor on it, some gps.
Really neat stuff. What do you guys think about it?
[00:04:09] Speaker B: Hybrid boat? Like is. That's not purely ev boat, I'm assuming.
[00:04:17] Speaker C: I think that it looks pretty small.
Should be small.
[00:04:27] Speaker A: It's a hybrid of a vessel and a buoy, because it can turn itself into a buoy, and when it gets.
[00:04:34] Speaker C: A little too.
[00:04:37] Speaker A: It might be all. It has solar panels on its exterior.
[00:04:42] Speaker B: I do feel like if it was purely ev, they would kind of broadcast that, though, you know?
[00:04:47] Speaker A: Right, well, you can do some follow up on that one there, Samuel.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: That I will.
[00:04:55] Speaker A: But the size and how they're like. Like how they're potentially redesigning the windmills themselves in order to receive drone deliveries. I think that's probably an interesting piece. The way that vertiports, the way that airports are having to reconfigure potentially quick serve restaurants.
Speaking of restaurants, drones delivering fly treks reaches new heights. Drone life article 100,000 drone deliveries and counting in the United States.
[00:05:37] Speaker C: I know nothing about this company. It's crazy.
[00:05:42] Speaker B: Quite a few delivery bags there.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it is a lot of bags.
[00:05:50] Speaker B: That's really awesome to hear, though. Especially considering what that's almost been in operations in the states for what, almost four years?
[00:05:59] Speaker A: I think so.
I think so. And so what would be. I mean, as far as involvement.
Samuel and Terry, I think you have a LinkedIn, Terry. I don't. I don't.
I'm not on there often.
[00:06:18] Speaker C: It's. I think I do have a profile. I don't know how in depth that thing is, but exists.
[00:06:25] Speaker A: And so with all your, you know, Sam, you can go first. As far as drone delivery guys, do you have like, a experience or, you know, something that you've done that stuck with you?
[00:06:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I would say I do have some of that very firsthand experience, having worked with Flytrix specifically. So it's been a crazy cool experience to see them and go from probably a handful of deliveries to quite literally over a hundred thousand deliveries now. Quite wild in my imagination, but that's. That's awesome.
I would say, just purely from the aviation standpoint where it's put my mind at, because when I went into this, it was a lot more on the. A lot more just kind of not nearly as technical and maybe not nearly as safety orientated as it's pushed me to be now. And I think that's one of the really cool aspects of it, especially seeing all the technology that's improved upon over the last four years. That's kind of taught me different tools I can rely on as a drone operator and just someone who's going to be looking at routes as safety mitigation. I think that's one of the things it's taught me, one of the things I can take away from it specifically. I mean, it's a nice looking drone.
[00:07:52] Speaker A: And, Terry, is there any, anything in your experience, drone delivery wise that kind of sticks out to you or like a moment as an ambassador?
[00:08:05] Speaker C: Well, yeah. So, I mean, I think a lot of people want drone delivery. And I don't know how many times I've heard, wow, I wish this was near my house. Like, it's.
It may not even be around the corner. It might be just right down the road from you, from being where you can get drone delivery. And this is only going to develop further. No matter what company it is. It's. It will be the future. Amazon will be sending your packages through hundreds of drones. I don't know how I feel about that, but hundreds of drones flying around, it's a very exciting future for aviation, to say the least.
[00:08:47] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's pretty interesting because I think a lot of folks thought a few years back it was uncontrolled airspace that might have been like, that differentiating factor between where we would see drone delivery and where we wouldn't see drone delivery. And it almost seems like with the way the technology is laid out, the way people are looking at safety and risk mitigation, that may be almost.
Almost shifting like a paradigm shift in the drone delivery market of the unmanned industry.
And with that, I mean, it's really interesting because we could talk about this for probably a whole hour. Just drone delivery.
We've seen what, the week before, last week or the week before, it was the announcements by Google and was it zipline? I think Google and Zipline are the ones that both have announced right beyond visual line of sight without visual observers in the Dallas Fort Worth area.
But then we're also seeing the other side.
And here information has come out that Amazon's like this, this article, this headline here. Amazon's troubled drone delivery program faces latest challenge in Texas. Annoyed residents.
[00:10:32] Speaker B: Never heard that one before.
[00:10:36] Speaker C: Was it drone up that one of their drones got shot recently?
[00:10:40] Speaker B: Was that a.
I remember that story, Terry. I vaguely remember that story.
[00:10:46] Speaker C: You could say some of them.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: It was a Florida person.
[00:10:52] Speaker B: It was a Florida person. Yeah, that's right. Local Florida man.
[00:10:58] Speaker A: Florida man. And he said it was. He thought it was spying on him. Something along those lines. Allegedly. Now, remember, all this was like, allegedly.
But noise complaints, you know, when you think. Noise complaints, in my experience, I think, you know, drones, especially in more rural areas, they're gonna stick out a little more, but there's less people. Right. In a more sparsely populated area, noise pollution is a bit more limited.
But in your more densely populated areas, you have, you know, a bit more background, you know, more houses packed together, more. More weed whacker, leaf blower sounds, engines running.
So.
But this drone looks huge, doesn't it?
[00:11:57] Speaker C: It does look fairly big. I've actually never seen. Is this the drone they're using, or is it, like.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: I think so. I would have to.
I don't know. But we're in college station here for this news article, and just to continue to just circle back to the witch drone they're using or might find it here, I guess residents in college station have.
We're seeing nurses, police officers, firefighters. It's disrupting their sleep during the day.
So individuals, sleepers.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: Well, I got to agree with you there, Terry. That's kind of crazy. Like, I mean, do they have a rating scale of what? The drone. Besides, you know, a swarm of bees. Like, is there a certain decibel that it's hitting?
[00:12:58] Speaker A: Swarm of bees. It's funny you say that, because the semi retired orthodontist said in an interview, it sounds like a giant hive of bees.
[00:13:09] Speaker B: Like, that's what it sounds like.
[00:13:12] Speaker A: Yeah. And, you know, it's coming because it's pretty loud.
[00:13:17] Speaker C: Semi retired, huh?
[00:13:20] Speaker A: I mean, I just don't know. I'm not an investigator, but, like, it's pretty loud. That's kind of like.
[00:13:27] Speaker C: I feel like I'm a little desensitized to sound because I live right next to Fort Bragg, and if my house isn't shaking because of a bomb going off, it's a helicopter passing over might be biased. It's not that loud. Okay. What do you have paper walls? What's going on?
[00:13:48] Speaker B: Notably, too, I think it's all during the daytime hours, at least with operations I'm familiar with, and I'm assuming these operations as well. There's no. I don't see these drones flying around people's houses at night or even when the sun is starting. I mean, maybe a little closer towards sunset and a little beyond that, but I can't imagine they're doing anything past.
[00:14:11] Speaker C: 09:00 p.m.
well, it is a little different on if any of you have worked third shift. Your sleep during the day is usually terrible as is. So they probably are sleeping pretty light because you're not supposed to be asleep from 08:00 a.m. to 06:00 p.m. you know, that's just. Your body's not liking that. So you probably sleep pretty light.
[00:14:32] Speaker A: That's your circadian rhythm.
[00:14:34] Speaker C: Circadian rhythm. There you go.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
But I guess it is interesting because Brian woods, con station city manager, said at a meeting that officials had tested the drone with noise levels between 47 and 61 decibels. Chainsaws typically run at 125 decibels with heavy equipment being at 95 to 110.
[00:15:06] Speaker B: Is that like, notably what the garbage truck decibel is around 100.
[00:15:11] Speaker A: And that's the other thing that you always have to figure is like, well, what, what altitude were they, you know, measuring? Did the city do the test set?
[00:15:21] Speaker C: I do feel like that's a little, I mean, from our experience, I feel like if it, if it is at like cruising altitude and it's. I just looked up decibel levels and a normal conversation is around 60 decibels. So if it's 60 decibels, 400ft in the air or whatever it's flying at, that is kind of loud, I would say.
[00:15:43] Speaker A: Okay. And this I've seen. Right, the mk 30. I have seen this. This is their newer, like their latest, latest.
It uses the industry leading sense and avoid technology. So like, camera system on front. Like, this is.
[00:16:03] Speaker C: A pretty drone, man.
[00:16:05] Speaker A: Yeah, but then he. But here's what they're using now, right? Like if I'm going to go back to the other one, this is the latest, latest.
And.
And then this looks like what they.
[00:16:27] Speaker C: Chunky boy.
[00:16:30] Speaker A: Yeah. So.
Because in the article it does mention that they've, you know, spoke with someone from Amazon and they shared that there is a move to operate this mk 30 drone which is on at the end of July.
[00:16:50] Speaker C: They had 377.
[00:16:52] Speaker A: Yeah, they had a meeting with residents, except when descending to drop the packages. So it stays at that 180 above 180. And they're hoping to roll this out.
It said, I guess, later this year.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: Notably, I do kind of just kind of want to point out, not that this isn't a valid concern, but I do feel like there's a lot of people that are already unhappy with certain drones in their communities and this just might be something they can point a finger at. And. Of course. Yeah, sorry. Go ahead.
[00:17:31] Speaker A: No, no, go ahead, Sam. I say the sound is easier to measure or point out than the you can't prove that it's taken a picture of you but you can certainly complain about sound. I think that's what you were kind of alluding to.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean this can be kind of their scapegoat in the sense. And again it, it can have valid concerns here. But overall I don't feel like this is going to be the end all the destruction of the drone delivery service, you know, especially at its current decibel range. But it's just kind of what I'm thinking.
[00:18:06] Speaker A: And again, I think it's really interesting to see that we have, you know, all in this area right of Texas now where things seem to be moving. You have the positive stories and these stories regarding, you know, the cons, the pros and the cons of drone delivery. I think it's similar to what you also see at airports right when airports are going to come in. And then the final piece here where we've been on this kind of drone delivery aspect of the industry is drawn up is shutting down. What's been reported is 18 I think 1718 something in the mid 15 to 18 of their stations in states like Utah, Arizona and one other.
[00:19:15] Speaker C: Would it be Florida? Is it because of Dennis? Dennis single handedly got him out of Florida city.
[00:19:21] Speaker A: Clear. Yeah, yeah, yeah. TAMPA according to this. According to the reports.
And so what they've openly communicated was 70 job losses but their focusing efforts on Dallas Fort Worth.
Interesting that you know, not all the articles but this drone XL article happens to well, somebody, you know, under anonymity claims the startup is struggling with poor management, employee mistreatment, limited access to drone hardware and financial difficulties. It sounds like a startup environment.
[00:20:07] Speaker C: Yeah. Wow. It's startups not doing well. That's crazy.
[00:20:13] Speaker A: Or you know or they're dealing with, you know, resources like lack of technology and technological resources. I think in general the industry if talking to anybody, you know, we saw, we talked about this in some of our early episodes for this season, how not Amazon but Google Wing was pivoting and looking at I think what India in order to have their drones manufactured there. I think the whole Chinese, the CCP, the limitation on where you can and can't purchase your components is putting everybody in a bind for access to technology.
But then again it's like you do things, you start things here and there and it does seem like a lot of focuses in Dallas right now when it comes to the drone delivery space from approval standpoint. And then UTM with the big announcements just weeks earlier from Henrik Google Wing announcing that beyond visual line of sight.
[00:21:43] Speaker C: Without, by the way, for the listeners, if you're wondering why Paul is talking very softly, kind of like Bob Ross, it's because it is 10:00 p.m. this is a very late recording for us. We usually do it around my time. You're very.
[00:21:59] Speaker B: It's kind of like ASMR, though. I kind of.
It's mellowing me out. Like it's a good.
[00:22:05] Speaker A: Normally.
[00:22:06] Speaker C: I'm listening to NPR tonight.
[00:22:08] Speaker A: Yeah, we're pivoting a little bit here and try not to wake.
[00:22:11] Speaker B: Trying to see where Google was manufacturing their chips, like, seeing if it was how much of their production. They did move to India, but I couldn't find anything immediate.
[00:22:21] Speaker A: Well, wing, if you type in wing, wasn't it?
[00:22:23] Speaker B: Well, I was thinking they were doing stuff with their pixel phones, too, but I couldn't find anything immediately on that.
[00:22:31] Speaker A: And so what we're going to look at next, pivoting from drone, looking at the tech spotlight and something we've spoken a little bit, the counter UA's technology, the military use of counter Ua's.
And what was really interesting was the article that popped up in defense. One was that there was an anti drone shootout that lets experience soldiers ring out latest gear.
And so what that is, is like, you know, bringing, instead of bringing a bunch of firearms, you know, trying them all out, a shootout. It was bringing together manufacturers of counter drone technology at Fort Drum in New York in order to kind of, you know, take, you know, everyone's tech that they were willing to bring and set it up and put it through the paces in a real life environment.
And so this really does speak to how the military right now needs counter drone technology, counter drone technology that can detect the threat, and counter drone technology that's going to eliminate that threat without a human in the loop.
What are your thoughts on this?
Did you get the invite?
[00:24:18] Speaker C: I wish. It would have been fun, man. You get to shoot a rail gun at a drone. Come on.
Where was this held at, Texas?
[00:24:35] Speaker A: No. So this is in Fort Drum, New York.
[00:24:38] Speaker C: New York, yeah.
[00:24:40] Speaker A: They picked a good time to go to Fort Drum, but they're referencing Ukraine drones that are flying at speeds over 100 miles an hour.
Right. So it's. It's. That's the other thing. There's drone detection for the commercial space. Like, we talk about counter UA's technology for protecting vip's, like the Trump assassination incident. That individual was flying a DJI drone that can't because of design limitations, really, unless it's in a tailwind won't go over 35 miles an hour.
So that's a lot easier to detect than a UA's of half the size going 100 miles an hour.
And so I think I, this is like the ultimate, I guess, open competition for counter us technology.
[00:26:02] Speaker B: That's kind of quite the testing ground in a sense. But I'm curious, what kind of the, what is it available to, like I'm assuming, like you said, invite only.
[00:26:17] Speaker A: Yeah, certainly invite only. And then as I'm sitting here, I'm thinking, I wonder, I wonder the other thing too is how do you, the technology to have the drones that can fly. So you've got to have pilots out there that are really skilled in order to test the counter UA's.
[00:26:42] Speaker B: Right.
[00:26:42] Speaker A: So it's not just about getting the best counter UA's tech on site for testing and showcasing, but it's also then having to have the, you know, most capable combat, not simulating, but combat reenacting UA's technology as well. So that was probably a really, really interesting get together.
[00:27:18] Speaker C: We're gonna start seeing drones with the, like the anti radar paneling, so they can't be detected by radar next.
It's gotta be what's next.
[00:27:32] Speaker A: And so yeah, they're talking about, right, counter drones, counter drone weapons that fire into the air, which possess a risk, but this can possess a, this could possess a risk, whereas the use of more exotic weapons like electronic warfare systems or lasers, also risks, affects, also risks affecting systems. But there they're trying everything.
[00:28:07] Speaker C: If you could get like a super high powered laser that has great tracking, I don't see how that would not take down a drone, just overheat the battery immediately.
[00:28:18] Speaker A: Maybe there's like a, for a NoTAM around for a drum a couple weeks ago, gps interference, laser in and around.
[00:28:29] Speaker B: Well, notably, there's no videos attached with that article, so I'm hoping that we can see some of that defense.
[00:28:36] Speaker A: Oh, it's on some of those defense.
[00:28:37] Speaker B: Weapons and it's on tick tock.
[00:28:40] Speaker C: He said it's on tick tock.
[00:28:41] Speaker A: I'm kidding, joking.
[00:28:45] Speaker C: They're just posting on TikTok.
[00:28:47] Speaker A: That's what I'm saying. Like, when are we going to come out with the marketing video for it? Because every other, every other country is, you know, doing marketing videos to show.
[00:28:56] Speaker C: Off their advanced, they actually, the actual useful stuff is not being marketed on TikTok. That is just something you gotta know. If it comes to you in an ad, it's not good.
[00:29:08] Speaker A: I like that, that's, that should be a bumper sticker.
I'm gonna come up with bumper stickers. And I'm going to.
Well, moving away from military and moving into something that I just thought was super, super fascinating, just intriguing. I don't know how I feel about Ikea, but this is.
[00:29:38] Speaker B: Thoughts on Ikea?
[00:29:41] Speaker A: Oh, just the. The.
It's like Disney for adults, I guess.
[00:29:53] Speaker B: It's like Disney adult furniture is what you might think.
[00:29:58] Speaker A: No, like, the trip, the traveling. There's not, like an Ikea anywhere. And some of this stuff, they won't ship. Like, you have to go pick it up. So it's.
[00:30:10] Speaker C: I'm gonna go off topic real quick, just for a second. So there's a game I play. It's called Tarkov. In the game, there is a kind of like a rip off of an Ikea bag, but it's, like, made into a tactical rig, so you can carry your mags. It's something you can get. I'm just thinking, since it's. That game's based in Russia. When am I going to get the Ikea drone that I can hunt somebody down with? I just.
The Ikea bomb drone. Can I get that in the game now?
[00:30:38] Speaker B: I don't think that's going to hit the shelves for a while, Terry.
[00:30:43] Speaker C: They're pretty lazy devs.
[00:30:44] Speaker A: Probably not his Ikea. Ikea knockoff bag. He wants his Ikea drone to go with it.
Um, yeah. No, that's interesting. What's the game?
[00:31:01] Speaker C: Escape from Tarkov extraction shooter. Military. Realistic.
[00:31:08] Speaker A: And are you, like, a us military person?
[00:31:12] Speaker C: You can be.
Yeah.
[00:31:16] Speaker A: You can pick. You can pick what side you want to be on.
[00:31:19] Speaker C: Well, there's bear, and then whatever the other one is.
[00:31:24] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, this is. This is. I don't know if they're gonna introduce this into your game anytime soon, but now that this article has come out, I mean, there's maybe a higher chance.
[00:31:36] Speaker C: I'm gonna forward it to them.
I'll find their email.
[00:31:40] Speaker B: You need to get that specific skin for the drone, Terry.
[00:31:47] Speaker A: And it's got to have the hate, the branding on brand. So Ikea expands its inventory.
Drone fleet. So it has a fleet. It's. It uses fleets of drones in order to track warehouse inventory.
I mean, how awesome is it?
[00:32:06] Speaker C: Stationary cameras?
[00:32:13] Speaker A: Well, I mean, they probably. The thing is, they're probably packing so much, so much stuff into.
Into all the aisles, you know?
[00:32:26] Speaker C: Yeah, but I mean, I think Amazon kind of, like, in the Amazon warehouses, they have, like, sensors and then they have cameras, and they kind of, like, use a combination of both the track.
[00:32:38] Speaker A: Yeah. That does make like you could use weight, but then that requires even cameras. Putting cameras in requires like running wires and installing infrastructure. So that maybe. My only thought is that there would.
[00:32:54] Speaker C: Oppose the flying drone in building that could malfunction because it's made by Ikea.
I mean, Ikea is not known for their quality. That's all I'm saying.
[00:33:07] Speaker A: Well, they don't. The thing is, is they might even have like automatic robots moving the stuff around. There might not even be.
[00:33:16] Speaker C: I just think it's a little impractical. I don't. Maybe it's. They're not using it like how I think they're using it. But having a drone flying around scanning as opposed to bolting a camera to the roof.
[00:33:26] Speaker A: Oh, because it says right here, right. The little scanning drones can provide around the clock updates to inventory and reach heights that humans and most robots can't.
So these, like, the heights of these shelves are, I can only imagine, are probably six, easily 60ft, I was going.
[00:33:51] Speaker B: To say going to the warehouse ceiling, most likely.
[00:33:59] Speaker A: And so these drones are just going up and down. You're just scanning all their shelves and it's like a startup. It's just another, you know, we talked about startups in the beginning where if you think about it too, like during COVID I don't know, people were just trying, still trying to sell stuff and maintain inventory and figure out what's where. And if you can't have people even coming into your warehouses. But you have robots.
I hear what you're saying, terry, like cameras. But these are, these are cameras.
[00:34:41] Speaker C: Yeah, but stationary cameras, they're cheaper than a drone. And you just combine. I mean, yeah, it's gonna take a lot of wiring, but I mean, you have money. I don't know.
[00:34:52] Speaker A: They might not be cheaper, though. When you got to run the wiring, you got to put more than one up. This is just one or two drones that then travel the whole whole warehouse because you don't need the inventory like every second, right? A camera sitting there is going to be telling you your inventory, like cut, like, like constantly, like what you want. Timmy pulls a pallet and it's like immediately like, like, I think what they want is daily inventory at a minimum. So if, if all the work happens and people are pulling, and then at the end of that day, the drone just flies the whole warehouse and it's like calculated. And then they know exactly what they have.
[00:35:36] Speaker C: Is the camera on the bottom? Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. But is the camera on the bottom?
[00:35:41] Speaker A: I don't know if this looks like the back or this is the sensor right here that looks like more of a vent.
[00:35:49] Speaker C: And then I would like to note that what is clearly a charging system for the drone is actually pretty neat. It's just kind of, like, around the base. You don't know if you see the connectors right there. I'm assuming that's the charging, like, how you charge it.
[00:36:05] Speaker A: Yeah. And no, no, there's no pilot. Like. Like, it's inside. This is in box. A lot of this is overseas, so there's no, like, actual pilot flying it. This is the. The. The epitome of drone automation.
[00:36:24] Speaker B: I think that's kind of cool, though. I mean, specifically when drones come into your industry. I feel like the different. All these different industries are specifically trying to find, hey, new technology. It's a drone. Let's see what we can do with it, how we can apply it to our industry. So it's kind of cool to see all the different uses in this one, kind of specifically, because I know we have talked maybe briefly about something like this, but this is, like, a pretty practical use application of it.
[00:36:55] Speaker A: And so 2021, right after Covid, is when they kicked this off in Switzerland, Ikea did. And now they're using this across 16 locations in Belgium, Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. And then something that we might be able to look into future episodes is it seems like there's competitors to Verity. So Verity is the startup. Verity is the company that manufactures the drone. And it seems like Ikea is very. An early investor, potentially or very early adopter of the product. But you have competitors. Corvus robotics, gathered AI and indoor robotics.
But, yeah, that's super to their website real quick.
[00:38:01] Speaker C: They have a homepage that has a video of it in work. I feel like that would be good for us to visualize.
[00:38:25] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Good call.
[00:38:27] Speaker C: Right on it.
[00:38:34] Speaker A: Yeah, that's so. Oh, man. Yeah. Where. Where. Where were you, Terry, with. With this call so.
So many minutes ago?
Well, you couldn't do this with a.
With, like, a permanently fixed camera.
[00:38:52] Speaker C: Why not? You could, dude, you could literally put one every other stud.
[00:38:56] Speaker A: Oh, my.
[00:38:57] Speaker C: Every level.
[00:38:57] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:39:00] Speaker C: All right, how about this? I'll start a company and I'll compete with them.
I'll be an anti drone. Warehouse, storage. I don't even know what to call it.
[00:39:09] Speaker A: Hey, man, you've got the pat, you've got the motivation now. That's.
[00:39:13] Speaker B: That's.
[00:39:14] Speaker A: That's how it all begins. Motivation.
[00:39:16] Speaker B: One of the first big steps isn't it?
Yeah.
[00:39:22] Speaker A: That's really awesome. I can remember, like, people talking. Yeah. Yeah. A few years ago.
It all makes sense. In Switzerland.
Of course, Switzerland. This is where everything's happening.
Switzerland. And the University of Texas drone Life article came out. University employees, huge batting cage to conduct drone test flights.
What do you guys think about that? You guys play baseball?
[00:39:58] Speaker B: Going just off the title. That sounds pretty cool. Almost as cool as the, the firing range in New York with drones.
[00:40:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
Well, you might want to be in a net when you're testing that kind of stuff. Yeah, I've seen, I've seen a drone cage.
[00:40:24] Speaker C: Syracuse.
[00:40:25] Speaker A: Is that what you're referencing in Elizabeth City, North Carolina?
Yeah. So they've got a 150 by 100 by 60 foot tall, what they call a batting cage or what's. Yeah. What their professor of mechanical engineering has referenced. The best analogy is a baseball batting gauge. And in that aspect I say on steroids, it's like a baseball batting cage on steroids.
Everybody knows people that hit home runs really far in the two thousands. Like steroids.
No, no baseball people here.
Yeah. Elizabeth City State University has one of these in North Carolina. This is something that we're seeing pop up, I'd say, more often or not on college campuses because it allows for a location to have students without their part 107 conduct some pretty like advanced flight research type of operations.
[00:41:45] Speaker B: Hmm.
[00:41:49] Speaker A: When it comes.
[00:41:50] Speaker C: Sorry, how did this cost anywhere near $150,000 to make?
Is it just not a bunch of like telephone poles with net around it?
[00:42:02] Speaker A: So. So 60ft tall? So those poles go 60ft tall. So I think there's like, I can't remember if it's like a third of the height of the pole. Has to be.
That's for fencing.
Like if you're putting up fence. If it's a six foot fence, you want to put like 2ft in the ground. But I can imagine for these 60 foot poles, you're probably putting them like 10ft in the ground.
[00:42:29] Speaker C: I don't, I just feel like that's a bit much for wooden.
[00:42:36] Speaker A: And then the cost of these nets. And I say this because growing up, a lot of experience with batting cages, a batting cage net, I don't know, runs hundreds of dollars. I think a cheap batting cage on a short side was going to cost you four or $500 for just the net and then the steel. So like a home backyard batting cage on the cheapest side, which might not even be 62ft. If you want to have like, full length pitching, it has to be a 70 foot long cage.
That's like two grand, 1502 thousand. If you're paying someone else to install it and not yourself, you might be paying $4,000, $3,500 for a home batting cage that is nowhere near this size.
So those poles, I couldn't imagine like how much just one of those wooden poles cost. But my father had a batting cage growing up, and the net was like the most painful or not painful, I don't know, cost absorbing aspect. One time the pole snapped in the winter because the net wasn't taken down and the snow will build up on the net.
[00:44:05] Speaker C: I don't know, I just, I don't feel like it has to be, I mean, maybe something that's more durable. I feel like they could have used any type of material for that and it wouldn't have been, I don't know.
[00:44:16] Speaker A: Yeah, well, you want, it's like you want the wind. The biggest thing is you want to have the real outdoor conditions and in that sense, but when you have a net like this, you can submit a waiver to the FAA, like if you want to, you know, research multiple drones flying at one time, you know, how can you, how can you ensure and communicate to the FAA that nothing seriously bad will go wrong? Well, worst case scenario, drone flies into the net and everyone's safe.
[00:44:51] Speaker B: Considering with everything going on in Texas being such a hotbed for the drone industry right now, this kind of makes perfect sense to have the kind of like testing facility there, you know?
[00:45:02] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. But it only goes 60ft high, so, so when it comes to like, you know exactly what you can do at what you can really mimic. But for a student standpoint, again, to be able to just take students and kind of just throw them out into an environment where it's almost like a sandbox, where you can be out in the environmental conditions, but also having an extra layer of safety.
So you think UA's test sites would probably b locations, you'll see more of these kind of nets pop up, maybe like a top golf near you. If a top golf ever, ever fails, which I'm not sure that'll ever happen, you could always just, you know, put netting over the top and turn it into a Tron test site.
[00:46:02] Speaker C: I don't know, I just, I can't get over, I feel like you could have probably put up a metal building bigger than that for one hundred fifty k.
[00:46:12] Speaker A: I don't know, man, inflation.
I heard it's bad these days.
[00:46:19] Speaker C: It's terrible.
[00:46:24] Speaker A: And so here, moving, you know, from the educational campus space, there is this really neat article that came out. It was meet the drone pilot who tracks a shark movement along coast. So we've got this video here.
And they go on and on. The guys, like here, they set this whole thing up as far as, like, who this person is. And I kind of jump to the part where the drone pilot's going to speak and he's going to talk about, you know, what he's doing and how he's doing it, and, you know, what.
[00:46:58] Speaker D: The drone provides as to how they behave. It's been four years of fascination slowly turning into expertise, as Scott Fairchild has recorded some of the most DJI juvenile white shark behaviors to date.
[00:47:12] Speaker C: Learn.
[00:47:13] Speaker D: Watch their tendencies, their behaviors, because they're quite repetitive. In fact, they're consistent. Very. So, yeah, it's amazing to watch how they, what they do, don't do. And it's every time like clockwork. Like Jane Goodall with the silverback gorillas, Fairchild has no formal training in marine biology, but his passion and patience have garnered international attention as his shark encounter videos start to shine some light on behaviors most have only guessed at. They're clearly choosing to be together, but not literally interact. And so if they get anywhere within a couple hundred yards of each other, they just go to each other always. And then their personal space is about ten to 20ft and always break off. The videos shot in San Diego county over the last four years have also shown encounters with swimmers, surfers and paddle boarders, showing what Fairchild calls the shark's slow passive curiosity. They'll come always from behind.
[00:48:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Not, not a fan of the beach. Like, is this not scary?
Does that not frighten their senses?
[00:48:15] Speaker D: If you look at them, they'll break off. And with over a thousand, they're almost like cats.
[00:48:21] Speaker C: Like, they, they just want to kind of like, that would be like the cats of the ocean. They'll like, come up to. They're not going to attack you if you mess with them, they'll attack you. Don't touch its belly. You know, like, don't look like, you.
[00:48:32] Speaker B: Know, a surfer or something. You'll be okay.
[00:48:35] Speaker C: I mean, you have a, I mean, have you ever heard this, the stat where if you. That you have a higher chance of dying by a vending machine falling on you than getting bit by a shark?
[00:48:46] Speaker A: I hadn't heard that one, but Scott Fairchild at Scott Fairchild. So anyone who also probably wants to see some just like, epic, epic photos and videos of that at Scott underscore Fairchild, I think, is what it was on Instagram or social media. So I really wanted to highlight for the drone pilots to go and see this. I just thought that was so epic, because here's someone who, what they mentioned is not a marine biologist, right? This is just. This is someone who. But if you listen to him talk, he can tell you all the patterns, right? He's just watched these sharks from a perspective that some marine biologists have never even watched these animals from. And so he talks about how, like Terry mentioned, I do think they are kind of like the cat, because if it was a dog, it would have just either barked at you or it wouldn't have even known you were there. I. Whereas these things, to me, it seemed like they're very curious, right? And just like a cat. Like, I always thought about that with a cat. Like, hey, if I just don't look at the cat, then the cat won't look at me. And if I don't touch the cat, the cat will bother me. Whereas dog is just, like, sniffing all up in your business and just like, you know, again, barking barks louder than the bite. Where's the cats? Just kind of like, you know, once it's on your fate.
But Scott Fairchild, I mean, and that, I just thought that was really cool because they just seemed to really, you know, hammer on the point of, well, he's not even a.
No, he's a robot.
[00:50:38] Speaker C: It kind of seems like he took two of his passions and combined them, and I'm sure we'll start seeing more people do that. I mean, who knows? It's endless possibilities. He liked sharks. He clearly likes sharks, and he likes drones. So he's like, how can I use this drone to learn more about sharks? You know? I mean, it's just two passion projects.
[00:50:58] Speaker A: Merging, and then how do you bring that individual in now to work alongside the marine biologist? And that's where all these are. Excuse me. Opportunities exist for folks when they're like, what should I do? What should we.
You're not recreating something you're adding value to.
Like, you're not. You're not figuring something out, an occurrence or an existence, something that already exists. And you're. You're applying the drone in a way that the people who are already doing it either couldn't or aren't. And so you would think this could be integrated into, you know, if they weren't already using drones like Patrick, right? Like the ventative aspect. They put the shark flags out and stuff. But how, you know, this activity. And so drones monitoring.
But then again, people are gonna see the drones and they're gonna think that, like. Like, oh, there's the drones. There's the chinese drones flying up and down the eastern seaboard, you know, keeping those Americans in line again. They got speakers on them. Stay out.
Don't worry.
[00:52:17] Speaker B: You can have Dennis come and liberate you with his gun.
The local Florida man, Dennis. I believe that that was his name. I could be mistaken.
[00:52:26] Speaker C: It was Dennis.
[00:52:27] Speaker A: Yes.
But out in San Diego, I thought that was really.
And what it was is they were comparing it to Diane Fosse. Like, Diane Fosse with the silver.
[00:52:40] Speaker B: I don't think that's.
[00:52:43] Speaker A: As if he's, like, up there touching and swimming with the sharks. This guy's, like, flying and drone from.
[00:52:48] Speaker B: The beach, probably under an umbrella, just peeking out. Yep. Good line of sight of.
[00:52:53] Speaker C: He probably doesn't even leave the parking lot, let's be honest. Why would he go get sand in his shoes? He just sits in the parking lot.
[00:53:02] Speaker A: Diane Fosse. And just for fun, I'm, like, looking at this, I'm like, yeah. This person's, like.
Like, hanging out in the jungle with the. With the gorillas and their babies just right in her.
[00:53:13] Speaker B: This is important context for the younger viewers here, because. All right. I don't know. She's. I totally did not know about that. Did you, Terry?
[00:53:22] Speaker C: I've seen her before, and I don't really. Oh, never research.
[00:53:26] Speaker B: It's probably, like, turning some gears in my head that I've just totally put away somewhere. But, yeah, that's a wild comparison.
[00:53:34] Speaker A: Let's. Let's just not overlook the fact that. That Diane Fosse was assassinated.
[00:53:43] Speaker C: That's a.
[00:53:44] Speaker A: The day after Christmas.
[00:53:47] Speaker C: Who assassinated her and why? What did she know.
[00:53:54] Speaker A: Isn'T.
I mean, I know this. This is weekly wings. I'm pretty sure. I think we focus on the drone industry. I know there are some podcasts out there that dive into the murder mysteries, but this is pretty wild, because I was, like, not gonna. I was just gonna be like, oh, yeah, Diane Fosse, and then move on and like, oh, wow.
Had to have been a set. It makes sense, you know, she knew too much.
Knew too much.
Was it the gorillas, or was it the anti animal rights, the. You know, you got the animal rights activist, which I can imagine she was, and then you've got the.
The people in the movie who have excavators and just want to tear jungles down. And I'm sure.
[00:54:44] Speaker B: I think it's when she started teaching them sign language, they broke a barrier that was probably too much.
[00:54:51] Speaker C: What's the name of the guy who watches the sharks.
[00:54:55] Speaker B: Scott Fairchild, I believe.
[00:54:57] Speaker A: Scott Fairchild. He's got a lookout.
[00:55:00] Speaker C: Yeah, we got to get him a bulletproof vest.
[00:55:03] Speaker B: Protect that man at all costs.
[00:55:06] Speaker A: Maybe he should.
Wow, that's pretty wild. Well, there's a. There's something like I was familiar with, I think the fact that the person, like, like you're saying Samuel, like, taught the. Probably something in school at one point, but the assassination wasn't. Wasn't familiar. And so the last thing we'll jump into here in this week's episode of Weekly Wings.
It's an article that I just was bringing, kind of bringing back up, not the most recent, but commercial UAB is right around the corner. Jeremiah Karpowicz had put this out. Five questions about commercial drone regulations that will be answered at commercial UAV expo. So, you know, what could we potentially expect to hear more of and what could we possibly be talking about in the weeks to come?
Leading up to a lot of announcements on authorizations. Also, AVSs parachute recovery system just. We are kind of here in the regulatory corner. I was like, man, we don't really have anything regulatory to speak on, and I might have to postpone this here until next week, but we'll breeze through this real quick. One thing, part 108, something that folks probably talk more about.
How are FAA officials thinking about the present and future regulations? So that's something that's always going to be talked about when you get a lot of folks together at an expo or conference navigating regulation and infrastructure projects. So, you know, even in the, with the election cycles, we hear a lot about failing infrastructure, whether it be transportation, roadways, railways, energy infrastructure. The need for beyond visual line of sight advancements, to use drones to improve our nation's critical infrastructure, is something that we'll probably hear or see and find out a lot more of developments coming out of commercial UAV and then the whole DJI drone band. It's kind of been quiet for the last couple weeks. That's certainly going to be talked about often, or at least discussed counter at commercial UAV.
And then when will we see any of the regulatory changes as far as part 108, beyond visual line of sight possibilities of drone bans?
And then, because I just remembered, really, from a regulatory standpoint, I don't think we touched on it. Maybe we already did, but I just really thought this was important, was AVSS is a parachute recovery system for drones. They make parachute recovery systems for off the shelf drones, as well as work directly with oems to make parachute recovery systems for drones that aren't necessarily sold off the shelf.
And just two days ago, three days ago, the first category two flight over people in the US occurred in Syracuse, New York.
So there is a YouTube video. Billy Kyle put out a video with Josh Ogden. They were together in Syracuse, New York recently.
I do think it was, it seemed like it was sometime this month that the video was shot, if not very recently, with the mavic three conducting operations over people because it meets in it and it got the approval from the FAA. So huge for operations over people without having to have a waiver.
And ABSS works with, again, other operators or other manufacturers like Skydio and brink drones. So Brink has talked about wanting to have that drone as a first responder vehicle that can just kind of fly directly to wherever the call came. The FAA is going to want to know that that drone has a parachute system. And AVSs is the company that you'll most likely see provide that, that subsystem in their UA's.
What do you guys think about this?
[01:00:13] Speaker B: Ops over people without waivers, especially like you go, Syracuse. Sending. Love to Syracuse. But uh, that's honestly really cool to see that. Kind of introduced to trying to think the right word here. But I don't know, it seems like a pretty cool thing to have introduced into the drone community specifically.
[01:00:34] Speaker C: It's a great idea. I mean, you're going to need a parachute eventually if you plan on doing anything of substantial value.
[01:00:43] Speaker B: Yeah, well, it seems like another safety tool that's being implemented for the community and for wider spread use, I should say. More accessibility for people to have access to.
[01:00:54] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:00:57] Speaker A: And yeah, Syracuse, I know AVSs, I'm pretty sure they're like, they're like a canadian based company because they've done all the legwork to get the canadian approvals. So they're, they recognize that this drone that like the DJI drones are used not just in the United States, they're used across the globe. So this, this vehicle meets standards for.
It's so clean looking too, right? Like the safety yellow, it's got the cap, it integrates directly into the USB type c port and it directly mounts. So it's also important that the manufacturer again, has, has provided the space and the hardware that allows for third party add ons.
[01:01:40] Speaker B: It's not hindering the design of the vehicle at all. It's kind of complementing it.
[01:01:45] Speaker A: Yeah, 100%.
[01:01:48] Speaker C: There was one that just kind of like wrapped around the arms of the props. I thought that was a pretty cool design. Just. They'll get it on there any way they can.
[01:01:58] Speaker A: Yeah. And so it meets the EASA, which is the european requirements for operations over people, and then it also meets the CAAE. Right. The canadian authorities and the FAA's declarations of compliance. I think it's around $1,700, $1,800 for the parachute itself.
Yeah, they're getting where you fit in. And so they've got this for the dock version, too. So you can put this on your dog drone. You can fly first responder missions, you can fly over construction sites, you can fly over, you know, security.
Think about like, a large complex. You could be able to, you know, and that pretty.
[01:02:53] Speaker C: That's not even screwed in like the other one is. It's just wrapped around the props or the arms of the props.
[01:03:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:03:02] Speaker C: Rubber bandst.
[01:03:07] Speaker A: Well, another great episode.
We covered quite a few topics. We talked, you know, revisited the Orsted windmill farm drone usage, talked a little about their integration of.
Spent a decent amount of time talking drone delivery. Flytrex. Congratulations. 100,000 deliveries completed in the spend a little time talking about drone noise and some complaints that we've seen come out publicly in regards to Amazon and then also layoffs where reallocating potentially of resources and focusing from what they say. More on a.
In Fort Drum, New York, the army was looking at some anti drone counter UA's that they could get out onto the advanced battle, the contemporary operating environment that we're seeing in this more of a modern warfare time. And then the Ikea drones, where Terry's gonna go start his own.
We look forward to seeing the company name. And then also when you get your website up, let me know first.
But now we checked out the Ikea drones that for inventory and warehouses. And honestly, Terry, with you saying to go to the website, that really for anybody that was watching here on YouTube, that really to gain from that article, sometimes you just forget how easy it is to just go to a website. Landing drone batting cage at the University of Texas being used for, you know, enabling and facilitating advanced research and allowing both students on campus and faculty to really push the limitations when it comes to operations and risks. In the shark drone pilot out in San Diego, what was it? What was the handle again? Samuel, you remembered what it was. Scott.
[01:05:16] Speaker B: Scott Fairchild.
[01:05:17] Speaker A: Scott Fairchild. Check out Scott Fairchild videos.
And then we ended in the. The regulatory corner. We ended up looking at the AVSS parachute recovery system for the Mavic three enterprise series drones that allows for operations over people. So with the drone itself, depending on the thermal or the visual and the parachute, you're under $10,000 and you have a drone that you can, you know, operate almost anywhere as long as you have the required airspace, airspace authorizations while flying over people and moving vehicles in a transient manner. So that's a really huge advance. And looked at a couple questions that we'll touch back on in the weeks to come regarding commercial UAV, what we can expect to see in her coming after that show in the very beginning of Aug.
Who great show. Thanks, Terry. Samuel. Yeah, yeah.
[01:06:25] Speaker B: I'm kind of looking forward specifically for the show to kind of hear about those answers. Those are, I think, some very pertinent questions that were raised. So excited. Hear more about that specifically.
[01:06:39] Speaker A: Awesome. Awesome. Terry. Terry, you got anything for us in closing for listeners?
Awesome. Fantastic. Well, thanks again. Thank you, Samuel. Thank you, Terry, for your insights. We appreciate everybody tuning in to weekly wings dronelife.com podcast in order to spend a little time with us here going through some of the latent news topics and happenings in the US industry and the somewhat encompassing umbrella around unmanned systems and technology. So thank you, everybody, as always, have a great week and we will see.
