Drone Security, AI Breakthroughs & Light Show Residency | July 29, 2024

Paul Rossi (00:00) Welcome to Weekly Wings, your go -to podcast from DroneLife .com, where we soar through the latest in drone technology, regulation updates, and exciting innovations. Each week, join Samuel, Terry, and I as we navigate the drone industry, offering expert insights, interviews with key figures, and a bird's -eye view of how drones are shaping our world. From commercial applications to recreational adventures, Weekly Wings delves into how these remarkable vehicles are impacting. construction, agriculture, education, filmmaking, delivery services, and much more. Whether you're a professional drone operator, hobbyist, or just drone curious, tune in to stay informed and inspired as we explore the heights of what's possible in the world of drones. Subscribe now and never miss an episode of Weekly Wings, where the future is looking And welcome everybody. Welcome to another great episode. We got a lot, a lot to talk about industries moving so very rapidly and quickly. How you doing this week, Terry? Terry Neff (01:02) fantastic. Happy beer. Paul Rossi (01:05) Right on, right on. How about you, Samuel? Samuel S (01:07) I'm doing well, even with this rainy weather. Might kind of dampen the atmosphere a little bit, but it doesn't dampen our spirits to talk about drones. Paul Rossi (01:16) Yeah, well, if you have a lawn, right, if you have grass that isn't dead already this this summer, you're you're praising right. Your rain dance has been successful. But yeah, I do think we've gotten to a point. Yeah, the grass is green, even the dead grass in the front of my house is green, so it's pretty awesome. But if it continues to rain, yeah, it's certainly going to going to turn things in a not so positive direction, but. Samuel S (01:27) this whole week of rain. Paul Rossi (01:43) Great episode this week. We've got a lot to talk about. We're going to revisit the massive political news and the Trump assassination because of developments that we saw there. We're going to talk about some other drone flights that occurred over the past week that raise some questions about the security aspect, some students, some Chinese students in South Korea videoing some military stuff, and then also... some SpaceX, you know, an individual wanting to check out some rockets. So we'll dive into that. We're also gonna be looking at some tech, some really neat stuff, ant inspired AI drone flight. We're also gonna look at a new smart controller released by ACSL for their SOTN drone. So that's exciting. We're gonna be talking about stuff here in North Carolina. Drone Express going after their 135 UAS air carrier certificate launches operations. in Winston -Salem, North Carolina. Also touching on Aslon Robotics, just another little success story that came out of recent events. In our case study success corner, we're going to talk about DFR in Arizona, also Vegas light shows. Finally, in our regulatory corner, we're going to end up discussing FA approving, giving the nod Counter UAS system that's defend solutions and force air too. So lots to talk about. We're going to jump into it right now discussing the Trump shooter. So there we go. We were trying to figure out how do we label this, right? What are we supposed to address this? So we all learn something that I don't think anybody was even thinking. We heard so much, right? like within hours, 24 hours, think is within that timeframe. And I have to go back and look. News folks immediately started bringing on their drone experts. Articles came out. Where was the drone? Where was the eye in the sky? I could have saw this individual. And then all of sudden it's like Trump shooter flew drone over the venue hours before attempted assassination. What? What? 20 year old flying a drone hours before the event in order to right, advanced planning like pre planning. So there's a lot of conversations. I think this person is a piece, you know, anyone who attempts to take somebody's life, no matter what, you know, tactics they use is absolutely just bottom of the barrel. doesn't deserve the freedoms that this country has to offer and isn't someone that I even want to really speak about. this idea that individuals able to fly a drone to survey this area and just further increase, it shows some degree of knowledge that applying tools available low cost that the government wasn't using. Thought, Samuel? Samuel S (05:04) Yeah, I mean, I think it says a lot specifically that the guy, I don't know, it's crazy. was out of all the people to fly the drone in this event, it was the would be assassin or the assassin who got the person in the rally. But yeah, I mean, it's crazy. No Secret Service, no other people in our protection decided that, hey, you I don't think it would hurt to throw it up, but the one guy, the 20 year old kid was like, yeah, you know, I'm going to utilize this tool and use it to my benefit. He got his eye in the sky. It's kind of, I don't know, I guess a little bizarre that of all the people to have one, it was him, but, you Paul Rossi (05:54) And so you have federal flight restrictions, right, Terry? I mean, I'm sure at this point in your career of drone piloting, you've probably become familiar with TFRs, temporary flight restrictions, being in Fayetteville, Rayford area. We just had vice president running for president now, other craziness in the political world. President Trump was just in Charlotte. People are coming to Fayetteville because of Fort Bragg, Fort Liberty, in order to engage with the audience there coming to RDU. So even with this in effect, that's on paper, but hours before this event, I mean, we talk about technology, you've brought up in your for you page or your Google. new stuff has shown like counter UAS systems. What are your thoughts on just not even having that in place? A means to even monitor potential drone operations a few hours in advance, a day in advance? Terry Neff (07:11) Well, yeah, I mean, they should have. mean, they should have, would have, could have, you know, but it was an all around failure from the Secret Service, unfortunately. Maybe they didn't think they needed it out in this rural area. It was an airport. He was most likely looking to see where his best vantage points would have been. So it had been like that water tower, that roof, that was his only two options. So that's what he was looking at. I don't know if leaving a counter UAS option, if it was there, I don't think it would have stopped anything because he could have seen that on the ground level. Paul Rossi (07:53) think what we learned from this is you're not going to come with the drone when he gets on stage in order to figure out, you know, where am I going to go? You're likely to come up a day before, you know, the morning of if it's a six o 'clock, you're thinking, hey, it wouldn't be strange for people to be around there. You're coming up ahead of time. So in order to put like a device like, we know we're going there and the event is happening at this time, we should put this counter system up and we should start monitoring. Again, you're only speaking here. So to have a solution and it feeds to a computer and you get an alert. if anyone put a drone up and you don't have to stand there and stare at the sky, I think a technology should exist where 24 hours before they could just go set something on the rooftop where the sniper was the day of, and it could just scan the airspace. And if any aircraft drone enters, you're not doing it, you don't turn it on right when the president gets on stage. It's about pre -planning in advance. I think listening to you speak, Terry, like the water tower is super easy to see. You don't have to fly a drone to know that you could go there, but to get on top of the water tower and not be noticed would have been challenging. And someone might think, You know, someone might be there guarding it, flying that drone. He's likely able to figure out what is my easiest way to just get high enough. And clearly he figured that out, Samuel. Samuel S (09:27) I hate at the risk of speaking and sounding ignorant, but it kind of just leads me to believe that how well trained is our is the Secret Service with drones? How well informed are they to not? They just exactly Terry's face right there. It's it's like they're not really utilizing prepping or having any familiar familiarity with it. And I feel like that's a huge loss on our side, our part. Like that's tremendous. It can go so I mean, obviously we've made our own careers using drones and it's like such an amazing tool. yet here someone is using that tool to do more harm than good. And yet we could have people using the tool for more good than harm, but Paul Rossi (10:11) And now don't leave your drone sitting in your car in your backseat. It's kind of like now it's like leaving a gun. Like you don't leave bullets in your center console for someone to walk by and see. Leaving your drone, if you're in an area, you know, not your house, but if you're going somewhere like, my gosh, now it's like, you know, you're seen with a drone that's a consumer DJI product. It's like, is that a spy? What are you using that for? It could be a red flag. If you layer that on top of social media posts and this and other things, becomes now, it's a tool for good, but people can take it and use it in order to also do bad negative things. Yeah, that's the one you were you were saying something else. I was singing as you're talking about. was just listening. It was. forget it. It was it was, yes. So why aren't they using it? I do think there's this weird stigma. DHS, DOD, federal government ban DJI drone use. And at the time of the bans, DJI was the easiest to. use, get your hands on, integrate. And so they couldn't use that. And there wasn't something three, four years ago that was readily available. So there was this period of time while there were American -made drones, NDA drones, they weren't reliable. When you're Secret Service, when you're a federal agency, you have to loop things into your risk mitigation plan that is reliable. At the end of the day, you're like, we have to rely on this team, this weapon. If we are going to build this into our system, it has to work. And some of these other drone systems that have been available, they don't work enough for you to be able to build it into the plan and then come to rely on it. And I think that's where a lot of that gap between Local agencies and commercial users are really good at drone operations because they're easy to use equipment. And federal government's lacking because they don't have access to that same low cost, easy to operate tools. And so on top of that, and the other thing that I think is crazy is to know that on the same day Trump got shot, there was two other shootings, but obviously it wasn't of significance and it was one was at a club, right? Where the characters involved, they're probably more criminal likely and it's not like just randomness, but gun violence certainly is is something that people need to be aware of. And it comes down to securing. if you're in a place that should be secure, it should be secure. But if you're going to go to other areas at different hours, you're going to find this type of stuff. That should never have been found at that field in Butler, Pennsylvania. But kind of adding on to drones flying in areas where they shouldn't be, We have to Terry first here. We're in South Korea. We had some Chinese students. What were they doing? Terry Neff (13:37) They were just videotaping some of our aircraft carriers over in South Korea. I think there was three of them. They were aged between 30 and 49. But they were just doing something you probably shouldn't be doing. mean, if it looks expensive and it has to do with the military, you probably shouldn't be recording it, getting close to it at least. It's just not a good idea. Paul Rossi (14:05) And so flying a drone near, I thought this was neat as I was looking at it, was like, the USS Theodore Roosevelt. It's like Theodore, it's a great name. June 25th. And when When they found these students, said, curiosity, right? There's like five minutes of footage, I think. And just out of curiosity, they were panning the installation and the aircraft carrier itself. Terry Neff (14:46) Yeah, I mean, I doubt they were videotaping for the Chinese government. I doubt that. They probably were curious. I mean, what information are you going to get that a photo can't provide for you at this point in time from a drone footage standpoint? But, yeah, it's just not a great idea. Samuel S (15:02) You think they're trying to make a sick YouTube videotary? Terry Neff (15:07) trying to make a city that they add the Blue Angels clip from Miami Beach in here you got a nice YouTube clip montage for the military Paul Rossi (15:15) And so South Korean soldiers who were on patrol at the time spotted the drone. So on patrol, right here we have an area of interest, right? Military, government. What are people doing? They're patrolling it. So people on foot were patrolling and spotted this drone. Not like a mitigation system or a detection system. Doesn't this just even reinforce like this idea the fact that these people even saw the drone and then how were they able Right. Follow the drone to find who the actual operator was, because that becomes challenging, right? Once you see the drone, that's half the battle. Now finding the actual operator. So by patrolling and seeing this, it is curious. I would be like, were they just standing in the middle of a field being extremely like, like, or were they hiding in a bush? Obviously, it doesn't have that much details. It does say that the police are analyzing cell phone records and call histories. But I do think to have some sort of, especially at a military installation, so that the soldiers are walking and they get a push notification. Yes, they should be monitoring and looking, but where's the system in place that detects these vehicles? Samuel S (16:56) Or even like having that procedure of like a drone in the area be alert or some procedure in place, SOP, guess, in terms of like, hey, this is happening. How do you respond to that? Terry Neff (16:57) It was probably pretty easy to... Paul Rossi (17:13) And I think that's what folks are learning very quickly because just right here in SpaceX, right, Texas, shout out to Travis. Travis Hill sent in this story over. A man arrested for flying his drone over the SpaceX facility. He told the authorities he wanted to see the rocket. So these people said the same thing, right? We are curious. We just wanted to see the ships. This guy just wants to see the rockets. 32 years old, arrested by Cameron County Sheriff's Office. What do think, Terry? You going to go look at some rockets with your drone? Terry Neff (17:55) Yeah, man, I just I might just fly straight into it now, so would you? So once again, if it looks expensive and it's big and it could possibly use for a military purpose, don't go near it with your drone. mean, it's just if it has a if there's a fence around it, don't go to it. All right. How about that? Yeah. If you can't get over there. Paul Rossi (18:00) You're gonna hit, you're gonna hit Boat? Boat Gachiga? Samuel S (18:10) That's a point. A keep out sign. I wonder who that's for. Paul Rossi (18:18) And critical infrastructure, critical infrastructure per Texas government code. So this is kind of not just tying in like, like, hey, per federal regulations, you can, you can fly in this airspace if it's uncontrolled, if you don't need, but per local per state code, it is considered critical infrastructure. So no one can operate a drone over Texas state critical infrastructure. And he was flying to see see rockets and those rockets. security wished to file charges. then the other thing too, I don't, maybe I went past it here. I think, did it say? county deputies responding to SpaceX launch pad, SpaceX security who received an alert. SpaceX security received an alert of an unauthorized drone flying over the launch pad. Hmm. An alert. I think that they're like, I don't know. I just think the cost of a detection system is low enough that it's something like a SpaceX organization might have in place. go ahead. Terry Neff (19:43) Well, I mean, we're sorry to cut you off, but we're talking about Elon Musk here. He probably does have a system in place. He probably paid somebody, think up of every way somebody could ruin his plans to go to Mars. And he made a defense for every single one of them. Paul Rossi (20:01) Well, here it's also that, that, you know, it could be someone from a, from another company that is trying to gain information. So this becomes a threat to the business, not so much like, social media. It's like, how are they setting things up? Where are they positioning things? you know, using that information as leverage in order to you know, to do something that's going to put SpaceX at less of an advantage. And yeah, you you've got a security guard who says they received an alert versus someone, these soldiers. if we've seen anything, you've kind of touched on it, Terry, like if Elon has two speeds, right, fast and faster. So integrating this type of mitigation technology. It seems like it is in place. And they said we want to press charges. They filed charges on this guy. Terry Neff (21:08) Yeah, I they're very secretive. mean I've watched a few YouTube videos where YouTubers went on to the SpaceX compound and they won't let them videotape anything. So somebody flying a drone over it looking at the rockets, it's not gonna work out. Paul Rossi (21:22) Well, speaking technology transitioning to the drone tech spotlight side here. And we are getting some. What's the word? Nature and inspiration from nature. and of all things in nature, one of the greatest, most powerful animal that folks just have on the blank, there are throw blankets at their house, people are getting this tattooed on them, the ant. Terry Neff (21:57) You have ants on your throw blanket? Sorry. I was about to say I was really weird. Paul Rossi (21:57) No. No, I don't think anybody does. I wanted people to think what I was gonna say like tiger or lion or wolf. If you're from up north, New England, you got a lot of wolves probably on your throw blankets or your shirts maybe. or maybe from Western North Carolina. 56 gram drone gets ant inspired AI eyes to navigate autonomously. What, I know last week we were talking about, which drone was Samuel S (22:42) the self... Paul Rossi (22:44) the... Yeah, the solar -powered drone. Samuel S (22:50) Right, yeah. Paul Rossi (22:53) And so what do we got here? What do we think about this? This is a crazy fly. So the drone, I'm pretty sure is called the crazy fly, which has been. around for years. The crazy fly is like a small lesser cost. I got this video right here. I'm going to jump to share this instead. Kind of this lower cost drone. video is from six years ago. This is the Crazy Fly 2 .0 in research so you can see, you know, tiny little drone. put cages around it, lights on it, program multiple little crazy flies at a time. This one right here looks like it's painting and plotting points. But from a research standpoint, you can bump it into things. It's 56 grams. Crazy fly. You guys seen this? Samuel S (23:58) No, but it's surreal. Terry Neff (23:59) I have not up until the Ant Research article. Paul Rossi (24:04) to the Ant Research article. So it's this really small platform that you could take. People were doing a lot in the sense of swarm technology, light shows, just many to one operations, and then also developmental, being able to do things like what we're seeing here in this article. So they're taking that crazy fly drone, very small, lightweight, 56 grams. The only issue There's not a whole lot of space to build out, to add to. And what I've pulled from this is that taking on the mentality of basically an ant? Terry Neff (24:57) Yeah, it's using AI. So how ants know where they're at. They're very small. It's very hard for them. think about walking through the biggest national forest you know. When you get about a mile in, you're going to be lost most likely. They use visual cues of their surroundings and how far they've traveled to just back step and trace back where they're going. So instead of using GPS to. Paul Rossi (24:57) And I think, go ahead, Terry. Terry Neff (25:25) to navigate with, it is using photo banks of memory and it is just retracing its steps and coming back with AI. Samuel S (25:34) So it's kind of like a... Paul Rossi (25:35) And so like you said I highlighted... Go ahead, Tim. Samuel S (25:38) was gonna say it's in a sense a breadcrumb trail of photos, right? Terry Neff (25:44) Yeah, that's a good way to put Paul Rossi (25:46) That's a solid way of putting it. And I highlight it here for the folks that have a video and are tuning in, watching through YouTube. It's insects combine odometry, which is tracking motion. As Terry referenced, like how far have I traveled? Like an odometer in your car. You may not know what direction you've gone, but you know how far. And they use that tracking their motion with visual guided behaviors or view memory. You might go one place. You might go somewhere one time. You don't know how to get there. A second time, you have very few photos of it. Your view memory is limited. Go there a hundred times. Travel there with your parents growing up. It's amazing how my children can say, Go that way, they see the neighborhood coming in off the main road and they see Garrison. Like they see this big sign that says Garrison. They don't know it says Garrison, but they see that same thing. Turn this way, it's this way. I think it's very cool, it's the view memory increases over time. And they have that built onto this small drone and it can really compress the photos. from what I was reading. The ability of the onboard processing to compress each photo down to a size that allows them to really store, like not increase the memory, which would increase the size and all the componentry, but they can increase the space for snapshots. Samuel S (27:40) actually looked it up. Is this the 2 .1 version or what version of the crazy fly is this that we're looking Paul Rossi (27:50) It did just say right here. Researchers tested their method in several indoor conditions using a 56 gram crazy fly brushless drone with the panoramic camera microcontroller and 192 KB of memory. And this was re if I'm understanding this is recent, so it's gotta be a 2 .0. It would have to be the most recent, but even the 2 Samuel S (27:51) as far as you can tell. Hmm looks Paul Rossi (28:21) It looks like it came out years ago. Samuel S (28:23) Right, for those that are interested, looks like the Crazy Fly 2 .1 is $225. That's for one, or you can buy a fleet of them for around $6 ,000. I'm not sure exactly how many is included in that fleet. Let me drop that link for us. I did check there first, yes. Paul Rossi (28:40) But what are you looking at? Where is that site? Are you in bit craze? Samuel S (28:52) And then I had another link pop up, that doesn't seem as useful. Paul Rossi (28:59) because you've got the 2 .1. Samuel S (29:02) Alright, that's what I was looking Paul Rossi (29:03) I'm seeing 2 .1. Bye online. 225. Samuel S (29:06) We're kind of sick to have a few of those, right Terry? Terry Neff (29:12) Yeah, I mean if I knew how to code and make my own stuff, that'd be pretty sick. Samuel S (29:13) I think the real question is like would you want a fleet of these or would you want the robot dog? Paul Rossi (29:20) You guys gotta make up your minds. super, super tiny. And I think. the crazy ball Terry Neff (29:36) very expensive parts they got going on 40 bucks for an antenna get out of here Paul Rossi (29:45) Hey man, it's NDA compliant. It's made in America. It's why it's, you know, reflective marker kit. What the heck is that? Drone blocks. I know drone box is pushing the crazy fly. I know someone who's flown it and stuff. It's supposed to be comparable to like a Tello, but well, let's leave it at that. See like their whole drone boxes. Whole thing is adjusted. to be built around the crazy fly. and then Dexie and there's your robot 12 grand. They've got this one for 12, the unitry crazy fly nano drone developer kit. These new drones weigh only 27 grams. Yeah. So this has to be the latest latest they're reselling it. And it looks like it has a board, like a actual, like LED type interface. They're selling it for $379. But prices went up after the Tello stopped being made. Terry Neff (30:59) That's probably the one they're drawing in. Paul Rossi (31:02) So yeah, that's really cool stuff. that compute ability really opens up the door to drones being able to learn their own safe flight patterns, develop their own consistent safe patterns, and then make adjustments in incidents where things change. So really neat article. And again, people taking things that are just, it's. You know, it always starts here. You got to build on something. So it's not, you don't need a $40 ,000 drone in order to do AI development. They're using whether it's $200 or $379, it's inexpensive, So with that, what's not inexpensive, we'll talk about a little. Enterprise grade tech here smart controller for the sotin Acsl Japanese company. I don't know if we talked about the the sotin drone right here acsl Manufacturing out of Japan manufacturing a drone with non Chinese components So that is the sotin drone by acsl and don't have a photo of it here. I'm gonna have to find But what they've recently introduced is Tenso. So this is a five inch display, 10p resolution, 2 .5 mile operating range, 2 .4 gigahertz, has LTE compatibility that allows for extended connectivity, more reliable. And then that, coming in September, $2 ,800, right? So again, like I said, enterprise level, $2 ,800 for the remote. 10 times the price of a crazy fly. Really neat product. This thing folds up. I thought we'd have the photo here. What we can do is ACSL. we'll go ahead and pull up their site. So you can see here, this is like the original remote that folks were using up until this point. And then here's going to be their latest. Let's back out of Samuel S (33:33) They get some style points, that's for sure. Paul Rossi (33:34) Why that won't get me. Samuel S (33:42) Have you gotten your hands on something like that, Paul? Paul Rossi (33:43) And why? Which? Samuel S (33:51) the Sultan Paul Rossi (33:56) Man, it shows that not yet. I'm supposed to be. There we Samuel S (34:00) be exciting you have to show us at some Paul Rossi (34:06) Yeah, supposed to be getting hands on this soon. Hopefully, potentially by the end of next month in order to get hands on, do a real in depth technical review for drone life .com actually in conversations trying to figure out. I know we'll be getting hands on with the drone probably next month here, whether or not it's going to come with the latest Tenzo remote. Not entirely sure, but hoping so. So as you can see, there's your 5 and 1 inch screen. got bright for outdoor operations. Everything that we've seen in the competitor, the DJI, the Autel products, except this is NDAA compliant. So these drone manufacturers that have been producing, again, US -made aircraft for the use. of government and federal purchasing. They're doing a good job making the drone. The remote's terrible. The remote's terrible. It's really hard to make a great drone. Well, when you only have so much resources and engineers and time and efforts, everybody's focusing on the drone and then the remote becomes like an afterthought. So super difficult. is a huge piece of tech. in and of itself. So to see this come out, NDA compliant, this means that any federal agency can purchase this. You're getting federal funding. There's not going to be limitations on your not ability to buy this because it's not made with any Chinese components. So really awesome, hope to get hands on. What are your guys thoughts? What do you think? Terry Neff (35:58) Well, my first initial thought when I seen it is that it looks very well built. It looks like a solid chunk of aluminum almost. There's little rubber garments protecting the thumb sticks. So there's like no sand or anything can get in it. It looks like it's meant to be used and that that's a thing, I think. Paul Rossi (36:16) Yeah, solid but ergonomic. Like that's my first thought. And then initially I'm like, I gotta hold it because the weight of a remote, at least from my experience and the way I look at it, has a lot to do with like, I don't need, it's a computer. Just think of a computer. You don't need a 16, 18 inch laptop because once you get that big, it becomes heavy, it becomes cumbersome, it becomes less ergonomic. So there's striking the balance between big, large, and I've got way too much and I think it looks to me like it's potentially striking a balance. and then transitioning from enterprise level more, you know, one -to -one operator inspection, public safety, NDA compliant. Drone delivery. I don't think we've talked entirely a whole lot. It seems like over the past week, there's been a lot of talk, announcements, things happening, not just here in the United States, but abroad as well. Drone delivery, it's really gaining traction. Regulations. concepts of operations, detect and avoid, everything that needs to, not everything, but the steps that need to be taken in order to get to that level of risk mitigation that's happening. So dronelife .com article comes out two days ago, Drone Express. I most folks probably haven't heard of them, right? And then Drone Express. The name, I'm just like, just right off the bat, to be like Drone Express. It just seems like, it's like, what should we call it? Drone Express. Okay, we'll go with it. Launches delivery operations in Winston -Salem, North Carolina. This is awesome. More great. UAS industry development for the state of North Carolina. Why Winston -Salem? Samuel S (38:25) Do we previously know where they've operated? Paul Rossi (38:32) You didn't look it Samuel S (38:34) I did not look it up. I'm downloading the app right now to see what info I can find. Paul Rossi (38:36) That was like, you didn't get the memo? You didn't get the memo? The memo was like you needed to dot, you were supposed to deep dive into this story. No, no, but I saw that they had the Samuel S (38:42) No. Do you have the app, That's good to know it's widely available. Paul Rossi (38:51) And then I saw curated eyes. Yeah, widely available. I've heard that Drone Express had done some things, I think in Ohio or because if I'm not mistaken, Kroger, a lot of what they've done in the beginning was with Kroger directly during potentially COVID or just after COVID. And so I think Kroger is like headquartered or they have a significant presence in the somewhere in the mid middle US. But then I saw curated packages with a variety of snacks, so it's kind of like. It's like movie night and you like I want option A, B or C and you know they kind of like variety packs. Samuel S (39:38) I mean, that makes a lot of sense because I mean, they could just have that thing ready to go. Like it's specifically grab it, load it, send it. They don't have to hunt for an item or anything. It's probably just a, location, their operating area probably has a lot of those ready to Paul Rossi (39:57) Yep. You just, you know, limit it. And I think that works. I think it works well when you're first launching in an area where it's more about the, not so much the items, but the novelty of it. you want to post, you want this, it's candy. It's just random stuff. And then that potentially wears off and you're like, yeah, we don't need, you know, I don't need more grab bags. You know, I just need, I just need mozzarella cheese and that's it. The why Winston sound either of you are you guys tracking? Samuel S (40:36) I'm assuming something with the airspace. Terry Neff (40:36) no idea never been to winstonsalem Paul Rossi (40:40) Yes, something with airspace. I think there was something in Samuel S (40:44) Very nondescript answer, huh? Paul Rossi (40:48) Something with the airspace. Winston -Salem and the Aero -X, think I'm making people dizzy though. I think there's something in here. Maybe I'm making it up. But there is Aero -X is operating out of Winston -Salem. Basel Yap, who was formerly with the Department of Transportation and was a part of really driving things with IPP program and setting a foundation for the Beyond program, which has enabled a lot of this to happen. They are now really focusing a lot of efforts on the Winston -Salem, Forsyth County area of North Carolina and trying to establish radar. We've talked a lot about DAA and radar. I think last episode we talked about it, think Matrix Space a few weeks previous and how detecting a void. is going to facilitate beyond visual line of sight operations. So AeroX has been doing a lot of work with local communities, know, strengthening community catches here, just seeing that. And FAA airports and establishing that infrastructure that allows operators, deconfliction and then You know, how is it the Sheriff's Department going to do their DFR program? Because if you look right, Forsyth County, which is where Winston Salem is, has a DFR program. So it's about bringing all of these different operational pieces together and fitting them into that puzzle of unmanned traffic management, UTM, that's going to not just let one person do it, but how is everyone going to be allowed to do it? And that's what's happening in Winston Salem. So seeing a drone express, Hey, we've never really heard of this company. Well, they've submitted their application to the FAA for their part 135. And they're certainly in a position where they're wanting to be in area where people are like, hey, let's work together, let's support each other. It's not about how many flights we have, it's just about this group momentum. And so I think it's really neat to again see that development. So that's why Winston's Hailed. radar, right? Access to low cost detect and avoid infrastructure. Access to detect and avoid infrastructure that just doesn't even exist in most other places unless you're in controlled airspace or at one of these test sites that has, you know, BVLoss corridor. Right Samuel? Corridors? Samuel S (43:55) Indeed. I'm still kind of going through their, some of their spiel. I'm very curious at like how far along in terms of what their delivery range is, things like that, but the nitty gritty nerdy details, you know. Terry Neff (44:01) New Paul Rossi (44:11) Yeah, what drone are they using? Where's the drone made? know, because becoming the operators people, but then all the other logistical pieces that go with it, because you saw that photo there. It certainly looks like they're operating, I believe, their own. And I think that's part of their model of Drone Express is, hey, we're making this American drone and we're showing you how it works. Terry Neff (44:36) They also deliver out of a Connex unit. It's just the industry standard. Paul Rossi (44:41) the industry standard. And if you're lucky, you got a pop -up tower. So it's pretty neat. think we touched on Aslan Robotics either last week or the week before they had 100 ,000 missions. I wanted to bring it up again. was yesterday reported, DroneLife .com, that Aslan Robotics was actually had one of their drone dogs at the 2024 Republican National Convention. So it's not just the aerial robotics that we've seen them use and integrate from a safety standpoint. In that kind of area, sometimes a drone is going to be either hard to operate, challenging environment, tall buildings, your view of the ground is going to be blocked. Stairs, there's all kinds of challenges. So it's bringing a layer of systems. Milwaukee Fire Department. took this opportunity to put one of these drone dogs on the ground during actual operations, working with the Milwaukee Fire Hazardous Materials Team. What you guys think about this? Samuel S (45:57) So this was more just kind of a showcase for the audience what the dogs can do, right? Yeah. That's what we're seeing. Terry Neff (45:59) It would. Paul Rossi (46:09) Yeah, I think it was like maybe a real time from what we're reading here, like a real time demonstration where Milwaukee Fire Department was able to get these systems, you know, integrated. I think with the, also with the recent events and the need for the folks thoughts, like, hey, we need to increase security. How can we do that? We can't just make more people. You can't just train more, you know, officers. Whereas it was like, hey, you know what? Let's take this opportunity to get some of these Boston Dynamics drone, ground drones out here, and let's put some tech on them. And let's see how they can integrate directly into the process. Samuel S (46:53) Maybe not necessarily a security, but I can definitely see some immediate examples with first responders like firefighters going into a dangerous area, bomb squad, which I'm pretty sure there's already tons of practical uses with Paul Rossi (47:11) Yeah, and that's exact gas leaks. And that's exactly what he said here, exploring operating challenging environment, stairs, curbs uneven. what was it? It was something they can, he mentioned, you can forward stage meters and get real -time readings on what's going on. So instead of like you put the meter on the spot and then send spot, send this dog ahead in order Terry Neff (47:11) gas leaks. Samuel S (47:13) Gasoline. Paul Rossi (47:40) basically I'm preemptive, you know, information. Samuel S (47:48) Pretty sick. Paul Rossi (47:48) And then the deterrents, right? Why do people put security cameras around? The security cameras aren't going to stop someone. You can see a security camera. can break into a store anyway. You can kick a door and you can take something. The security camera is at first, it's a deterrent. The whole hope is you see the security camera and you're like, I'm not going to do anything because I'm on video. But then everybody just covers up their face. You just hide from the camera. You find a way to get around the camera. When you see a going around recording, various things. It's form. The way I see it is a deterrent. You see the drone in the air flying at this event, you know that your position on a rooftop would be compromised very quickly. You see a drone in the air, you know, all right, now I gotta, it's not just the people on the ground, I've got that camera in the sky. And I can't hide on a rooftop because I'm going to be seen. It's about deterring. And that's even to parenting. Parenting is, I think at the end of the day, I don't know, I'm still learning. A lot of it is like, hey, you got to put these things in place. Have systems that basically, you're not locking your kids up. You know, but you're putting systems in place in order to say, hey, you know, like driving, you tell a kid, well, this car has a mitigation, you know, the insurance company can see how fast we're driving, you know, and if we drive too fast, we lose the insurance. If this happens, and then they go, okay. And then you explain that and you help that that isn't prevent them, they still have the ability to do it, but it would make them think less to try. Samuel S (49:51) see where you're coming from with that. That's a good point. Paul Rossi (49:52) What you guys You put ADT security on your on your home window and then people still break in because they look at the cigarette. I don't care, but some people like they got ADT. I don't want to mess with them. They got that ring security. Thank Terry Neff (50:06) I like the Castle Doctrine sticker. That's a good one. Paul Rossi (50:10) Castle Dockery. I was just thinking I'm gonna get an Acelon robotic sticker and put it on my window. Yeah, I'm protected by a robot dog. Terry Neff (50:18) I installed teeth on it. Mess with it. Samuel S (50:20) Bot's got your back. Paul Rossi (50:21) He's full charged. And so staying on like little the security aspect here and working into a success story as we like to highlight, you know, in each episode. You know, where are we this week? Samuel? Samuel S (50:36) Yeah, police in Scottsdale. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we have Scottsdale, Arizona, and it's kind of funny because like they're kind of coming into the drones and being like, wow, this is super useful. And I believe last week we had a very excellent story in terms of like practical uses for first responders, police officers specifically, but now we're seeing police department across Arizona planning to implement the use of drones as part of its first responders to emergency situations. So the... Paul Rossi (50:37) I think you shared this. Samuel S (51:06) drone industry is catching on there, we can see, which is awesome. Paul Rossi (51:16) And so Terry, did you have a chance to look at this at all? Like what they're using the tech side? Because that's always like what interests me. We've seen the headlines and we know that these things are happening. But I think Samuel, you were doing this just a second ago with the crazy five. man. I'm you know, what is it they're using? How is this? How does this work? And so they're using the aerodrome system. Terry Neff (51:20) I did not. Paul Rossi (51:44) Which is interesting because when we look back to that the hearing on drones and emergency response, one of the speakers, one of the folks that testified was the like CEO co -founder of Aerodrome. So again, here we see these things unfold and they're using it in conjunction with a public safety tech firm, Flock Safety. So this is where it gets really interesting because there's already cameras and systems and law enforcement, public safety. They've been trying to connect the dots for a very long time. so a drone is just another piece that we're bringing in for these big like a Scottsdale, Arizona. Anyone not familiar with Scottsdale, Arizona? Plenty of mudget to go around. Plenty of money. In the budget, It's insane retail. Scottsdale, Arizona is where the TPC, the waste management, Phoenix open happens. The greenest show on grass or yeah, something like that. Big, big golf tournament, lots of fun, lots of money coming into Scottsdale. So when it comes to a system that costs, you know, $300 ,000 to implement, In Flock Safety, they're probably spending, I don't know, how many tens of thousands of Flock Safety. It really, really makes sense. So as it mentions here, Flock Safety does gunshot sensors, which we've talked about, analytic software, cameras that monitor neighborhoods and read license plates. It's insane. So now you're just taking that another data collector and feeding it into your software. So FLOC safety, it's like this map. shows you where your officers are. It shows you where your units are. It shows you cameras. Really, really cool. And then amber alerts. Who's been getting a ton of amber alerts recently? Samuel S (53:52) I think I got two last night. Terry Neff (53:53) Yeah, for stuff that's three hours away from you. Get that at 1 AM, like that. Paul Rossi (53:57) Holy Holy moly, it was like insane. The other day, can't remember where it was. It's like everybody's just like, you know, you're out in public. It's like, brr, brr. No one's near cars. Everybody's inside. And I go, OK. But it looks like they have the ability to tie this in and look through their cameras for cars that match AMRA alerts. Terry Neff (54:22) that's sick. Paul Rossi (54:24) Yeah. And then the photo here for folks tuning in audio only, what we're seeing is basically an officer sitting in their car and ahead of what seems like responding to the call, they've got their laptop and they're looking at the drone feed. So it's military. It's what we've talked about. Scottsdale, Arizona is one of the next police departments to take community safety to the next level. And it's really exciting to see this. And it really, really makes sense. But ACLU has raised concerns in the past about FLOX license plate reader cameras and concerns about eye in the sky policing, which we've talked about in one of our very, very first episodes, didn't we? I think Jim, one of the articles Jim wrote on dronelife .com. Samuel S (55:24) I want to say yes, but it's been quite a little bit since our first episode. Paul Rossi (55:28) Yeah, yeah, I think it was like the first or second one. It was like an ACLU came out and it was speaking about the whole DFR thing. Yeah, because these drones are flying and my sister lives in Scottsdale, Arizona. So actually hit me, I sent that to her earlier and I was like, let me know if you see a drone. I'm like, I might just have to go out to Scottsdale and get into a little bit of trouble, just to see if the drone shows up. Totally not gonna do that. Samuel S (55:55) Yeah, they don't mean... yeah, I don't know. Terry Neff (55:58) It's an excuse to rob a bank Paul Rossi (56:00) I'm going to see my sister, babe, and I might come back, you know. I might need bail. Samuel S (56:05) It's like the guy that wanted to go see the rockets. You know, I just flew my drone into the restricted area to see the rockets. You know, that's all. I robbed the bank to see the drones go. Terry Neff (56:13) I just want to the drones. Paul Rossi (56:13) We were. We were helping you test your system. Terry Neff (56:17) I'd actually like to be paid for my services if you could Paul Rossi (56:20) Yeah, it works. It worked. We got a couple more minutes here just before we wrap up this very information packed episode. Drone light shows, right? Not going to get away from us. Terry Neff (56:24) Yeah. Paul Rossi (56:34) This one heading to Las Vegas. This one I thought was super duper cool coming from drone DJ another resource drone DJ .com. They get better and better, but another one that has to do with golf Vegas. It's like if you're heading to Vegas and what's really interesting. We talked about this before. Commercial UAV is in Vegas September 2nd through the 5th. And if Samuel S (56:42) They just get better and better, don't they? Paul Rossi (57:03) read this article, it's like I'm not entirely sure. Brett Conda posts this. He's a Vegas resident and shared this. On LinkedIn is how I found it, but they said it's running for eight weeks or six weeks. If you do that and run that out, it should be happening the week of commercial UAV. Let's see, where's the video? Wasn't there a video? Maybe not. I think on there. here we go. Yeah. Is that too loud? Are we booming? Sorry. Terry Neff (57:44) Little loud. Paul Rossi (57:50) drone residency show. So it's kind of like, know how these performers go to Vegas and they'll do a residency where they do their show only at this. So they're doing this drone light show only at Atomic Golf. And they're going to be doing two shows a night. Terry Neff (57:58) to resist. Samuel S (58:09) Wow. Terry Neff (58:10) That's insane. Two shows a night. The workers are going to get worked those nights. Paul Rossi (58:16) 9 and 11 PM. So at 9. Samuel S (58:17) I mean that's probably what? A 20 minute show though? Right? No, going off past experiences. To like reload all their batteries, switch out. Paul Rossi (58:23) Yeah, I guess a 20 minute show and then they're able Yeah, 20 minutes show. It looks like they're still golfing, so they're setting up in a nearby field and you have to reserve your booth. Have you guys done any of this? Entertainment golf, top golf, no? Terry Neff (58:48) I want to. They're never near me though when I want to. Paul Rossi (58:52) So Atomic Golf is like a Topgolf. There's one, think, I can't remember the name, Caddyshack, Shack, Shack, Tribe Shack? I think it's called Tribe Shack. Is a place like that. It's not Topgolf, but it's here in Raleigh. You know, multiple layers, have some food, drinks, and just hit balls. You know, they've got it all lit up. And so you have to reserve the booth for like a full hour. and it doesn't matter how many people are there, you're paying, depending on the time, like a 9, a 10, an 11 o 'clock booth is going to be, it could be $100 an hour, if not more, if they're doing these drone light shows now. So really fun times, really cool because basically you reserve the booth and you know that you're going to be able to watch the show. It just comes down to 12 weeks. So they're running it for 12 weeks. And the article came out on July 20th. So I can only imagine it's going to Terry Neff (59:57) this atomic golf place hasn't been here for too long I don't think because I see the forgot the name of it but the tower back there when I went not too long ago that was not there the golf place because those are the I know if you've seen a top golf in person but they're small they're massive they're large you can see them from a distance yeah you can see them from a distance Paul Rossi (1:00:15) the net's huge. The net's like 100. The net has to be at least probably 100 feet high. That surrounds it. Terry Neff (1:00:24) So they're already making waves into the drone area. Only a few years open at most. Paul Rossi (1:00:33) Atomic out Vegas atomic golf in Vegas That's pretty neat. How many? Yes. yeah, see there I was trying to explain it. What the hell? They got a putting game. Yeah, that's pretty neat. white party diddy. Whoa, what? What? What? Dude, the bottom of the glass lifts up and if. Samuel S (1:00:47) That was a cool transition. Terry Neff (1:00:54) That's crazy. they have the cool beer glasses. Samuel S (1:01:07) There's a lot going Terry Neff (1:01:10) the strat. That's what it's Yeah. Paul Rossi (1:01:11) It fills from the bottom? What? Anyone tuning in on audio only we're watching the landing page video of atomic golf and it's insane. Time what time we're going over. Look at this they put the it's got a metal bottom. my goodness. I don't even drink, but that is so cool. I think little engineering things like that are so cool. This is is it. This is the Vegas one that is a really they definitely went all out here. We're on our third time watching it for four levels of golf towers, bars, drinks, food, white party. Was that P Diddy? I don't know. But that glass, wow, look at that. They put it down and anyway, let's get off here. They got anything about the light shows? Anyway, all right. That was really cool. Wow. Terry Neff (1:01:46) you Samuel S (1:01:48) Can't look away. Terry Neff (1:01:51) minigames. I hope not. Paul Rossi (1:02:09) Who's going to Vegas? Commercial UAV, September 2nd to the Samuel S (1:02:12) We've got a few places on our checklist. Every week we get a new place to Paul Rossi (1:02:14) I got some co Terry Neff (1:02:16) meet up at Atomic Golf. Paul Rossi (1:02:21) Meet up at Atomic Golf. Yeah, I still have to book the trip for the Redwoods to go see old Sherman. What was the Sherman tree, right? So last thing here, just to touch on this from a regulatory standpoint in a regulatory corner in just one to two minutes. Samuel S (1:02:35) Yeah, yeah, Terry Neff (1:02:35) Yeah, eternal sermon tree. Paul Rossi (1:02:46) The FAA approves DEFEND Solutions ENFORCE AIR 2 for UAS detection and mitigation. What does that mean? Well, you can say that your system is designed to detect and mitigate, but how well is it proven? So DEFEND Solutions is a radio frequency counter drone technology developer who has developed the ENFORCE AIR 2 non -kinetic, non -jamming takeover technology. So non -kinetic in the sense of it's not It's not shooting your drone out of the sky. It's not using an object in order to disable the vehicle. And it's not jamming the system, meaning it's not sending false information from a GPS standpoint and making it go somewhere or thinking it's somewhere it isn't. So it's a non -canon jamming takeover technology. It's been evaluated by the FAA as part of their efforts to certify, permit, authorize, and allow these systems because if we're going to put these at airports like we just talked about, right? The first couple of things here, this system, it's on a tripod. It's on a tripod. Set this up. Set this up before the VIP comes. Put this at the military installations. But if we're going to put it there, we need to know it's going to work. You have to know it's going to work. So pretty big news that Defense Solutions has been able to go through this process and the FAA commented that they've evaluated and force air to his ability to detect, track and identify potential risks posed by air and or hostile systems and ensure that the system does not adversely impact or interfere with safe airport operations, navigation or air traffic. So huge step. This is just the first of many, just airplanes, aircraft, helicopters, operators, maintainers. It's not about only letting one and approving one. This sets the foundation, the framework for others to follow. What are your guys' thoughts real quick? Terry? Samuel S (1:04:55) Sounds very impressive. Terry Neff (1:04:57) I mean, it's a step in the right direction. I mean, you got to like it. It's just making the community better. Samuel S (1:05:06) at airports in Syracuse. I don't know if you saw that last bit. Paul Rossi (1:05:12) I did, yeah. Terry Neff (1:05:13) course, Syracuse. Samuel S (1:05:17) Love the cues. Paul Rossi (1:05:17) Yeah, I see that Samuel S (1:05:21) Remember when we were up there and he said, to the Q's and it just took me a second to understand what he meant when he said that to me. I was like, okay, yeah. Paul Rossi (1:05:22) Syracuse Hancock. Terry Neff (1:05:27) Yeah. What are you on about, Paul Rossi (1:05:33) Welcome to the Qs. Terry, did you fly the simulator? Dude, my goodness. All right, you're done. not. You're privilege is taken away. The episode's over. You're not allowed to talk anymore. Try it out. Come on now. Terry Neff (1:05:37) No I did not, Paul. All right. All I'll my best. No promises. Paul Rossi (1:05:49) And so everybody, thank you so much for tuning into Weekly Wings this week brought to you by DroneLife .com. If you know anybody interested in sponsoring Weekly Wings, feel free to reach out. If you want to share your questions or any information that you feel would be relevant for the show, please send that to editor at DroneLife .com. We appreciate you tuning in to hear us talk Various drones flying in places where they shouldn't be. Talking about some really neat technology. The crazy fly with the inspired AI technology. The Sotin remote that's NDA compliant and looks both ergonomic and capable. And then also we touched on some success stuff, Acelon Robotics integrating into the team at the RNC and Drone Express launching operations here in North Carolina. Shout out to Scottsdale Police Department and anybody who is behind the scenes working hard to get those approvals in place, get the budget figured out, get the compliance pieces sorted in order for them to launch this significant drone as a first responder program. That's really awesome. So shout out to all those folks that put in time and effort and energy. And Vegas Light Show, get out to the Vegas Light Show, whether it's now, next week, or potentially during commercial UAV. hit a couple golf balls and see a little drone light show at the same time. And really exciting news from the regulatory side of the FAA approving defense solutions, most recent system, the Enforce Air 2. That was a lot. That was a ton that we packed into this episode. Definitely ran over. I think this could be our longest episode, but I think we've packed more information into this episode than any before. Thank you everybody for tuning in. hope that you found some insight and some knowledge from the conversation that we had today. As always, fly safe and thank you both Samuel and Terry for your time and input into this week's episode. We will see you both and everyone listening next