Tuesday, March 29, 2022 // (IG): BB //Weekly Sponsor: DiyGarage SoCal
Drones improve police work in Weber County
FROM THE MEDIA: Law enforcement in Utah continues to evolve alongside technology and in Weber County, there is one piece of technology that is proving to be beneficial in more than one way. From search and rescue to after-hours surveillance of businesses to police work, the Weber County Sheriff’s Office continues to benefit from its drone program. A drone boots up as Lt. Mark Horton with the Weber County Sheriff’s Office pushes the power button. This is just one drone of a growing fleet at the sheriff’s office. “It’s nice to get the deputies’ eyes-on before they walk into a situation,” Lt. Horton told ABC4. He that’s exactly what happened after two suspects crashed a stolen vehicle this weekend. According to the sheriff’s office, it all happened Friday night when deputies “located a stolen vehicle at 700 W 12th Street. When the suspect noticed the deputy was behind them, they fled. After a short pursuit, the suspects crashed the stolen car into an open field and took off on foot.” “We have a drone on 24/7 now,” Lt. Horton explained. “We have the pilots that are sworn deputies who are out flying these things, reactively, if a situation comes up where we think the drone will be beneficial.” Lt. Horton emphasized that the sheriff’s office does not use drones to patrol neighborhoods. Rather, drones are used in situations where a suspect, or suspects in the case of the stolen vehicle, needs to be located.
READ THE STORY: ABC4
Las Vegas-based drone company trains Ukrainians near Polish border, helping bolster defense
FROM THE MEDIA: Somewhere in Poland, not too far from the Ukrainian border, Ukrainian first responders spent the past week sharpening their combat and defense skills by learning how to operate tactical drones from a team of Las Vegans. That team includes 22-year-old Summerlin native Blake Resnick, the CEO of Brinc Drones in Las Vegas. Last November, FOX5 introduced you to Resnick and his innovation, the Lemur S drone. Inspired by the tragic events of 1 October, the young engineer’s technology aims to help first responders uncover suspects, victims and quickly gather intelligence in dangerous situations. Now, the southern Nevadan is helping Ukrainians in their defense efforts against Russian forces, and Las Vegas-made drones are set to take flight in war-torn Ukraine. “It’s an unbelievably worthy cause,” Resnick said. “We’re happy to do what we can to help.” Resnick and his team members, some of whom also grew up in Las Vegas, returned back to the U.S. on Sunday after spending four days in an area of Poland near the Ukraine border. “We just decided, ‘Let’s just donate the systems,’” Resnick said. “The Ukrainians were able to get out of the country and into Poland and we were able to get into Poland.”
READ THE STORY: Fox 5 Vegas
German drone delivery firm Wingcopter deepens roots in Japan with new investor ITOCHU
FROM THE MEDIA: Wingcopter, an eVTOL manufacturer and drone delivery service provider based out of Germany, has finally roped in ITOCHU, one of the largest general trading companies (sogo shosha) in Japan, as a strategic investor and authorized partner. Wingcopter first hinted at this partnership in December 2021, when it announced an investment from Drone Fund, a Japan-based venture capital firm dedicated exclusively to the drone technology ecosystem. As part of the agreement, ITOCHU joins Wingcopter’s Authorized Partnership Program (WAPP) and will act as a dedicated distributor and lessor for the Wingcopter 198 triple-drop delivery drone in Japan. The Japanese conglomerate will also invest an undisclosed amount in the German company. It’s no secret that Wingcopter sees Japan as one of the most important markets for drone delivery applications “given the country’s progressive approach to integrating drones into everyday life.” In 2020, the company signed a partnership agreement with Japan’s biggest airline, ANA, to build a drone delivery network focusing on rural areas. Extensive trials have already taken place for that project as well.
READ THE STORY: Drone DJ
Treeswift raises $4.8 million to capture forest data with LiDAR drones
FROM THE MEDIA: Treeswift, a Philadelphia-based startup that has spun out of the University of Pennsylvania’s GRASP Laboratory, has secured $4.8 million in seed funding to build a drone-based forest monitoring system. Treeswift’s LiDAR-equipped drones are capable of navigating under the forest canopy independently. So, unlike satellite or aerial imagery that forest researchers typically rely on, these drones can collect terabytes of data from the ground up at unprecedented detail. The drone-based approach is also 10x faster compared to manual processes wherein foresters go out into the woods, earmark samples of land, calculate the trees by hand using a tape measure, and extrapolate the sample numbers into estimates about forest size and biomass. Once Treeswift’s drones collect the data, advanced machine learning algorithms come into play to create high-resolution 3D forest reconstructions. These 3D maps display the finest details of every tree structure, and can be analyzed for precise, quantifiable measurements of any forest’s biomass. Some possible applications of this data include inventory calculation for the timber industry, mapping forests for preservation, and measuring forest biomass and fuel to prevent the spread of wildfires.
READ THE STORY: Drone DJ
Chinese drone-maker DJI denies aiding Russia's Ukraine invasion
FROM THE MEDIA: Chinese drone-maker DJI has denied multiple allegations it has aided Russia's military during the illegal invasion of Ukraine – an extraordinary claim, as the firm has previously come to the attention of US authorities for leaking data and aiding human rights abuses. DJI's involvement in Russia's illegal invasion first became an issue around March 11, when allegations emerged that Ukrainian users were unable to use a DJI drone detection product called DJI AeroScope that the Chinese company bills as "a comprehensive drone detection platform that rapidly identifies UAV communication links, gathering information such as flight status, paths, and other information in real time." Russian users could run AeroScope, leading to accusations that DJI was assisting Moscow. DJI is already a pariah in the US, which has included it on the Entity List forbidden to access US tech, and banned the US military from using its products. The USA has even forbidden investment in the drone-maker on grounds it is effectively an arm of China's military and has actively assisted surveillance and repression of the Muslim Uyghur minority in China's Xinjiang province.
READ THE STORY: The Register
Kraus Hamdani Aerospace CEO Talks Long-Endurance Drones and Enhanced Communication Networks
FROM THE MEDIA: Aerospace technology company Kraus Hamdani Aerospace, Inc. recently completed end-to-end vertical take-off and landing tests of their unmanned aerial system, the K1000ULE (Ultra Long Endurance). The fixed-wing drone is fully electric and is capable of longer flight times than any electric aircraft in its size and weight category available today. CEO and co-founder Fatema Hamdani offered in-depth details on the functionality and various applications of the K1000ULE in an interview with Avionics International. When first starting the company, Fatema Hamdani and co-founder Stefan Kraus saw four key areas that needed to be improved upon in the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industry, including; the distance that UAVs can travel from the operator, maximum flight duration, ease of integration and operational footprint. “We realized that [drone] innovation had stagnated,” remarked Hamdani, “especially for the larger fixed-wing aircraft.” She described that there were small, incremental changes, but nothing groundbreaking or exponential. Kraus Hamdani Aerospace’s goal was to take an entirely new, open-architecture approach to designing a UAV, integrating concepts from nature in the development of the platform’s onboard AI, its specialized autopilot technology, and energy management systems. Other players in this space, Hamdani said, are integrators of technology.
READ THE STORY: Aviation Today
Drone operator Skyports raises US$23 million in funding
FROM THE MEDIA: Drone operator Skyports raises US$23 million in funding. UK-registered air taxi and drone services provider Skyports has raised US$23 million in the first close of its series B funding round from a combination of new and existing investors. Skyports will use the funding to consolidate its position as a global leader in advanced air mobility infrastructure and drone operations. The company plans to scale its drone services operations in new and existing markets, building on active operations in the UK, Europe and Asia. Skyports said all existing institutional shareholders participated in the round, which include Deutsche Bahn Digital Ventures, Groupe ADP, Solar Ventus, Irelandia and Levitate Capital, with a number materially increasing their stake. Joining them are Japanese conglomerate Kanematsu Corporation, global industrial property group Goodman Group, Italian airport platform 2i Aeroporti, backed by Ardian’s Infrastructure Fund and F2i Italian Infrastructure Fund, and US-based VC firm GreenPoint.
READ THE STORY: Payload Asia
Drones to continue targeting mosquito larvae in waterbodies
FROM THE MEDIA: A recent corporation report on the impact of the pilot operation has shown that it has reduced mosquito breeding by nearly 90%, the official added. With a 15-day pilot project on using drones to spray mosquito larvicide in the city’s major waterbodies and canals ending earlier this month, the city corporation has decided to extend the project for a year. The city corporation now receives an average of 8,000 complaints related to mosquito menace in a year. With reports of a visible impact on the larval density in waterways after the pilot initiative, corporation staff said that by extending the project by at least a year, there will be a drop in breeding and the complaints will be brought down to below 1,000. “Now, we are looking for private contributions through CSR to extend the project and we are planning to make it a permanent system even beyond that,” said a corporation official. Engaging drones will cost the corporation an estimated Rs 24.7 lakh a month. A recent corporation report on the impact of the pilot operation has shown that it has reduced mosquito breeding by nearly 90%, the official added. With the drones spraying larvicide over major waterbodies, corporation staff are to focus on smaller canals, storm water drains and other sources hidden from plain sight to further bring down breeding.
READ THE STORY: New Indian Express
Will Ukraine crisis help Turkey dodge Western arms embargoes?
FROM THE MEDIA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan seems to have returned buoyed from the March 24 NATO summit in Brussels, hoping that the Russian war against Ukraine will encourage Western nations to remove bans on military sales to Turkey. While European countries are likely to be more flexible, US sanctions remain a tough row to hoe. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has revived NATO and relatively eased Erdogan’s diplomatic isolation in the Western fold. Erdogan held bilateral meetings with the leaders of France, Britain, Italy, Spain and Estonia at the summit, and pressed for the removal of direct and indirect sanctions that NATO allies have slapped on Turkey’s defense industry amid frequent rows in recent years. Referring to the role of the Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 armed drones in bolstering Ukraine’s defenses against Russia, Erdogan said, “Given the obvious success of Turkey’s defense industry, there is no reasonable justification for the obstructions we face in this field. The lifting of restrictions imposed by some allies will be in our common interest. Covert or direct embargoes should not be even mentioned between allies. I shared our expectations with the leaders.”
READ THE STORY: AL-Monitor
Cockroaches To The Rescue: Robotized Insects Developed To Search For Survivors In Collapsed Buildings
FROM THE MEDIA: A group of researchers has developed a robotized roach to help search collapsed buildings for survivors - in what may be the only time you would be thankful to wake up to a roach lying on top of you. Dr Hirotaka Sato from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore has been working on cyber insects for 15 years, taking the work nature has already done and enhancing it, rather than building a drone from scratch. Dr Sato has created an innovative way to adapt Madagascan hissing cockroaches and make them autonomous agents for searching through rubble for signs of life. he insects are 6 cm long, and rather than their movements being dictated by remote controls, they are being controlled by algorithms that detect life and respond to sensors in their backpacks. These backpacks that Dr Sato and his team have designed contain a communication chip, a carbon dioxide sensor, a motion sensor, an infrared camera, and a battery. With these roaches well equipped to save the day, fleets of them will be released through the rubble, using their tiny frame to get into hard to reach places that humans and larger animals would struggle to reach. Their backpacks look for movement, body heat, and elevated CO2 levels, with the artificial intelligence deciding whether the presence of a person is detected, before alerting the rescuer.
READ THE STORY: Ladbible
Surveillance drones deployed for Indonesia-Malaysia border patrol
FROM THE MEDIA: Routine patrolling to check Indonesian border markers along the Indonesia-Malaysia border have been conducted by deploying camera-equipped surveillance drones, according to the XII/Tanjungpura Regional Military Commander. “Patrols are conducted to monitor the condition of border markers through on-site monitoring or by deploying surveillance drones. If a border marker is damaged, we will promptly repair it,” Regional Military Commander Major General Sulaiman Agusto stated during his working visit to the border region in Kapuas Hulu, West Kalimantan, on Sunday. The commander instructed his subordinates to intensify monitoring of activities in palm plantations that may cause damage to the border markers. Agusto remarked that the border patrol team had earlier found a damaged border marker due to activities of a Malaysian-based palm plantation. The authority had dispatched a team to repair and reinstall the border marker, he revealed. “The workers are Indonesian, but the plantations are Malaysia-owned. The damage might be caused by negligence in observing the border markers while working, but the damage had been fixed,” Agusto noted. The commander affirmed that the activities of palm plantations along the border region will be continually monitored to ensure no other border markers are damaged.
READ THE STORY: Daily Express
Items of interest
Aerorozvidka, the elite drone pilots unit that changed the face of Ukrainian resistance(Video)
Day 33 of the Russian offensive and Ukraine is still putting up strong resistance. At the heart of the offensive, an elite unit of attack drones, Aerorozvidka, is proving to be particularly effective. FRANCE 24's Gwendoline Debono met one of the pilots.
ST-35 SILENT THUNDER : Ukraine's Suicide Drone Shocked Russia(Video)
FROM THE MEDIA: The ST-35 Silent Thunder is a loitering munition developed by Athlon Avia, an unmanned aircraft systems manufacturer based in Ukraine. ST-35 Silent Thunder can be armed with different types of warheads such as high explosive, thermobaric, cumulative, and incendiary. It can also carry high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT), fuel-air explosive (FAE), and high-explosive fragmentation (HEF) warheads weighing up to 3.5kg each.
About this Product
These open source products are reviewed from analysts at InfoDom Securities and provide possible context about current media trends in regard to the realm of cyber security. The stories selected cover a broad array of cyber threats and are intended to aid readers in framing key publicly discussed threats and overall situational awareness. InfoDom Securities does not specifically endorse any third-party claims made in their original material or related links on their sites, and the opinions expressed by third parties are theirs alone. Contact InfoDom Securities at dominanceinformation@gmail.com