IoT Weekly Roundup
The IoT weekly roundup is designed to share the latest and most interesting news from the past week. As the industrial and consumer IoT space continues to heat up, we decided to uncover some very unique IoT applications that many didn’t even know existed. As the connected world continues to advance in the emerging digital age, virtually every facet of our lives is now being impacted by the IoT. In this week’s addition of IoT weekly roundup, we explore M2M, sensors, automation, drones and IoT language. Dive in and enjoy this week’s highlights! Weekly Roundup of News How M2M and IoT enable new data-intensive applications By @dhdeans | Published on @TTech_News “During the last couple of years, machine-to-machine (M2M) technology has become an integral part of the services offered by global telecom providers and a significant revenue stream for M2M app specialists. They’ve developed comprehensive offerings, designed to reduce costs and increase efficiency.” Sonar Mapping Sensors Help Understand Where Life Can be Found Underwater By Brooks Hays | Published on @UPI “New maps charted using sonar sensors have revealed the importance of ‘marine snow’ to the distribution of biomass on the ocean floor. Until now, mapping the ocean floor’s terrain, as well as distribution of marine snow and biomass, has proven difficult.” Rail and Production Technology Parallels When it Comes to Automation By @DJGreenfield | Published on @automationworld “Explaining the IoT trend in rail, Weatherburn said that IoT is increasing interest in greater connectivity for operations optimization reasons. It’s also driving a move away from proprietary protocols and toward greater use of standard Ethernet. He noted that this is particularly true in rail when it comes to the delivery of communications and entertainment for the railway customer, pointing out that the rail industry is looking to carry both sets of data over standard Ethernet.” Indie Sci-fi Film Shot Entirely by Autonomous Drones By @trentlmoore | Published on @blastr “Drone cameras are being used in just about everything nowadays, from sports coverage to emergency response, but what happens when you shoot a movie entirely from the sky?” The connected IoT is spawning a new vocabulary By @pmcfedries | Published on @IEEESpectrum “A big chunk of the Internet of Things consists of wireless transceivers combined with sensors, which can reside in appliances, devices, clothes, machinery, buildings—just about anything physical. Of course, the phrase ‘wireless transceiver combined with sensors’ is unwieldy, so such a node of the IoT is called a mote (short for remote).” As we conclude our IoT weekly roundup, we hope you enjoyed learning about all the new applications and insights related to the powerful force of the Internet and connected technologies. Now go out and see what other IoT applications you can uncover!
IIoT Top News: UAS Cleared for Takeoff
UAS, drones or unmanned aircraft, no matter what you call them — this was their week. Our news stream was flooded with updates on the newly announced rules and regulations for commercial UAS from the FAA. So, naturally we have dedicated this week’s top news round up to highlight some of our favorite UAS stories. Here is a quick recap on the new FAA rules for UAS USA TODAY has broken out the top five things you should know about the new FAA drone rules. Take a minute and get caught up on the basics. For example, the UAS operator must have their drone in sight at all times while in the air, and you still can’t fly at night. https://youtu.be/G6NAFIRZLBw Summary of New Commercial Drones Rules The wait is over, as many commercial UAS operators found out this week. John Goglia, with Forbes, breaks out the FAA new Part 107 rules which states, “It will eliminate many of the most cumbersome and expensive requirements currently imposed on commercial drone operators including the requirement for a so-called 333 exemption, a manned aircraft pilot’s license, a visual observer, the requirement to hold a certificate of authorization and the requirement to issue a notice to airmen before each flight.” FAA Approves the use of Small Commercial Drones Michael Walton, with Government Technology, explains, “The FAA new UAS rules would effectively lift the lid on flights by other potential operators who have held off using the technology — real estate agents who want bird’s-eye videos of properties, ranchers who want to count cattle and a multitude of other businesses.” At Long Last, New FAA Rules for Drones Air&Space Magazine tells us the best part of the new UAS rules is that “The FAA dropped its initial recommendation that would have required commercial UAV operators to hold a pilot’s license, a stipulation that experts feared would have stifled the booming drone industry, which is estimated to generate more than $82 billion and 100,000 jobs over the next decade. We hope you have enjoyed this quick UAS roundup. Don’t worry, we aren’t heading into a Sci-fi movie yet; Amazon, Walmart and alike will still have to wait in the holding pattern for approval to utilize drones for domestic delivery purposes. Overall, though, it was a game-changing week for small commercial UAS user everywhere, and a small step in the right direction for drones to assist with all our future needs.
Drone World: Applying IIoT Applications
“Drone World” may seem a bit overboard, but the fact is, drones are here to stay. We’ve spent time in these pages looking at unique and innovative drone applications in industries like utilities, precision agriculture, and even lifeguarding. Today, in honor of Memorial Day, we would like to take a moment and honor those men and women serving in the armed forces, by highlighting interesting government drone technology uses. Drones ‘Shot Into The Sky’ By The U.S. Navy The BBC News informs us how these innovative instant flight drones could be used as a method of defense for ships at sea suddenly burdened by a swarm of enemy drones. This project is known as LOCUST and it aims to launch a swarm of drones at high speed. Elizabeth Quintana from the military think tank Rusi believes that, “Drones could be used to take out enemy swarms at sea.” Drones That Can Sniff Out Radiation The Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) officials have recently purchased two drones to be a view from the sky in case of an emergency to sniff out and detect signs of radiation. It will be important to use these unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in situations that are to dangerous for humans. Other Applications of Drones Drones aren’t just for the government anymore, in fact we are already starting to see the industries below finding ways to improve safety, service and efficiency with the implementation of drones. Emergency Response Enables immediate action, providing emergency response teams with fast, flexible visibility to assess critical situations. Utilities Safely allows for the quick inspection of high voltage power lines and wind turbines, helping mitigate worker risk and improve monitoring. Military & Defense Assisting with intelligent surveillance and reconnaissance missions to deliver timely, relevant, and assured information to thwart potential threats. Oil & Gas Protects and helps maintain extensive miles of pipeline covering large, remote areas that would otherwise require enormous amounts of time and resources. Agriculture Creates more efficient farms by monitoring inventory, growth, water and fertilizer levels, and crop health to facilitate production and increase yields. Public Safety Supporting firefighting operations by providing more up-to-date information at a lower cost, while reducing the number of responders in harm’s way. We hope you have enjoyed our quick drone world recap, and as always tell us what we missed. The next time you see a drone flying in the sky, think about all the possibilities that drone or fleet of drones could be providing.
XPONENTIAL Recap: Drones and so much more
New Orleans had its sights in the clouds for this year’s AUVSI XPONENTIAL conference. A leading national show for unmanned systems aimed to provide entertainment, education and networking opportunities for more than 8,000 industry leaders and professionals from 55 countries. XPONENTIAL focused this year on oil and gas; agriculture; energy and utilities; construction; and command and control defense applications. Starting off with a bang, national main stream media was drawn to those unmanned crafts in the sky, of all shapes and sizes headlining at this year’s XPONENTIAL. NBCs TODAY Show anchor Gabe Gutierrez captured a stroll through drone road, where every craft in a mile radius magically took to the sky as Gutierrez walked by. A common theme from this year was… The XPONENTIAL team consistently found ways to remind us all how intelligent robotics will continue to transform our business, travel and everyday security. This level of awareness was their way of educating everyone to embrace this technological shift. It’s about time for an FAA perspective! FAA Secretary Huerta found time during the action packed few days to sit down with Miles O’Brien to discuss trending topics and regulation over this coming year with more UAS registered and flying in the skies. Now let’s see what drones are charging into the agriculture scene this year! Farming will never be the same, now that Yamaha is creating a sprayer drone. This UAS wowed the crowds at XPONENTIAL in true rockstar fashion, reminding us all that the future of agriculture will be merged with technology. And it wouldn’t be proper to end this post without at least one brass band shot; we are in New Orleans, folks! This brass band gave the XPONENTIAL crowd a warm southern welcome as the show got under way! We also were thrilled to speak with the show organizers about how “IoT Rides on FreeWave Tech” in regards to debuting a beta version of new radio technology that leverages the Internet of Things movement to allow developers to program the product to perform functions previously unavailable on radios. Thanks to the XPONENTIAL 2016 Team and congratulations to all that made New Orleans a hit this year!
Video: What are the Future Uses of Drones?
While drones are responsible for one of the latest tech crazes to hit the mainstream, it’s safe to say that you should not expect them to invade your airspace anytime soon. However, the influx of these flying smart machines may not be as far off as you might think. With heavy-hitters like Amazon, Google and Walmart recognizing the immense opportunity of using drones for shipping and logistics purposes, its no wonder that people are saying “the drones are coming!” Industrial Applications for Drones What could prove to be more promising than the consumer-driven demand for flying drones is the use of that technology in industrial settings and applications. Already, we see companies using drones for the following scenarios: Emergency Response Enables immediate action, providing emergency response teams with fast, flexible visibility to assess critical situations. Utilities Safely allows for the quick inspection of high voltage power lines and wind turbines, helping mitigate worker risk and improve monitoring. Military & Defense Assisting with intelligent surveillance and reconnaissance missions to deliver timely, relevant, and assured information to thwart potential threats. Oil & Gas Protects and helps maintain extensive miles of pipeline covering large, remote areas that would otherwise require enormous amounts of time and resources. Agriculture Creates more efficient farms by monitoring inventory, growth, water and fertilizer levels, and crop health to facilitate production and increase yields. Public Safety Supporting firefighting operations by providing more up-to-date information at a lower cost, while reducing the number of responders in harm’s way. So what does the future hold for these next-generation technologies? It’s hard to say really. One of the biggest hurdles still to jump is figuring out how these aircrafts will fit into the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) existing airspace regulations. There is no doubt there will be new policies that are drone-specific on the horizon. In fact, the FAA has already taken steps in that direction by requiring drone owners to register their aircrafts as a first step in ensuring the safety of everyone who uses the skies. Let’s just assume that over then next five years policy and technology come together and we finally have lift-off in the drone world. What’s next? Check out this video courtesy of Be Amazed that explores 10 amazing futuristic uses of drones:
