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Unmanned Systems Grow in European Agriculture

Unmanned systems’ global inroads are including European agriculture. GNSS for precision guidance of tractors and harvesters is already in place. More recent innovations include fully driverless and smart systems, while drones remain poised to fly.

The experience of one Dutch company is instructive. Precision Makers is an up-and- coming manufacturer of automated farm systems. The company delivers two main products. One, a conversion kit called X-Pert, turns existing mowers and tractors into driverless machines. The other is a fully robotized, unmanned vehicle called Greenbot. Both systems enable automated precision operations, but while one has been successful in terms of sales, the other has not.

Precision Makers Business Development Director, Allard Martinet, told Inside Unmanned Systems, “Sales of our X-Pert conversion system have been very good. We started in 2008, first converting the Toro golf course mower, and then we expanded that into solutions for other vehicles. Today, there are more than 150 X-Pert converted vehicles running.”

Reforestation Drones Can Plant 100K Trees In An Hour

Sure, it’ll be great when a drone can drop off your Amazon Prime goodies or 7-Eleven snacks just minutes after you order them… but it’ll be even better when they help regrow millions of trees.

That’s what U.K.-based BioCarbon Engineering has set out to do. The company has been developing a high-tech system that uses drones to replant deforested areas — even in areas where planting wouldn’t be feasible using older methods.

BioCarbon’s system utilizes drones for two separate stages of the process. First, they’re sent into the target area to create a detailed, three-dimensional map. Once they’ve completed that step, the planting drones return to the site to do their thing.

UDrone: Drone with Brain & Gesture Control

Meet the UDrone: a clever quadcopter that you can control with your thoughts or simple hand gestures. You can activate its camera by blinking or making the “V” hand gesture. The drone has subject & facial tracking, 3 adjustable speed settings, and an auto-flight control system.

The UDrone is easy to use: simply imagine it taking off and once you are concentrated enough, the drone will take off. It has mobile app control too.

A Drone You Control With Your Mind Is About to Hit Kickstarter

A Kickstarter campaign is launching on Tuesday for a drone you control with your mind.

The mind-controlled drone is the work EEGSmart, a Chinese company focused on the development of brain-machine interface (BMI) technology — and according to New Atlas writer Loz Blain, who got a chance to test the device, “It’s not perfect, but it does give a glimpse of a mind-controlled future.”

Rwanda Has Just Completed Over 10,000 Deliveries of Health Supplies Via Medical Drones

Rwanda’s advancements on the technological front have been dazzling, with that enviable touch of innovation. Ever since deliveries of health supplies through drones commenced in 2016, the stats have been phenomenal.

To date, over 10,000 health supply deliveries have been completed and this is such a huge feat. Medical drones were launched in October 2016, in partnership with #Zipline Inc. Rwanda is the first country on the continent, and in the world to have such services in the health sector. Such monumental success easily makes Rwanda’s healthcare system among the best in Africa.


Rwanda has completed over 10,000 deliveries of health supplies by medical drones.

The British Military Is Working on Anti-Aircraft Drone Swarms

A swarm of 150 drones buzzed over Maroon 5 singer Adam Levine’s head during this year’s Super Bowl half time show, spelling out the words “One Love.”

It was a dazzling display of drone technology — and military developers in the United States and United Kingdom are increasingly interested in using something similar, but with a very different goal in mind: to surround enemy aircraft, confusing them and forcing them out of the sky.