Last weekend, a girl was chased while on her way home at night. the drone incident took place in the municipality of Midden-Drenthe, in The Netherlands. The police reported the news on Facebook. The drone flew after the girl for some time on Sunday night. After she arrived home, the drone hovered above the house for a while. The drone pilot could not be traced by police officers who responded to the incident.
The fire brigade and Rijkswaterstaat, part of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, will soon be experimenting for the first time with an automatically operating drone box system. For example, the early detection of forest fires will be examined. Rijkswaterstaat, together with truck parking Rotterdam, will monitor a truck parking at Hazeldonk with the system. What is noteworthy is that drones will start flying around for the first time without the need for a pilot to be present. To make this possible, a special risk analysis had to be drawn up first.
In the future, we expect all kinds of drones to be flying in and over our cities. For instance, drones carrying urgently needed medical items, or even electrically powered air taxis. Developments like these will only get off the ground, though, if there is sufficient social acceptance. That includes examining what the noise nuisance will be. But how can you study this future scenario while the drones are not yet flying around? Royal NLR has a solution with the NLR VR sound simulator.
Over the next few years, TU Delft researcher Coen de Visser will be working on a system that should give autonomous robots and drones a certain degree of “physical self-awareness.” The idea is that robots gain insight into their physical limitations, even in the event of a malfunction. This should result in autonomously operating robots and drones being able to rescue themselves from an emergency situation independently in the future.
The Dutch police will be investing heavily in expanding its drone fleet in the coming years. The police currently have about sixty drones. In two years, there must be at least 130. The drones are increasingly being used for various applications, such as enforcement, locating missing persons, and investigating traffic accidents.
Atmos UAV, the fast-growing Dutch drone manufacturer that develops high-end VTOL fixed-wing drones for surveying and mapping applications, further expands its distributor network in South America and signs a reseller agreement with Capital Drone. Capital Drone will be responsible for the distribution of Marlyn drones in Bolivia, and will provide assistance and first-line maintenance services to Bolivian operators.
Recently, DJI interviewed my good friend, fellow Dutchman, and drone expert, Wiebe de Jager from DroneWatch. Here are the interview and background information on Wiebe’s work for the Dutch TV show ‘real Life in the Zoo.’
A one-week trial with inspection drones will begin at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. During the trial, taxiways, small buildings, and aircraft will be inspected by drones. There will also be drones that transfer light goods between different locations.
Last Friday, a DJI Matrice 210 RTK delivered a package to the world’s largest ship, the ‘Pioneering Spirit’ from Allseas. The drone delivery is part of a project organized by Dutch Drone Delta, Allseas, and the Port of Rotterdam Authority, to test how unmanned aircraft can be used to improved transportation within the port of Rotterdam.
On May 5th, Liberation Day in The Netherlands, the Beating Heart drone show was organized over Rotterdam as a tribute to freedom and an appreciation to those who work day and night for the freedom and safety of others. The show was an initiative by artist duo Drift and art organization Mothership and made. possible by Stichting Droom and Daad (Dream and Action) and the city of Rotterdam. We have seen drone shows from the Drift duo before in Miami and Burning Man. The show is accompanied by piano music and is well worth watching.
This morning I came across this photo on Facebook and wanted to share it with you. Eventhough it is not an article for the drone news category, I do think it is very interesting how drones give us a new perspective on historic events. This drone photo shows a World War II dike breach in The Netherlands, that flooded the Wieringermeer polder (reclaimed land) with 12 feet of water.
This short video clip shows us the Dutch tourist town Volendam by drone. The video is less than two minutes long but the first-person-view delivers an experience, unlike anything you have seen before.