Kespry, a drone-based aerial intelligence solution provider, and DroneBase, a drone services company, have announced a partnership to enable insurance, mining, and aggregates enterprises across North America to expand aerial analytics implementation across their worksites. Kespry's customers will now be able to leverage DroneBase to manage their Kespry deployments as part of Kespry's new Bring Your Own Drone (BYOD) program. BYOD includes a new platform pricing model designed to meet the expanding enterprise aerial intelligence requirements of multi-site mining and aggregates companies, as well as large-scale residential and commercial property insurers. The combination of Kespry and DroneBase brings the best of the platform and services worlds together, offering a cost-effective, productive way of using drone-based analytics across the largest insurance, mining, and aggregates businesses. "We're very pleased to work with DroneBase and its team of dedicated, aerial intelligence professionals to further expand Kespry insurance, mining and aggregates deployments across the country," said George Mathew, CEO, Kespry.

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump invited Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to the White House last month at the height of tensions between the two countries, The New Yorker magazine reported. The invitation, extended by Sen. Rand Paul with permission from the president, was turned down for now, The New Yorker reported Friday. Zarif said it was up to Tehran to decide on accepting it. Neither the White House nor the State Department responded to requests for comment on the report, which quoted U.S. and Iranian sources and what the magazine called a well-placed diplomat. Zarif told the magazine he would not want a White House meeting that yielded just a photo op and a two page statement afterwards, The New Yorker said.

Drone applications have undeniable benefit for enterprise operations in many industries. Integrating an entirely new technology into existing workflows, however, is difficult – and scaling operations has been slow. The drone industry is taking an active role in creating new solutions to ease the way: like the new partnership between drone industry leaders Kespry and DroneBase. Commercial drone platform Kespry has been thinking creatively about the problem of enterprise operations since their inception. Kespry was one of the first to offer an easy to use, joystick-free drone platform: vertically integrated to address security concerns and easse of use.

Kespry and DroneBase have announced a partnership to enable insurance, mining, and aggregates enterprises across North America to expand aerial analytics implementation across their worksites. Kespry's customers will now be able to leverage DroneBase to manage their Kespry deployments as part of Kespry's new Bring Your Own Drone (BYOD) program. BYOD includes a new platform pricing model designed to meet the expanding enterprise aerial intelligence requirements of multi-site mining and aggregates companies, as well as large-scale residential and commercial property insurers. The combination of Kespry and DroneBase brings the best of the platform and services worlds together, offering a cost-effective, productive way of using drone-based analytics across the largest insurance, mining, and aggregates businesses. "We're very pleased to work with DroneBase and its team of dedicated, aerial intelligence professionals to further expand Kespry insurance, mining and aggregates deployments across the country," said George Mathew, CEO, Kespry.

Target tracking has been one of the many popular applications that an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is used for, in a variety of missions from intelligence gathering and surveillance to reconnaissance missions. Target tracking by autonomous vehicles could prove to be a beneficial tool for the development of guidance systems- Pedestrian detection, dynamic vehicle detection, and obstacle detection too and can improve the features of the guiding assistance system. An aerial vehicle equipped with object recognition and tracking features could play a vital role in drone navigation and obstacle avoidance; video surveillance, aerial view for traffic management, self-driving systems, surveillance of road conditions, and emergency response too. Target detection capacity in drones has made stupendous progress off late. Earlier, target detection in drone systems mostly used vision-based target finding algorithms.

The U.S. Navy is testing a radical new style of long-distance drone that can take off and land vertically, making it deployable from almost anywhere. The V-Bat drone, which recently completed a fly-test over the Atlantic Ocean can be equipped with an 8 lbs. In prior test, the V-Bat pushed the boundaries of its ceiling altitude, soaring to a height of 15,000 feet and returning safely. V-Bat's defining feature, vertical landing and take-off, make it unique and in some ways, more capable, than other drones used in military operations, according to MartinUAV'With these milestones, V-BAT has demonstrated all of the key performance parameters we set for it two years ago,' said Phillip Jones, Martin UAV's Chief Operating Officer in a statement. 'The focus for the engineering team will now shift to enhancing and refining these capabilities to even better meet & exceed warfighter requirements.'

Often construction CIOs and executives are leery of "shiny" toys that offer glitz, glam, and a lot of hype, but little tangible benefits and ROI (return on investment). Do drones fall in this category, or are they beginning to offer true benefits to construction beyond the cool factor? Certainly, the forecast for commercial-drones market is on the rise, with many analysts predicting further growth. Technavio, for instance, predicts the global commercial drones market is anticipated to grow 36% between 2018 and 2022. Reasons for this include increased applicability of commercial drones in various verticals and access to better data insights using commercial drones.

WASHINGTON/DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - Iran said it had seized a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday but denied Washington's assertion that the U.S. Navy had downed an Iranian drone nearby this week, as tensions in the Gulf region rose again. Britain said it was urgently seeking information about the Stena Impero tanker, which had been heading to a port in Saudi Arabia and suddenly changed course after passing through the strait at the mouth of the Gulf. The tanker's operator, Stena Bulk, said in a statement the ship was no longer under the crew's control and could not be contacted. Iran's state news agency IRNA quoted a military source as saying the vessel had turned off its tracker, ignored warnings from the Revolutionary Guard and was sailing in the wrong direction in a shipping lane. "We will respond in a way that is considered but robust and we are absolutely clear that if this situation is not resolved quickly there will be serious consequences," British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt told reporters.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard claims the vessel was caught trying to smuggle Iranian oil to foreign ships; Trey Yingst reports. Iran on Friday denied President Trump's claim that a U.S. warship destroyed an Iranian drone near the Persian Gulf after it threatened the ship -- an incident that further escalated tensions between the countries. Trump said Thursday that the USS Boxer – which is among several U.S. Navy ships in the area – took defensive action after an Iranian drone came within 1,000 yards of the warship and ignored multiple calls to stand down. Trump blamed Iran for a "provocative and hostile" action and said the U.S. responded in self-defense. But Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, told reporters as he arrived for a meeting at the United Nations that "we have no information about losing a drone today."

WASHINGTON - A U.S. warship on Thursday destroyed an Iranian drone in the Strait of Hormuz after it threatened the ship, President Donald Trump said. The incident marked a new escalation of tensions between the countries less than one month after Iran downed an American drone in the same waterway and Trump came close to retaliating with a military strike. In remarks at the White House, Trump blamed Iran for a "provocative and hostile" action and said the U.S. responded in self-defense. He said the Navy's USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship, took defensive action after the Iranian aircraft closed to within 1,000 yards of the ship and ignored multiple calls to stand down. "The United States reserves the right to defend our personnel, facilities and interests and calls upon all nations to condemn Iran's attempts to disrupt freedom of navigation and global commerce," Trump said.