The first 24-hour police drone unit is to be launched, amid fears that forces may have to rely on them because of falling officer numbers. The'flying squad' will pursue suspects, find missing people and help solve murders. Assistant Chief Constable Steve Barry, national spokesman on drones, predicted forces across Britain would soon be using them as they are cheaper than helicopters and can perform some duties of bobbies on the beat. But the move has prompted privacy concerns and warnings that the technology should'never be an excuse to cut officers'. Devon and Cornwall Police has advertised for a drone manager to lead its new dedicated unit, which will be launched in the summer and shared with Dorset. Devon and Cornwall Police will launch a dedicated 24-hour police drone unit to save costs on helicopters.

The drones fell out of the sky over China Lake, California, like a colony of bats fleeing a cave in the night. Over 100 of them dropped from the bellies of three Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets, their sharp angles cutting across the clear blue sky. As they encircled their target, the mechanical whir of their flight sounded like screaming. This was the world's largest micro-drone swarm test. Conducted in October 2016 by the Department of Defense's Strategic Capabilities Office and the Navy's Air Systems Command, the test was the latest step in what could be termed a swarm-drone arms race.

DJI Technology Inc, the largest civilian drone maker, is claiming in a new study that "59 lives have been saved by civilian drones in 18 different incidents, with one life a week being saved by drones on average." The study was published on March 14, 2017, and is based on reports in the news. The majority of the rescues have occurred in USA and China, although instances have occurred in Canada and Turkey as well. One third were saved by civilians using their hobbyist drones and not by emergency personnel, showing their far-reaching abilities. The Hindu of Dec 7 reported that in Chennai, India during heavy flash floods the city police "were able to locate as many as 200 people with the help of drones and rescued all of them."

This paper presents a novel approach for localising a GPS (Global Positioning System)-denied Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) with the aid of a GPS-equipped UAV in three-dimensional space. The GPS-equipped UAV makes discrete-time broadcasts of its global coordinates. The GPS-denied UAV simultaneously receives the broadcast and takes direction of arrival (DOA) measurements towards the origin of the broadcast in its local coordinate frame (obtained via an inertial navigation system (INS)). The aim is to determine the difference between the local and global frames, described by a rotation and a translation. In the noiseless case, global coordinates were recovered exactly by solving a system of linear equations. When DOA measurements are contaminated with noise, rank relaxed semidefinite programming (SDP) and the Orthogonal Procrustes algorithm are employed. Simulations are provided and factors affecting accuracy, such as noise levels and number of measurements, are explored.

Lockheed Martin has completed the design, development and demonstration of a radical 60 kW laser weapon for the U.S. Army. In testing earlier this month, the Lockheed Martin laser produced a single beam of 58 kW, representing a world record for a laser of this type. Army bosses hope the radical weapon will give protection against threats such as swarms of drones or large numbers of rockets and mortars, and says It could one day be installed on military planes, helicopters and ships. A rendering of a truck mounted 60 kW laser weapon system for tactical U.S. Army vehicles. Lockheed Martin has revealed it has completed the design, development and demonstration of a radical 60 kW laser weapon for the U.S. Army.

Drone fans north of the border have been hit with tough new rules restricting how and where they can use their flying toys. Announced on Thursday by Canadian transport minister Marc Garneau, the new regulations place strict limitations on drone flights close to people, animals, and buildings. The rules, aimed specifically at non-commercial drone flights, also stipulate that the machines should be kept well clear of airports. "I am taking measures now, before a drone hits an airplane and causes a catastrophic accident," Garneau told the Globe and Mail, adding, "That's the kind of nightmare scenario that keeps me up at night." Folks with an unmanned aerial vehicle weighing more than 0.5 pounds and up to 77 pounds are now banned from operating the machine within 5.6 miles of any airport as well as other places where aircraft operate such as heliports or seaplane bases. Drones must stay within 295 feet of the ground, and keep at least 246 feet (75 meters) from buildings.

We write here a lot of about small drones. Amazon wants to deliver packages with drones. Drones have taken breathtaking aerial views of Apple Park. But what happens when one of the larger drones accidentally slams into a human being? Time for the automotive crash-test dummies to step up and tell the story!

OTTAWA – Canada is bringing in strict measures and fines for recreational users of drones. Transport Minister Marc Garneau on Thursday announced restrictions to curb the number of incidents in which recreational drones have come too close to planes, which has more than tripled since 2014. Recreational drone operators must now mark their drone with their contact information and are forbidden to fly them at night or in cloudy conditions. Drones will no longer be allowed to fly higher than 90 meters (295 feet), within 75 meters (245 feet) of any buildings, vehicles or people, or within 9 km (5.6 miles) of airports. Violators are subject to a fine of up to 3,000 Canadian dollars ($2,251), and up to C$15,000 for corporations.

Both the Tokyo police and the Human-Interactive Robotics Lab at Michigan Tech are using nets to catch smaller hostile drones. The idea is very simple: shoot a net or lure a drone into a net, entangling it. This electromagnetic field gun can safely bring drones down to the ground. However, it's not commercially available yet, and radio jammers are illegal in the US. DroneShield's Omnidirectional Sensor and Long-Range Sensor can remotely detect drones that are undetectable by radar.

Canada is bringing in strict measures and fines for recreational users of drones. Transport Minister Marc Garneau on Thursday announced restrictions to curb the number of incidents in which recreational drones have come too close to planes, which has more than tripled since 2014. Recreational drone operators must now mark their drone with their contact information and are forbidden to fly them at night or in cloudy conditions. Drones will no longer be allowed to fly higher than 90 meters (295 feet), within 75 meters (245 feet) of any buildings, vehicles or people, or within 9 kilometers (5.6 miles) of airports. Violators are subject to a fine of up to $3,000 Canadian (US$2,251), and up to $15,000 Canadian (US$11,256) for corporations.