Nightingale was the first drone targeted at security, and now they are the first drone security company to receive 2 key FAA exemptions, allowing them to expand how and when they operate.
Founder and CEO Jack Wu provided an update to IPVM on these exemptions, and the progress the company has made since their initial launch ~2 years ago.
In this report, we examine the current generation of Nightingale drones, the FAA exemptions they claim are unique to their company, plus share a recording of a live demo and explore how this might impact the market for other drone security companies.
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Live **** ********
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I attended that live demo. One thing Nightingale needs to improve on is their conventional / color low light performance. The image is near black even with street lights:
They said they are using a board mounted Pixy Cam that is probably easy to add to a drone but has really inferior low light capability. Nightingale also has thermal modules which certainly work much better but are far more expensive. They would benefit from improving the color camera module.
John, thank you for the feedback. We need to hear from folks like you, who's in the security industry so us robotics guys can go about improving the platform for your application. Feel free to reach out to us on our website directly if you have anything you think we need to improve. We will be @ ISC West 2017, so hope you'll swing by!
Thx!
Impressive indeed! Hope to see them in Vegas soon.
Thank you. We will be at the autonomous section of the show.
We will be showcasing our product in our booth, so you can see more than what I showcased @ the TecSec demo.
Cheers,
Interesting. When drones are deployed for guard tours in populated spaces, is there any additional insurance a lesser would need to purchase or is damage/lawsuits covered by the lease? For instance mechanical, programming error or even a strong gust of wind causing the drone to collide with a person or property.
No comment on liability, wounder why?
I'm thinking there are no comments because you asked a question that stumped everyone. We're getting ready to launch UAV's as part of our virtual guard service and I'm looking into this question and others. I'll post answer when/if I can find one.
and now they are the first drone security company to receive 2 key FAA exemptions, allowing them to expand how and when they operate.
maybe now they can get the exemption that really matters, BeyondVisualLineOfSite...
That's interesting, thanks. More from that article:
Since the test's objective was to fly the drone for the inspection's whole duration with no human involvement, the team had to load it with an on-board technology by Iris Automation called the Casia system. It's a sense-and-avoid technology that can detect other aircraft and make intelligent decisions on what kind of threat they pose to the drone. The Casia system worked with the eight ground-based radars the team installed along the route. [emphasis added]
I wonder if that means to get such an exemption / approval, ground-based radars will be required?
Like DJI has had for some time?
i think the difference here is that this drone was utilizing ground based radar information to detect and evade threats.
