Asia

Japanese commercial drone service company Terra Drone has commercialised an Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM) system for the first time in Korea.

Nine Iranian have been charged with conducting a cyber theft campaign on behalf of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. They penetrated systems belonging to hundreds of universities and companies, in an attack that demonstrates the weaknesses in many organisations’ cyber defences.

In December 2017, Beijing officially became the first city in China to allow tests of driverless cars on its road, signalling the beginning of a national push for commercialising autonomous vehicles.

Hokianga Restricted Airspace is an 874 square kilometre area in New Zealand that has been opened up to trials of UAVs flying beyond visual line of sight (BVLoS). The test range has been dubbed “Incredible Skies” and it extends the opportunity for a new wave of UAV research, both in New Zealand, and globally.

Japan is the world´s predominant industrial robot manufacturer: The production capacity of the Japanese suppliers has reached 153,000 units in 2016 – the highest level ever recorded. Today, Japan´s manufacturers deliver 52 percent of the global supply. These are results published by the International Federation of Robotics (IFR) ahead of the International Robot Exhibition (iREX) in Tokyo - November 29th - December 2nd 2017.

Sophia Robot, an advanced lifelike humanoid robot, speaks October 25 at a panel on robotics and artificial intelligence at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh, shortly before being declared a citizen of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the first country to grant citizenship to a robot. Sophia was built by Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics Ltd., which says its humanlike robots have remarkable expressiveness, aesthetics, and interactivity.

The Australian law firm and London legal tech firm Luminance have teamed up. Corrs has announced that it will deploy Luminance’s artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the due diligence for M&A transactions.

A test-flight base for civilian drones has opened up in Shanghai at the end of August, arriving just in time to service the country’s tightening drone regulations.

Contrary to the global trend of experimenting with the use of autonomous vehicles on public roads, with trials taking place in San Francisco, Boston, and Singapore, India has made a ruling against the use of such technology in the country. The move comes as an effort to protect jobs.

The Australian Centre for Robotic Vision Team (ACRV) won the 2017 Amazon Robotics Challenge at RoboCup in Nagoya Japan. The ACRV, headquartered at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), will receive $80,000USD for winning the finals.

Global leader of drones DJI has condemned a recent video posted by a drone user that shows the landing of aircraft in Tel Aviv’s Sde-Dov airport.

A pilot at Parafield Airport called police after reporting that he believed a drone collided with the plane he was flying. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has launched an investigation.

New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has permitted a new restricted airspace to trial drones flying beyond line of sight, approving an 874 square kilometre test range in Northland’s Hokianga region.

Russia is set to trial a system to monitor all the incoming new overhead traffic, with its space agency, Rocosmos, announcing that it plans to test a nationwide monitoring network for unmanned aerial vehicles.

Internet giant Baidu, known as China’s Google, has announced that it will make its autonomous driving technology open source, in contrast to the secrecy that other firms such as Waymo and Tesla operate in.

Craig Kirk, General Manager of Delta Insurance New Zealand Limited discusses the new UAV insurance they are offering, the country’s most comprehensive UAV solution launched in February this year. Sam Jennings, legal expert and director of aviation consulting firm Jennings Consulting Ltd also provides insights to insurance and regulation of UAVs in New Zealand and what the future has to offer.

In the face of declining bee populations and possible extinction, mini drones coated in a sticky gel could be employed to fulfil their pollination duties.

Deployed on 12th February at Zhengzhou East Railway Station in Henan, the new security robot is assisting passengers passing through.

The working-age population – defined as those from 15 to 59 – fell for the first time in decades in 2012, according to official figures, and has declined ever since. It is expected to carry on falling until at least 2030. With the problem of an ageing population, China is expected to invest heavily in robots to supplement its workforce.

Conservationists are using a crowdsourcing platform to raise funds to launch a drone program across three states in Australia, with the aim of catching farmers conducting widespread clearing.