This week’s “Around the Commercial Drone Industry” news round-up looks at a new white paper on the use of drones in law enforcement, how researchers used UAVs to gather information on Florida hemp farms, and the announcement of new drone research awards from NASA.

Report Defends the Use of Drones in Law Enforcement

Although there are many examples of how drones are being used by law enforcement for keep people and property safe, individuals and organizations have raised concerns around the way uncrewed systems could be used to compromise privacy and security. To address these concerns, a new white paper co-authored by the Life Safety Alliance (LSA) “defends the use of police drones and outlines policy frameworks and oversight measures to protect civil liberties.” According to a story from Security InfoWatch, “the 32-page report offers a data-driven defense of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in law enforcement, while emphasizing the need for civil liberties safeguards and transparency.” Security InfoWatch says the white paper “outlines a framework for responsible deployment, supported by legal precedent, policy examples and a broad sampling of real-world success stories, drawn from hundreds of documented deployments.”

UAVs Help Florida Hemp Farming

As reported in Morning AgClips, a new University of Florida study looked into the ways drones can “help farmers grow better hemp by seeing the health of their crops with some artificial intelligence assistance. UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) Tropical Research and Education Center (TREC) researchers have reported on the ways they used drone-based imaging “to help determine how much nitrogen fertilizer hemp plants need for optimal growth and flower production.” The investigators looked at drone images that “picked up clear differences in plant size and color, which matched the actual amount of plant material harvested.” According to the report, findings based on these drone-captured images “could help growers optimize fertilizer use to save money and preserve the environment.”

New Drone Research Awards from NASA

NASA reports that two student teams have received research awards through NASA’s University Student Research Challenge (USRC. A team from North Carolina State team will address “Reconnaissance and Emergency Aircraft for Critical Hurricane Relief.” They are tasked with developing and deploying “advanced Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) designed to locate, communicate with, and deliver critical supplies to stranded individuals in the wake of natural disasters.” Addressing the topic “Context-Aware Cybersecurity for UAS Traffic Management,” a team from Texas A&M “will develop, test, and pursue the implementation of an aviation-context-aware network authentication system for the holistic management of cybersecurity threats to enable future drone traffic control systems.” Each student team will receive “a NASA grant up to $80,000 and is tasked with raising additional funds through student-led crowdfunding.”