Did You Bring the Batteries?

Curt Lary from Hextronics talks about the universal drone-in-the-box. Having nailed the core requirements of a nest (the box), including enclosure, HVAC, opening and closing, charging, infrastructure, and command and control uplink, he could then configure it for a wide variety of drones. Scalability and cost-effectiveness are the key benefits, and the system is configurable for a wide range of UAVs.Have questions for the experts? Send your emails to info@rmus.ca.This episode's cast includes:Kevin Toderel - General Manager, RMUS (host)Curt Lary - CEO and Lead Engineer, HextronicsFor more on RMUS visit:YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook

In this episode of Did You Bring the Batteries, we welcome Edwin Sanchez from Votix, the groundbreaking platform changing the world of drone automation. Votix is a hardware-agnostic solution that delivers comprehensive drone automation, orchestration and remote operation capabilities. Our discussion covers effective strategies for managing integrated systems, live streaming flight videos to anyone, anywhere, remotely operating drones, risk reduction, and more. Have questions for the experts? Send your emails to info@rmus.ca.This episode's cast includes:Kevin Toderel - General Manager, RMUS (host)Edwin Sanchez - CTO, VotixFor more on RMUS visit:YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook

Josh Ogden of AVSS joins us in this episode to discuss urban drone operations and the advancements and challenges surrounding their integration into our cities.Have questions for the experts? Send your emails to podcasts@rmus.com.This episode's cast includes:Kevin Toderel - General Manager, RMUS (host)Josh Ogden - Co-founder and CEO, Aerial Vehicle Safety SolutionsFor more on RMUS visit:YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook

In this episode, we launch the RMUS Autonomy Lab. To mark this special occasion, we speak with two of our Lab partners, Johann Beukes (Levatas) and Scott Nokleby (Ontario Tech University), about drone autonomy and AI applications.Have questions for the experts? Send your emails to podcasts@rmus.com.This episode's cast includes:Kevin Toderel - General Manager, RMUS (host)Johann Beukes - Levatas, Chief AI OfficerScott Nokleby - Ontario Tech University, Associate Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Applied ScienceFor more on RMUS visit:YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook

This week the team looks at remotely operated vehicles used for inspection in dark, dirty, dangerous places humans don't want to go. That's right, underwater inspection. Our guest is Sam Macdonald whose curiosity about what lay beneath the waves of Lake Huron and Georgian Bay led her to co-found Deep Trekker, a global leader in submersible ROVs, utility vehicles and pipe crawlers.Have questions for the experts? Send your emails to podcasts@rmus.com.This episode's cast includes:Kevin Toderel - General Manager, RMUS (host)Fraser Hahn - Director of Technology, RMUSSam Macdonald - President, Deep TrekkerFor more on RMUS visit:YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook

In the decade since writing the first SFOC to fly a drone in about 2012, Michael Cohen has been keeping pace with the rapidly evolving UAS industry, transforming Qii.AI into an artificial intelligence development company that takes building inspection to another level.Have questions for the experts? Send your emails to podcasts@rmus.com.This episode's cast includes:Kevin Toderel - General Manager, RMUS (host)Fraser Hahn - Director of Technology, RMUSMichael Cohen - CEO, Qii.AIFor more on RMUS visit:YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook

A legend in the aviation world, Mikey McBryan of Buffalo Airways and the show Ice Pilots NWT, joins us this week to discuss UASs from the point of view of manned-craft aviators. Mikey talks about operating modern UASs around an airport, the realities of automating cargo flights, and the many unexpected ways drones have changed the world.Have questions for the experts? Send your emails to podcasts@rmus.com.This episode's cast includes:Bryan Calhoun - Podcaster in Command (host), RMUSFraser Hahn - Director of Technology, RMUSKevin Toderel - General Manager, RMUSMikey McBryan - General Manager, Buffalo AirwaysFor more on RMUS visit:YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook

In this episode of Did you Bring the Batteries?  we discuss Fire AI and how this program can be used to help track forest fires quicker and more accurately by deploying drones; however, not until we discuss jumping out of perfectly good planes over raging fires, flying BVLOS in restricted airspace, and the way drones in general can help manage the unpredictability of forest fire season.Before we delve into Fire AI, we give you all the details, and our thoughts, on the recently released Mavic 3 Enterprise and Mavic 3 Thermal.We also had a quick on-air podcast planning session and decided our end-of-year event will be the second installment of the Blue sUAS round-up. Listen to the 2021 Blue sUAS round-up in two parts The Great Blue sUAS Test (Part 1) and The Great Blue sUAS Test (Part 2), along with the rest of our back catalogue.Have questions for the experts? Send your emails to podcasts@rmus.com. This episode's cast includes:Bryan Calhoun - Podcaster in Command (host), RMUSFraser Hahn - Director of Technology, RMUSKevin Toderel - General Manager, RMUSRobert Atwood - Co-Creator of Fire AI, Hummingbird Drones Inc.For more on RMUS visit:YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook

Kevin and Fraser recap the best things they saw at the Commercial UAV Expo in Las Vegas, including Ascent AeroSystems's new nano-sized coaxial drone, big drones that fold up and fit into backpacks, rugged drones coming out of India, the upcoming DJI dock, using video to capture datasets, Parrot tactical mapping, and the other noteworthy things we got our hands on at the show. Have questions for the experts? Send your emails to podcasts@rmus.comThis episode's cast includes:Bryan Calhoun - Podcaster in Command (host), RMUSFraser Hahn - Director of Technology, RMUSKevin Toderel - General Manager, RMUSFor more on RMUS visit:YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook

This week the team is joined by drone media mogul Dawn Zoldi. The Dawn of the drone industry gives our team some tips on how to grow a media empire, what the next big drone trends are, who to keep an eye on, which companies will have the biggest impact on the industry in the short term, and what can be done to control drone traffic when drones become as popular as cars. We also give our thoughts on DJI's new quadcopter the DJI Avata.  Have questions for the experts? Send your emails to podcasts@rmus.comThis episode's cast includes:Bryan Calhoun - Podcaster in Command (host), RMUSFraser Hahn - Director of Technology, RMUSKevin Toderel - General Manager, RMUSDawn Zoldi - CEO, P3 Tech ConsultingFor more on RMUS visit:YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook

Over the last few months, we briefly mentioned our roadshows across Canada. In Ontario, our open house and trade show took place at our RMUS Canada headquarters, where we hosted a series of inspection and public safety seminars led by various industry experts. In the first of our seminar series, we hear about surveying tools facilitated by industry leader Laurie McBean with Unmanned Aerial Services. Laurie's deep dive into surveying covers the differences between LiDAR and photogrammetry, why you can't get good results from water, and how the key to scanning was actually video games all along.Have questions for the experts? Send your emails to podcasts@rmus.comThis episode's cast includes:Bryan Calhoun - Podcaster in Command (host), RMUSFraser Hahn - Director of Technology, RMUSLaurie McBean - Geospatial Data Specialist, UASMatt MacKinnon - President, Unmanned Aerial ServicesFor more on RMUS visit:YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook

This week we talk about the unique looking Spirit drone by Ascent AeroSystems, which is hard to describe and define. To help us, we invited Bobby Sakaki from Ascent AeroSystems on the show to discuss the Spirit, which was added to the Blue UAS list in June . We cover the aircraft in detail, including why it was designed the way it was, who could use the Spirit to its maximum potential, alongside many tangents about the drone industry as a whole.Have questions for the experts? Send your emails to podcasts@rmus.comThis episode's cast includes:Bryan Calhoun - Podcaster in Command (host), RMUSKevin Toderel - General Manager, RMUSFraser Hahn - Director of Technology, RMUSBobby Sakaki - Head of Product, Ascent AeroSystemsFor more on RMUS visit:YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook

For the past 16 episodes, the cast of Did You Bring The Batteries?  has gone in-depth on a number of drone products, services and unique use cases (like natural disaster relief or counter-UAS work); however, we had not yet examined the industry as a whole. To correct this knowledge gap, we invited our friend, former DJI guru and current drone researcher, David Benowitz, to discuss the past, present and future of the drone industry.  We go over trends, technology that is shaping the industry today and what the next evolution might look like. David will also be launching the annual DroneAnalyst industry survey and looking for industry members to take part. If you are interested in helping David and his team identify the current state of the industry, participate in the survey here.  Have questions for the experts? Send your emails to podcasts@rmus.comThis episode's cast includes:Bryan Calhoun - Podcaster in Command (host), RMUSKevin Toderel - General Manager, RMUSDavid Benowitz - Head of Research, DroneAnalystFor more on RMUS visit:YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook

For the first time in months, Did You Bring The Batteries? (Powered by RMUS), is back at full strength. Now that everyone is back, we talk in detail about the things we saw over the past few months. In this episode, we're joined by a counter-UAS expert who discusses what it is, the challenges involved and why it is so important to the whole UAV industry. We review the new DJI Matrice 30 in more detail now that we had the stick time to really judge it. Also explored is the swarm flight system that allows you control multiple Teal Golden Eagle aircraft simultaneously.Have questions for the experts? Send your emails to podcasts@rmus.comThis episode's cast includes:Bryan Calhoun - Podcaster in Command (host), RMUSKevin Toderel - General Manager, RMUSFraser Hahn - Director of Technology, RMUSChad Walker - Director of Training, RMUSJacob Bradford - Certified Drone Technician, RMUSDave B. - Counter UAS ExpertFor more on RMUS visit:YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook

The drone industry is always changing, but how do we change with it? One way we will have to evolve is how we approach training. We found a college that is about to redesign its government-approved training program, and lock it in for the next 5 years. We discussed the students of today, tomorrow and what drone training will look like in the near future.Bryan Calhoun - Podcaster in Command (host), RMUSKevin Toderel - General Manager, RMUS CanadaTed Strazimiri - Professor, RPAS, Fanshawe CollegeFor more on RMUS visit:YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook

I have made up my abandoned mind, we are talking about abandoned mines this week. With Kevin and Fraser out on roadshow duty, Jacob and I are joined by SRK's Olga Gibbons to discuss the issue of abandoned mines, why they are such a problem and what companies like SRK can do about them with the help of UAVs. We also had Pieter Stockmayer from Flyability visiting our Utah office and he spoke with Jacob about the new hazardous inspection aircraft, the Elios 3. Bryan Calhoun - Podcaster in Command (host), RMUSJacob Bradford - Certified Drone Technician, RMUSOlga Gibbons - Rock Mechanics Engineer, SRKPieter Stockmayer - Area Sales Manager, FlyabilityFor more on RMUS visit:YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook

Now that a number of the large scale UAV/RPAS tradeshows have come and gone, the RMUS team has reassembled in our studio to discuss what they saw at the first in-person AUVSI Xponential since COVID started. We also recap our hands-on time with the new Fluke Sensor that can listen for and detect leaks in pipes before they are bad enough for anyone to notice. The upcoming open house happening with all our industry partners at the RMUS Canada's facility, and Dan Cyr with GlobalMedic joins us to explain how they make horrible situations a little better by using drones where natural disasters have just occurred.This episode's cast includes:Bryan Calhoun - Podcaster in Command (host), RMUSKevin Toderel - General Manager, RMUSJacob Bradford - Certified Drone Technician, RMUSDan Cyr - RescUAV Coordinator, GlobalMedicFor more on RMUS visit:YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook

With the M30 moving from theoretical object to something that is on store shelves, the RMUS team finally got their hands on DJI's newest ship. That is why we assembled our in-house experts to provide you with our impressions of what this drone can do and how it behaves in the real world. We also invited KC Sealock, the lead pilot of Pixis Drones on our podcast to discuss the growing phenomenon of drone light shows replacing firework displays. KC explains the complexities of having 500 drones in the air at one time.This episode's cast includes:Bryan Calhoun - Podcaster in Command (host), RMUSChad Walker - Director of Training, RMUSJacob Bradford - Certified Drone Technician, RMUSKC Sealock - Lead Pilot, Pixis DronesFor more on RMUS visit:YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook

The first ever RMUS podcast roundtable convened to discuss our hands-on time with Parrot's recently released ANAFI Ai, how baby ducks were saved by a Mavic Mini 2, how the Blue sUAS program might be hurting American drone production, and drone cameras popping up at major league sporting events.Have questions for the experts? Send your emails to podcasts@rmus.comThis episode's cast includes:Bryan Calhoun - Podcaster in Command (host), RMUSKevin Toderel - General Manager, RMUSFraser Hahn - Director of TechnologyChad Walker - Director of TrainingFor more on RMUS visit:YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook

This week we talk with two extreme fliers who work on opposite sides of the earth's surface.  They explain what it takes to make it in this industry, how they deal with troubling situations that could be fatal, which tools in their toolbox they rely on heavily, and how a Boston Dynamics Spot robot ended up on YouTube because it was at a bar. Have questions for the experts? Send your emails to podcasts@rmus.comThis episode's cast includes:Bryan Calhoun - Podcaster in Command (host), RMUSKevin Toderel - General Manager, RMUSCourtland Penk - President, Osprey Integrity LtdMatt MacKinnon - President, Unmanned Aerial ServicesFor more on RMUS visit:YouTube | LinkedIn | Facebook