Researchers supported by France’s Defense Ministry are working to develop a more effective surveillance drone that’s also less prone to detection by its imitation of birds or insects.
In this case, that involved learning how winged creatures of nature might allow data-collecting UAVs to do their work without being seen, or be identified if they are.
Drone manufacturer and automated flight specialist Skydio says it has won a contract to supply its X2D UAVs to the US Army’s Short-Range Reconnaissance Program (SRR). Valued at $20.2 million annually, the fixed-price provisionment agreement is expected to be worth $99.8 million over its five-year duration.
The fact that the final decision looked closely at feedback from soldiers themselves on overall product performance and quality, meanwhile, is an indicator that the company’s UAVs impressed people from the boots on the ground all the way up to the top brass. The pitch for the contract involved 30 small-scale drone manufacturers, from which Skydio’s craft was judged the most ready to fulfill the US Army’s SRR operational requirements from day one.
The U.S. Army has awarded a $20 million a year contract to a California-based drone manufacturer, named Skydio, as part of its efforts to move away from foreign-made and commercially available off-the-shelf drones. Skydio revealed in a press release that it would supply its X2D drones for the U.S. Army’s Short Range Reconnaissance (SSR) Program.
With an aim to equip its soldiers with rapidly deployable aerial solutions that can conduct reconnaissance and surveillance activities over short ranges, the Army’s SSR program has been considering small drones for some time now. More than 30 vendors submitted their proposals to the Army, and five finalists were shortlisted for rigorous testing.
Continue reading “The US Army throws $20 million into AI-equipped, foldable quadcopters” »
Silicon Valley hydrogen fuel cell innovator Hypoint has inaugurated a new UK unit intended to speed development of its air-cooled aviation power technology, and ready it to supply zero-carbon power to next-generation aircraft like electric takeoff and landing vehicles (eVTOL) as they prepare to launch services.
HyPoint’s tech uses compressed air for both cooling and oxygen supplies delivered to its fuel systems, which are lighter, less polluting, have longer lifespans, and enable seven times more flight capacity than lithium-ion and other chemical batteries. Those attributes are luring developers of existing, new drone, and eVTOL craft to give emerging hydrogen cell products serious consideration as drivers of their vehicles – especially as the world seeks to reduce its carbon output. In 2018, aviation sector’s share of global CO2 emissions was 2.5%.
The algorithms spot and classify synthetic-material objects based on the distinctive manner in which they reflect polarized light. Polarized light reflected from human-made objects often differs from natural objects, such as vegetation, soil, and rocks.
The researchers tested such a camera, both on the ground and from a US Coast Guard helicopter, which was flying at the altitude at which the polarimetric-camera-equipped drones will fly.
Once fully operational, data collected by the drone-based machine learning system will be used to make maps that show where marine debris is concentrated along the coast to guide rapid response and removal efforts. The researchers will provide NOAA Marine Debris Program staff with training in the use of the new system, along with standard operating procedures manual.
If the Ingenuity helicopter would fly at night on Mars, its very possible the whirring rotors would create enough static electricity in the extremely dry Martian atmosphere to cause the air around the craft to glow.
“The faint glow would be most visible during evening hours when the background sky is darker,” said William Farrell, from Goddard Space Flight Center and lead author of a paper on this topic. “NASA’s experimental Ingenuity helicopter does not fly during this time, but future drones could be cleared for evening flight and look for this glow.”
If you’ve ever shuffled your feet across a wool carpet on a dry winter day, and then reached out to touch a metal doorknob, you’re familiar with the static discharge that creates a little zap — a spark — that leaps between your fingers and the metal knob.
Are we to see an evolution of drone designs now?
Researchers at the University of Bristol in the U.K. have designed a flying robot that flaps its wings and can generate more power than a similar-sized insect, which it was inspired from. The robot could pave way for smaller, lighter, and more effective drones, the researchers claimed in an institutional press release.
Continue reading “Bristol scientists develop insect-sized flying robots with flapping wings” »
DaVinci penned the aerial screw design in the 1400s, way before air travel was a thing. Now, it’s being put to action with this student-built drone.
Drones aren’t anything new —multi-rotor aircraft are becoming a bigger part of people’s lives every day. From the latest batch of up-and-coming urban air mobility companies to hobby applications, electric aircraft with four or more motors are commonplace, and generally, they use conventional multi-bladed propellers to keep themselves aloft. That’s not what’s going on with this particular drone developed by engineering students at the University of Maryland, though.
Assembled for a student design competition hosted by the Vertical Flight Society, it’s a mixture of old and new. With rotors reminiscent of Leonardo DaVinci’s aerial screw illustrations from the late 1490s, it flies like any other drone would, all while looking extremely bizarre and having interesting flight characteristics.
Continue reading “DaVinci-Style Drone With 600-Year-Old Screw Rotor Design Actually Flies” »
