A European project led by the Center for Advanced Aerospace Technologies (CATEC) and the University of Seville created flying robots capable of reaching places too dangerous for humans and work independently in a wide range of tasks. The autonomy and skills of the robots is being developed to build or disassemble structures for a host of future applications, from rescue missions to inspection and maintenance in the energy and space sectors. Continue reading
Author Archives: The Editor
IAI’s M19 – a Surveillance Payload for UAS Capable of Long-Range HD Photography
The M19 was designed for long ranges,” says Igal Mevorach, Head of the Marketing & Business Development Administration at the TAMAM Division of IAI. “You can install it on large UAVs that operate at high altitudes, like the Heron and Heron-TP. The objective is to enable these vehicles to fly inside Israeli territory while photographing targets located outside this territory (stand-off intelligence). Continue reading
NOAA to Launch UAS into Hurricane Edouard
Hoping to get a better understanding of why some hurricanes grow into monster storms while others just fade away, federal scientists are launching drones to fly into Hurricane Edouard to see what makes it tick. This marks the first time that unmanned aircraft have been dispatched from “hurricane hunter” planes flying through Atlantic tropical storms. Continue reading
UAS Turns Valves
“Towards Valve Turning using a Dual-Arm Aerial Manipulator,” by Christopher Korpela, Matko Orsag, and Paul Oh, from Drexel University. Continue reading
3-D Printed Military-Grade UAS Using Off-The-Shelf Components
A group of engineering professors and college students have come up with a 3D-printed UAS for the U.S. Department of Defense. The research group at the University of Virginia is led by David Sheffler, a lecturer in the university’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Continue reading
PrecisionHawk Raises $10M to Expand
PrecisionHawk, an information delivery company that uses a small, lightweight UAV [Unmanned Aerial Vehicle] and cloud-based software to collect, process and analyze aerial data, today announced it has closed a Series B financing round of approximately $10 million led by New York City-based investor Millennium Technology Value Partners. Continue reading
India’s Panchi Prepares for Maiden Flight
Defence scientists are all set to unveil the wheeled-version of India’s homegrown unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) Nishant. The UAV named Panchi (meaning bird) will be capable of taking off and landing from semi-prepared runways, thereby reducing the turnaround time between missions. Continue reading
MQ-4C Triton’s First Cross-Country Flight
The first U.S. Navy MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft system (UAS) has completed a flight from California to Maryland. The UAS flew 11 hours from the Northrop Grumman Corporation facility in Palmdale to Naval Air Station Patuxent River to start its next phase of testing, moving the program closer toward operational assessment. Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor for the Navy’s MQ-4C Triton UAS program.