Aircraft-carrier crews use a set of standard hand gestures to guide planes on the carrier deck. But as unmanned aircraft are increasingly used for routine air missions, researchers at MIT are working on a system that would enable them to follow the same types of gestures. Continue reading
Category Archives: Research
University of Alabama School of Engineering Launches Micro-Air Vehicle Programme
UAB Engineering launches micro-air vehicle program from uabnews on Vimeo.
Senior engineering students at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’sSchool of Engineering were challenged to build a MAV weighing less than 10 grams and powered by a four-volt battery. Continue reading
DARPA Cheeetah Robot Runs Backwards* at 18 MPH
This video shows a demonstration of the “Cheetah” robot galloping at speeds of up to 18 miles per hour (mph), setting a new land speed record for legged robots. The previous record was 13.1 mph, set at MIT in 1989. Continue reading
The Only Way to Learn to Fly is to Fly: DARPA’s Regina Dugan at TED2012
“Be nice to nerds…” – the opening line from Regina Dugan, the director of DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) at TED2012. Continue reading
Autonomous Interacting Flying Robots Presentation at TED 2012
This video shows the full version of Vijay Kumar’s presentation at the recent TED2012 Conference, which terminates with the James Bond sequence. Continue reading
Quadrotors Play James Bond Theme
Deputy Dean for Education at Penn University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science and General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Lab member Vijay Kumar presented some groundbreaking work at the TED2012 Conference, an international gathering of people and ideas from technology, entertainment and design, including this remarkable video of the lab’s quadrotors. Continue reading
China’s Ship-Launched UAS Will Use Genetic Algorithms to Hunt Submarines
Chinese navy researchers have published a paper explaining how they plan to hunt submarines using ship-launched unmanned aircraft. Continue reading
Boeing Develops Off-Grid Refuelling for UAS
ITM Power has signed an Equipment Development and Lease Agreement with Boeing Research & Technology Europe S.L.U. for the development, assembly and field trials of a 1 Nm3/hour (2.1 kg/day) PEM electrolyser. Continue reading