UAS VISION
an independent online news service for the Unmanned Aircraft Systems world
The northern goshawk is a fast, powerful raptor that flies effortlessly through forests. This bird was the design inspiration for the next-generation drone developed by scientifics of the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems of EPFL led by Dario Floreano. Continue reading
If you get too close to a pufferfish, this undersea creature will blow up like a balloon to scare you away. Now, a team of engineers at the University of Colorado Boulder has designed a robot that can do much the same thing—and it could make flying drones safer in the not-so-distant future. Continue reading
Scientists from the University of Bristol and the Royal Veterinary College have discovered how birds are able to fly in gusty conditions – findings that could inform the development of bio-inspired small-scale aircraft. Continue reading
A Manduca sexta moth with the sensor on its back
There are many places in this world that are hard for researchers to study, mainly because it’s too dangerous for people to get there. University of Washington researchers have created one potential solution: A 98 milligram sensor system — about one tenth the weight of a jellybean, or less than one hundredth of an ounce — that can ride aboard a small drone or an insect, such as a moth, until it gets to its destination. Continue reading
A team of aerospace engineering students from Oklahoma State University has designed and built a turbo-electric drone engine as part of a program sponsored by the U.S. Army. Continue reading
SlothBot is a slow-moving and energy-efficient robot that can linger in the trees to monitor animals, plants, and the environment below, built by robotics engineers at the Georgia Institute of Technology to take advantage of the low-energy lifestyle of real sloths, SlothBot demonstrates how being slow can be ideal for certain applications. Continue reading
In conjunction with the Department of Defence, University of South Australia material scientists have developed a range of lightweight panels that can change colour on demand, allowing drones to match their appearance to the background colours of the sky. Continue reading
In an effort to safely and humanely rescue marine mammals, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has partnered with marine biologists and a Verizon drone-management platform to monitor animals in distress using unmanned aircraft systems. Continue reading