Category Archives: Research

Airport Surveillance with Drones for Improved Flight Safety

Future airports will be more and more automated and remotely controlled, and drones are expected to be integrated with daily operations. A newly granted project ASAS – Airport Surveillance for Airport Safety, led by RISE Research Institutes of Sweden and to be conducted together with LFV (Luftfartsverket), Swedish Regional Airports (SRF), Örnsköldsvik Airport (OER) and FlyPulse will develop and demonstrate drone solutions to help automate daily operations in airports. Continue reading

Kansas State to Evaluate Remote-Sensing Technologies to Fight Crime

The Applied Aviation Research Center team at Kansas State University Polytechnic Campus conducts unmanned aircraft systems training for law enforcement

The Applied Aviation Research Center on the Kansas State University Polytechnic Campus is working with law enforcement partners to evaluate small unmanned aircraft remote sensing technologies to reconstruct crime scenes.  Continue reading

How to Dig a Hole with Two Drones and a Parachute

The NIMBUS Lab at the University of Nebraska has been developing drones that have the unique ability to dig holes in the ground and then fill those holes with sensors. If this sounds like a complicated task, that’s because it is: The drone needs to be able to carry a portable digging system a useful distance, locate a diggable spot, land, verify that the spot it thought was diggable is in fact diggable, dig a hole and install the sensor, and then fly off again. Continue reading

University of North Dakota Tests Multi-User, BVLoS Broad-Purpose Network for Commercial Drone Activity

The University of North Dakota, along with research partners from Harris Corporation and the Northern Plains Unmanned Aircraft Systems Test Site (NPUASTS), achieved a major industry milestone on Friday, Dec. 21, with the first-ever test flights over a specially developed UAS network of technologies that opens the skies for broad commercial use of drones. Continue reading

MIT Engineers Fly Plane with No Moving Parts

New MIT plane is propelled via ionic wind

MIT engineers have built and flown the first-ever plane with no moving parts. Instead of propellers or turbines, the light aircraft is powered by an “ionic wind” — a silent but mighty flow of ions that is produced aboard the plane, and that generates enough thrust to propel the plane over a sustained, steady flight. Continue reading