In a demonstration aboard a former U.S. Navy ship, a small quadrotor developed by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute and spin-off company Sensible Machines flew autonomously through dark, smoke-filled compartments to map fires and locate victims. Continue reading
Category Archives: Research
DARPA Wants Autonomous UAS
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency released a special notice, inviting participation in its Collaborative Operations in Denied Environment programme — offering capabilities, methodologies and approaches that could enable more autonomy and collaborative operations for military drones. Continue reading
Drone Interceptor Drone Concept
Rapere is a concept for an “intercept drone” designed to hunt down nearby drones, hover overhead and drop a tangle-line into their rotors, forcing them to crash.
Qualcomm Demonstrates Flying/Rolling UAS at CES
At CES 2015, Qualcomm Research is introducing its latest innovation in robotics through the Snapdragon Cargo—a flying and rolling robot with an integrated flight controller—powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. Continue reading
DARPA’s Fast Lightweight Autonomy Programme
DARPA aims to give small unmanned aerial vehicles advanced perception and autonomy to rapidly search buildings or other cluttered environments without teleoperation. Continue reading
NASA Seed Funds SR 72 Hypersonic UAV
NASA has funded a parametric design study to establish the viability of a Turbine Based Combined Cycle (TBCC) Propulsion system consisting of integrating several combinations of near-term turbine engine solutions and a very low Mach ignition Dual Mode RamJet (DMRJ) in the SR-72 vehicle concept. Continue reading
Smaller Lidars Allow UAVs to Conduct Underwater Scans
A team at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) has designed a new approach that could lead to bathymetric lidars that are much smaller and more efficient than the current full-size systems. The new technology, developed under the Active Electro-Optical Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (AEO-ISR) project, would let modest-sized unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) carry bathymetric lidars, lowering costs substantially.
South Africa and Algeria Conclude Aeronautics Research Agreement
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa and the University of Blida in Algeria signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a Joint Centre of Excellence (JCoE) in aeronautics research. Continue reading