Drones and AI Beat Humans at Fake Duck Test

Jarrod Hodgson/Unmanned Research Aircraft Facility University of Adelaide

An experiment using fake ducks to stand in for the real thing has found that when it comes to counting birds, drones beat humans. Jarrod Hodgson and his colleagues at the University of Adelaide in Australia had previously used aerial images from drones to count seabirds and found that the drones had a more comprehensive view of the colonies than the people trying to count them on the ground. Continue reading

China’s Ehang to Launch Commercial Fly-by-iPad

A model of the EHang 184 at the World Government Summit 2017 in Dubai’s Madinat Jumeirah

Chinese small unmanned-aircraft manufacturer Ehang plans the launch next year of a commercial version of its autonomous single-passenger vertical-takeoff-and-landing air vehicle that flies without a pilot, under the control of a plug-and-play iPad. Continue reading