The UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) has announced the first operational flights in Afghanistan of Thales’s unmanned air system, Watchkeeper. This new capability is providing force protection for British troops as they prepare to draw down from Afghanistan by the end of this year. Continue reading
Aurora Gets Phase 1B Funding to Continue Development of DARPA VTOL X-Plane Programme
Aurora Flight Sciences announced that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has awarded the company Phase 1B funding to continue participation in the DARPA Vertical Take Off and Landing Experiment Plane (VTOL X-Plane) programme. The award is intended to carry Aurora’s participation in the project through a Preliminary Design Review (PDR) milestone in October 2015. Continue reading
Vietnam Acquires Orbiter 2
Vietnam has acquired the Orbiter 2 unmanned air system (UAS) for use as an aerial forward observation asset for its artillery corps. Continue reading
Snakebot and QuadCopter Combo for Search and Rescue
Everyone has different ideas on what the perfect search-and-rescue robot is, and for a University of Pennsylvania Mod Lab team, it comes in the form of a snake drone-quadcopter chimera. The Hybrid Exploration Robot for Air and Land Deployment or H.E.R.A.L.D. is composed of two snake-like machines that attach via magnets to a UAV. Continue reading
Micro Systems Gets $5M US Navy Control System Order
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. announced that its Micro Systems, Inc. subsidiary of the Kratos Unmanned Systems Division (KUSD) recently received a delivery order from the U.S. Navy valued at $4.8 million for unmanned aerial system command and control systems and services.
FAA says Air Traffic Control isn’t Ready for UAS
The Federal Aviation Administration is facing significant problems with integrating UASinto US airspace. The AP reports that plans for modernizing air traffic control can’t cover the unique challenges posed by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), given that they were made years before UAVs were used for more than military missions. “It’s becoming painfully apparent that in order to get [drones] in there, there is going to have to be a fair amount of accommodation, at least in the beginning,” National Air Traffic Controllers Association representative Chris Stephenson is quoted as saying. Continue reading
Nixie, the Quadcopter that Fits on your Wrist
Earlier this year, Intel kicked off its Make it Wearable challenge, a mission to take wearable technology and do things with it that haven’t yet been done — that, maybe, no one had even thought of yet. Team Nixie has begun developing a quadcopter that fits on your wrist. Continue reading
Smart Atoms Replace Spaxels
Smart Atoms are the latest enhanced and upgraded version of the spaxels, developed by Ars Electronica Futurelab. Instead of being equipped with LEDs, the quadcopters are interlinked as flying building blocks. This will make it possible not only to form visual likenesses but also to generate objects with material-virtual characteristics. Continue reading