Archive for the ‘drones’ category: Page 133
Jan 10, 2017
The Pentagon’s new drone swarm heralds a future of autonomous war machines
Posted by Shane Hinshaw in categories: drones, military, robotics/AI
Jan 4, 2017
This drone ambulance could be the difference between life and death
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in category: drones
Jan 3, 2017
Israel’s ‘flying car’ passenger drone moves closer to delivery
Posted by Dan Kummer in categories: drones, military, robotics/AI
After 15 years of development, an Israeli tech firm is optimistic it will finally get its 1,500 kilogramme (1.5 tonne) passenger carrying drone off the ground and into the market by 2020.
The Cormorant, billed as a flying car, is capable of transporting 500 kilogrammes (around half a tonne) of weight and travelling at 185 kilometres per hour. It completed its first automated solo flight over terrain in November. Its total price is estimated at $14 million.
Developers Urban Aeronautics believe the dark green drone, which uses internal rotors rather than helicopter propellers, could evacuate people from hostile environments and/or allow military forces safe access.
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Jan 3, 2017
Dog fight: Start-ups take aim at errant drones
Posted by Dan Kummer in categories: drones, government, robotics/AI
N” A boom in consumer drone sales has spawned a counter-industry of start-ups aiming to stop drones flying where they shouldn’t, by disabling them or knocking them out of the sky.
Dozens of start-up firms are developing techniques — from deploying birds of prey to firing gas through a bazooka — to take on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that are being used to smuggle drugs, drop bombs, spy on enemy lines or buzz public spaces.
The arms race is fed in part by the slow pace of government regulation for drones.
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Dec 29, 2016
Amazon’s flying warehouses to dispatch drone deliveries from the sky
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: drones, habitats, internet
Amazon has designed a floating warehouse that sits thousands of feet in the air, from which the internet retailer could dispatch swarms of delivery drones to metropolitan areas.
The company has patented futuristic plans for enormous “airborne fulfillment centres” that would be used as bases for aerial deliveries to homes.
Flying at up to 45,000 feet, the warehouses would be suspended by cables from zeppelin-style airships, and stocked with popular items. When a shopper makes an order, an onboard drone would dive down to earth and deliver it, before being sent back up to the station by a shuttle that could also restock and refuel the floating warehouse.
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Dec 26, 2016
Blake Dowling: Hacking, weaponized artificial intelligence, ransomware and other fun just for you
Posted by Karen Hurst in categories: cybercrime/malcode, drones, military, robotics/AI
Breaches, hacking, ransomware, cyber threats, weaponized AI, smart toothbrushes are but a few examples of scary tech out there to make your day less than fantastic.
Weapons systems that think on its own are in production, with governments racing to catch up on how to regulate these fast-paced advancements.
Police and military already use drones and robots to eliminate threats, but (as far as we know) it’s hardware controlled by humans.
Millions of commercial drones may be in the air by 2020. This could make near-instant airborne delivery a reality. But what are the hidden costs? A multidisciplinary team of RAND experts is looking into it: http://r.rand.org/37ch
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Dec 21, 2016
Artificial leaf could make a medicinal mini-factory
Posted by Shane Hinshaw in categories: biotech/medical, drones, internet, sustainability
Leaves are kind of like nature’s power plants, converting incoming sunlight into energy for the plant to thrive on. Inspired by the real thing, scientists have previously created artificial leaves that function in much the same way as their natural counterparts to produce electricity and even liquid fuels. Now a team at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) is using a similar system to produce chemicals, which could one day lead to solar-powered “mini-factories” that can produce drugs, pesticides and other chemicals almost anywhere.
To mimic the light-capturing molecules in leaves, the researchers turned to luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs), materials seen in solar-harvesting window technology and used to catch and amplify laser beams carrying data in Facebook’s drone-mounted internet projec t. These LSCs absorb incoming light, convert it to specific wavelengths and then guide the photons to the edges of the device.
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Dec 19, 2016
New Flying Robots Take Cues From Airborne Animals
Posted by Klaus Baldauf in categories: drones, engineering, robotics/AI
From navigating turbulence, to sleeping midflight, to soaring without a sound, animals’ flight adaptations are helping scientists design better flying robots.
Airborne drones and the animals they mimic are featured in 18 new studies published online Dec. 15 in the journal Interface Focus. This special issue is intended “to inspire development of new aerial robots and to show the current status of animal flight studies,” said the issue’s editor, David Lentink, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford University in California.
Though humans have been building flying machines since the 18th century, these new studies revealed that there is still much to be learned from looking closely at how birds, insects and bats take flight, keep themselves aloft and maneuver to safe landings. [Biomimicry: 7 Clever Technologies Inspired by Nature].
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