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Ocean Eye will illuminate the hidden realms of marine biodiversity and pave the way for unprecedented insights into the ocean using lidar technology and advanced sensors.


In a groundbreaking initiative, researchers from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and Aarhus University spearhead the Ocean Eye project. This revolutionary undertaking aims to transform our understanding of marine biodiversity using cutting-edge optical technologies, according to a university press release.

The project utilizes a combination of hyperspectral cameras, lasers, and artificial intelligence on an autonomous vessel to gather comprehensive data on coastal waters, surpassing the limitations of traditional methods.

Challenging the uncharted depths

Despite 71 percent of Earth’s surface being covered by water, a staggering 91 percent of marine species remain unidentified, creating a substantial blind spot in our knowledge of marine biodiversity. Traditional methods employing divers and drones have proven challenging and expensive, leading DTU to pioneer the Ocean Eye project.

They are faster than ambulances in situations where timing is key.


Karolinska Institutet researchers have been investigating the idea of sending drones equipped with automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to patients in cardiac arrest instead of ambulances and have now found that, in more than half of the cases, the drones were three minutes ahead of the vehicles. In addition, in the majority of cases where the patient was in cardiac arrest, the drone-delivered defibrillator was employed to stop the condition from getting worse or leading to death.

The most simple factor

“The use of an AED is the single most important factor in saving lives. We have been deploying drones equipped with AED since the summer of 2020 and show in this follow-up study that drones can arrive at the scene before an ambulance by several minutes. This lead time has meant that the AED could be used by people at the scene in several cases,” said Andreas Claesson, Associate Professor at the Center for Cardiac Arrest Research at the Department of Clinical Research and Education, Södersjukhuset, Karolinska Institutet, and principal investigator of the study.

In a year of smashed global temperature records, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is turning to technology to turn the tide on the searing heat. As a report by Business Insider points out, in the city of Dubai, which reaches heats of up to 120 degrees F (48 degrees C), scientists are using a special method to make it rain.

Specifically, Dubai is using drones that fly into clouds where they then discharge electricity to kickstart rain, which reduces temperatures and provides much-needed water resources.

From vehicle collision avoidance to airline scheduling systems to power supply grids, many of the services we rely on are managed by computers. As these autonomous systems grow in complexity and ubiquity, so too could the ways in which they fail.

Now, MIT engineers have developed an approach that can be paired with any , to quickly identify a range of potential failures in that system before they are deployed in the real world. What’s more, the approach can find fixes to the failures, and suggest repairs to avoid system breakdowns.

The team has shown that the approach can root out failures in a variety of simulated autonomous systems, including a small and large network, an aircraft collision avoidance system, a team of rescue drones, and a robotic manipulator. In each of the systems, the new approach, in the form of an automated sampling algorithm, quickly identifies a range of likely failures as well as repairs to avoid those failures.

LIVERMORE, Calif. — Blueshift Optics, owned by former Sandia employee Joey Carlson, is working to shift the way radioactive materials are detected, using technology that he helped create at Sandia National Laboratories.

Radiation detection has long been a critical aspect of national security and efforts to make the world safer.

“Agencies are trying to cast this wide net to catch nuclear smuggling, and this is one aspect of that effort,” said Sandia materials scientist Patrick Feng. “You could use this technology at a border crossing, in a handheld detector as someone enters a facility or fly it on a drone to map an area.”

The drones utilized large language models to engage with each other and their operator.

Marking a significant leap concerning drone technology, researchers in China have enabled unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to engage in “group chats” to discuss and assign work to one another, much like human teams.

The research work accessed by South China Morning Post (SCMP) was done by a team led by Li Xuelong at the School of Artificial Intelligence, Optics and Electronics at Northwestern Polytechnical University in China. According to them, the technology might improve security patrols, disaster relief, and aerial logistics.

The post included a demonstration video from the researchers, showing how a team of five drones successfully located a set of keys in an outdoor park.

“The drones showcased key abilities, including humanlike dialogue interaction, proactive environmental awareness and autonomous entity control,” the WeChat report said. Autonomous entity control refers to the drone cluster’s ability to adjust flight status in real time based on environmental feedback.

The technology equips each drone with a “human brain”, allowing them to chat with each other using natural language. This ability was developed based on a Chinese open-source large language model called InternLM, according to the report.

Everdrone’s advanced service promises to reduce the average response time to under 2 minutes.

Aiming to improve emergency response services, Swedish firm Everdrone has introduced a state-of-the-art drone that combines an advanced camera system as well as customizable medical kits.

Christened E2, the multi-purpose drone aims to revolutionize emergency dispatch by providing the ability to transmit live infrared and high-definition video along with emergency medical equipment supplies. Everdrone claims that E2 will help to lower average response times under two minutes.