Business
Prioria Robotics, Inc. announced that it has received $5.5 million in funding to advance the growth of its unmanned aircraft system platforms for military and civilian applications. Investors included Athenian Venture Partners , Advantage Capital Partners and Florida Gulfshore Capital . Gainesville-based Prioria Robotics focuses on unmanned systems designed to
Commercial
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is conducting a demonstration off Oahu's North Shore this week of a small unmanned aircraft the agency hopes will improve ocean monitoring and aid environmental research in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The Puma AE, which has a 10-foot wingspan and weighs
Testing
Project officials at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center are hailing the success of recent flights tests of a miniature automatic ground collision avoidance system (Auto-GCAS) for small unmanned aircraft, after the smartphone-assisted system repeatedly executed pull-ups or sharp turns of the test aircraft to avoid
VTOL
The Tanan 300 vertical takeoff and landing tactical unmanned aircraft system (VTOL Tactical UAS) from Cassidian was shown at recently at Eurosatory in Paris. The Tanan rotary UAS has been in development for around four years, which includes work conducted on the original programme. Perhaps unusually, despite Cassidian being an
Commercial
Speeding over Arctic sea ice, small remote-controlled aircraft snag video footage and high-definition shots of endangered Steller Sea Lions in their natural habitat. Gregory Walker, the manager of the unmanned aircraft applications programme at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, has been putting UAS to good use,
Military
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. has announced the recent deployment of the first full company of Gray Eagle UAS, F/227. “Gray Eagle will provide F/227 with 24/7 RSTA [Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Target Acquisition], precision attack, and communications relay capabilities,” said Frank W. Pace, President, Aircraft Systems Group,
Insitu Pacific, the Australia-based subsidiary of Insitu Inc., announced that it will employ its ScanEagle unmanned aircraft system on behalf of the Queensland Government for the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) for the first Siam weed detection trials using UAS. “These UAS trials are an important step
Business
The Indian defence ministry has announced that a total of 95 mini UAS will be purchased in the near future. The equipment will improve the aerial surveillance capabilities of the Indian air force and navy, which should receive 60 and 35 systems, respectively. According to a request for proposals issued
Commercial
After quietly testing Predators over the Bahamas for more than 18 months, the Department of Homeland Security plans to expand the unmanned surveillance flights into the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico to fight drug smuggling, according to U.S. officials. The move would dramatically increase American UAS flights in
Business
With the help of Lockheed Martin, the U.S. Department of Defense is making major strides in its ongoing initiative to quickly and efficiently share the vast volume of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) data available to users with access to the Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS). The DCGS Multi-
Israeli unmanned aircraft system manufacturers BlueBird and UAS Technologies are jointly completing the development of a design with a maximum take-off weight of 24kg (53lb) and an endurance of 24 hours. The aircraft is based on UAS Technologies' UAS 20 (above), which is 1.6m (5.3ft) long
According to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences a mosquito's key defence when struck by a plummeting drop is its tiny mass. Researchers say the findings could one day help to improve the durability of ‘micro-airborne vehicles’, insect-sized flying robots