Research
The Stanford Intelligent Systems Laboratory is just one team of more than 130 working with NASA to solve how to manage drone traffic. The traffic-management system, which will be under development for the next few years, will help drones communicate with each other and avoid potential collisions. “They’re
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that obliges all private owners of unmanned aircraft weighing over 250 grams to register them with the Federal Air Transport Agency. According to the new act, which comes into force at the end of March 2016, people or companies who own and
Accidents
The world’s best Alpine skier was nearly taken out by a drone camera in the middle of a slalom run recently. Marcel Hirscher, the four-time reigning World Cup overall champion, was about 10 seconds into his second run of a night slalom in Madonna di Campiglio, Italy, when
A drone was the cause of Heathrow Airport's runway closure at the weekend. It closed for several minutes after the drone was spotted in the airspace of Britain's busiest airport. A Heathrow spokesperson said it did not cause significant disruption but has called the use of
Commercial
The Axis Aerius is considered to be the smallest RC quadcopter you can buy, even smaller than the company’s new Vidius drone. But that’s because Axis has managed to fit a live-streaming wi-fi video camera inside the new Vidius, giving pilots a first-person view of
Research
A team of researchers at the Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology, Brigham Young University have just published a paper that addresses the deficiencies in data collected by UAV missions flown using manual pilot control. These are heavily dependent on the skill and judgment of the operator or
Technology
VertiGo is a wall-climbing robot that is capable of transitioning from the ground to the wall, created in collaboration between Disney Research Zurich and ETH. The robot has two tiltable propellers that provide thrust onto the wall, and four wheels. One pair of wheels is steerable, and each propeller
We've known about Qualcomm's drone ambitions for a few months now, but it looks like the company is ready to demo the goods. Ahead of CES next week, the chipmaker teased features of its Snapdragon Flight drone platform. Qualcomm is aiming to do for drones what
The small glider Close-in Covert Autonomous Disposable Aircraft (CICADA) developed by U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) aerospace engineers, Aaron D. Kahn and Dr. Daniel J. Edwards, has been named ‘2015 Best of What’s New‘ by the distinguished science and technology publication, Popular Science. Winner of the 2015
The Federal Aviation Administration has shut down at least 36 model aircraft clubs in the Washington, DC area, citing a new, extended no-fly zone for drones around the nation’s capital. The FAA has been worried about the proliferation of drones for several years now, and in September extended
Air defences are often the only thing standing between enemy aircraft and their targets, but up until now, it's pretty relatively easy to destroy them. That's because even mobile air defences typically must stop in order to shoot, making the job easier for aircraft dedicated to
Commercial
Tokyo police have adopted a new system for dealing with illegal drones. They now have a fleet of drone catchers, each equipped with a 10-foot net that can capture a drone without letting it fall to the ground. Source: Tech Insider