AI
When it comes to exploring complex and unknown environments such as forests, buildings or caves, drones are hard to beat. They are fast, agile and small, and they can carry sensors and payloads virtually everywhere. However, autonomous drones can hardly find their way through an unknown environment without a map.
News
The International Energy Agency (IEA) Photovoltaic (PV) Power System Programme, has released a comprehensive PV inspection methods report, showcasing a number of innovations used to inspect PV onsite with portable test equipment – such as the use of infrared inspection with drones. Australia is represented by the Australian Photovoltaics Institute (APVI)
News
Finally, someone decided to answer the question that nobody was asking: what if [Benjamin Franklin] had had a drone rather than a kite? Granted, [Jay Bowles] didn’t fly his electricity-harvesting drone during a thunderstorm, but he did manage to reach some of the same conclusions that [Dr. Franklin] did
Research
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced $2.8 million in drone research, education and training grants to five universities. Research will focus on three areas: Advanced material, right-of-way rules, and flight data recorder requirements. The universities receiving grants are Mississippi State University, Wichita
News
In Adelaide, South Australia, a Flinders University College of Science and Engineering research project with conservation charity Koala Life and the State Government is developing non-invasive koala monitoring techniques with drones and a special facial recognition software program to count, identify and re-identify koalas in wild populations. The project is
Research
Northwestern University engineers have added a new capability to electronic microchips: flight. About the size of a grain of sand, the new flying microchip (or “microflier”) does not have a motor or engine. Instead, it catches flight on the wind — much like a maple tree’s propeller seed — and spins
News
Senator John Hoeven announced that the Office of Naval Research (ONR) has awarded a $17 million contract to Ideal Aerosmith in Grand Forks. Under the contract, Ideal Aerosmith will develop an Expeditionary Mission Support Station, which: * Includes a mission planning suite for special operations as well as a ground station
Propulsion
Universal Hydrogen Co., a company fighting to decarbonize aviation through the adoption of hydrogen as a universal fuel, announced that after an extensive search process that it will locate its second engineering and design center in Toulouse, France, Europe’s leading city for aviation manufacturing and innovation. The company is
Research
In this prospective clinical trial carried out by the Department of Medicine, Centre for Resuscitation Science, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, three AED-equipped drones were placed within controlled airspace in Sweden, covering approximately 80 000 inhabitants (125 km2).Early defibrillation is critical for the chance of survival in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
Research
Researchers led by the University of Tsukuba are using drone experiments to explore the possibility of launching rockets using a high-power beam of microwave radiation. Sending a rocket into space typically requires about 90% of the rocket’s initial weight to be fuel. This limitation could be overcome by wirelessly
Research
Aerospace engineers at MIT have devised an algorithm that helps drones find the fastest route around obstacles without crashing. The new algorithm combines simulations of a drone flying through a virtual obstacle course with data from experiments of a real drone flying through the same course in a physical space.
Research
In a study published this month in the Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, researchers led by the University of Tsukuba have demonstrated wireless power transmission via microwaves for a free-flying drone and determined the efficiency of this process. Previous analyses of this kind were carried out decades ago and mostly