News
If a ladybug lands upside down, it will use its elytra to balance and then right itself in no timA research team at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in Switzerland was inspired to create the same kind of advantage for fixed-wing drones. Lead by doctoral
News
Researchers from TU Delft (the Netherlands), University of Barcelona, and Harvard University have now developed the first swarm of tiny -- and hence very safe -- drones that can autonomously detect and localize gas sources in cluttered indoor environments. The main challenge the researchers needed to solve was to design
Propulsion
The USAF Armament Directorate has awarded the North American Wave Engine Corporation a $1 million contract to build and demonstrate the Versatile Air-Launched Platform (VALP) as part of the USAF’s efforts to develop high-impact technologies critical to the future of aviation and aerial combat. Designed primarily as a decoy,
Research
New sensors developed by Professor Otto Gregory, of the College of Engineering at the University of Rhode Island, and chemical engineering doctoral student Peter Ricci, are so powerful that they can detect threats at the molecular level, whether it's explosive materials, particles from a potentially deadly virus or
Reports & Publications
Christiansburg, Virginia, a town of roughly 22,000 people, is the site of the most advanced residential drone delivery trial in the United States, launched by the Alphabet subsidiary Wing in October 2019. Virginia Tech researchers conducted a survey in November 2020 to assess the community’s sentiment. Wing provided
Propulsion
The hydrogen market is always associated with fuel cells and vehicles, but this is actually a tiny portion of the overall hydrogen market. In fact, to use hydrogen in fuel cells and industrial applications, it is necessary to produce hydrogen cost-effectively. The strong potential of hydrogen is driven by the
News
New research (1) with senior private equity and venture capital professionals reveals 71% expect there to be more than 160,000 commercial air taxis operating around the world by 2050. Some 17% anticipate there will be over 200,000. The research was commissioned by Horizon Aircraft, the advanced aerospace engineering
News
A drone slams into a windshield. The drone's shell cracks, and the windshield shudders. Pieces of a propeller snap off. But the windshield doesn't shatter. Most safe drone flights aren’t supposed to end in crashes. But this crash is unfolding in one of Virginia Tech’
News
As an instructor at the Brazilian Air Force Academy, Flavio Antonio Coimbra Mendonça was flying in formation when one of his colleagues experienced a bird strike to the leading edge of his aircraft’s right wing. It was a relatively minor incident — not nearly as dramatic as the U.S.
Research
A new Australian study found that methods of shepherding have a direct impact on animal welfare and in particular, farmers who use drones to herd their flock have less stressed sheep. Kate Yaxley from UNSW Canberra The drones emit sounds to help direct the sheep. "We measured the variations
News
A research team at the Georgia Institute of Technology has developed a modular solution for handling larger packages without the need for a complex fleet of drones of varying sizes. By allowing teams of small drones to collaboratively lift objects using an adaptive control algorithm, the strategy could allow a
News
Researchers from the Robotics Research Centre at the International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad have unveiled a working prototype of a flexible drone that changes its shape to fit the size of package to be lifted. Size Matters. Ask 24-year-old robotics researcher Suraj Bonagiri and he’ll explain why. In