Commercial
AeroVironment, Inc. has announced that it has begun a year-long study with California State University, Fresno to research how unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) imagery and analytics could potentially detect varying levels of water stress in almond trees and give producers smarter insights to make more effective in-season decisions regarding water
Technology
Engineers at BAE Systems have already launched a series of test flights in which the high-tech prototype flies by itself using computers while being monitored by operators sitting 15,000ft below it. BAE, which hopes it can open the door to unmanned flights in commercial travel, has transformed a small
Research
MIT researchers recently debuted a modern way for consumers to save energy. Now they've found a new test subject: the U.S. military. With support from the Office of Naval Research (ONR), engineering professor Steven Leeb and his graduate student John Donnal designed a portable measurement system. Comprised
Research
Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a combination of software and hardware that will allow them to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and insect cyborgs, or bio-bots, to map large, unfamiliar areas - such as collapsed buildings after a disaster. "The idea would be to release a
News
To support its research on airborne multi-sensor technologies, the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) has acquired two TigerShark unmanned aerial vehicles. The UAVs have been flown and tested with a four-channel multimode radar that can be operated in both monostatic and bistatic configurations. The military-pedigree TigerShark aircraft have significant capabilities
Military
Polish defence industry conglomerate PGZ announced on 8 November that it had created a "centre of competence" for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at Military Aviation Works No. 2 (WZL 2), located in the northwestern town of Bydgoszcz. According to a statement released by PGZ, the new centre will
Research
Near Earth Autonomy has announced the successful award through the NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program to support NASA's mission to introduce unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into the National Airspace (NAS). Under this award, Near Earth will develop and demonstrate technologies that enable safe unmanned aircraft (UA)
Research
A Swedish company's miniature drones have caught the attention of US space agency Nasa thanks to their groundbreaking autonomous positioning technology. Malmö-based startup Bitcraze has come up with a way to pre-program their tiny 27 gram drones to work autonomously, enabling them to fly in science fiction-like coordinated
Research
A drone designed to fly with one propeller has been developed at the Institute for Dynamics Systems and Control at ETH Zurich.While most flying machines have multiple moving parts - flaps, hinges, and ailerons, the Monospinner achieves controlled flight with just one propeller. "This is really to push
Research
A team of researchers at the University of California, Riverside has developed a highly reliable and accurate navigation system that exploits existing environmental signals such as cellular and Wi-Fi, rather than the Global Positioning System (GPS). The technology can be used as a standalone alternative to GPS, or complement current
Research
Tracking of targets within aerial footage is becoming increasingly important, for example, as the applications of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) continue to expand (UAVs are now being used in film production, mining, news media, and agriculture). Moreover, the world's security agencies are gathering enormous amounts of UAV video
Research
Research revealing birds avoid crashing into each other by veering right may help develop technology to stop mid-air plane collisions. The Queensland Brain Institute at the University of Queensland teamed with Boeing Defence Australia for the first study of its kind, which used budgerigars.The Institute's Professor Mandyam