Research
The University of Dayton has announced that locally-based companies Optonicus and Defense Engineering Corp., as well as California-based UtopiaCompression, have signed deals to relocate to UD’s Ladar and Optical Communications Institute. The moves are expected to create more than a dozen new jobs. DEC and UtopiaCompression are working with
Events
Last in the current the review of contestants in the DARPA UAVForge Challenge – a contest to use crowd-sourcing to build small UAS through an exchange of ideas and design practices – this video presents the Pogo 2100UAV. The Pogo 2100 is a flying pogo stick that can be configured with explosives
Testing
A small hobby-type radio-controlled model aircraft is being transformed into a high-tech flight research aircraft at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center and will be used to develop such a ’sense-and-avoid’ application for smart phones. The aircraft, dubbed DROID for Dryden Remotely Operated Integrated Drone, is the newest – and
Events
Continuing the review of contestants in the DARPA UAVForge Challenge – a contest to use crowd-sourcing to build small UAS through an exchange of ideas and design practices – this video presents the Quadrocopter Microdrone. The Microdrone is a kamikaze drone equipped with miniguns, an infrared laser beam, and Xbox Kinect-style cameras
Research
An enterprising young computer engineer, Jonas Pfeil, who recently graduated with an M.Sc. from the Technical University of Berlin, will present his 'Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera' as the Emerging Technologies demonstration at the SIGGRAPH Asia 2011. Panoramic photography creates fascinating images. Very wide angle images are closer
Research
Thales Alenia Space has won a contract from the European Space Agency to lead a nine-month study regarding satellite communications solutions for Unmanned Aircraft Systems. The ESPRIT (Emerging system concepts for UAS command & control via satellite) study will focus on the provision of communication capacity for Command & Control
Research
In May, DARPA launched the UAVForge Challenge to use crowd-sourcing to build small UAS through an exchange of ideas and design practices. The goal is to build and test a user-intuitive, backpack-portable UAS that can quietly fly in and out of critical environments to conduct sustained surveillance for up to
Research
NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center recently awarded contracts to six research and development firms to assist the center in meeting the goals of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration in the National Airspace System, or UAS in the NAS, project. In addition, cooperative agreements were issued to four universities
Propulsion
Officials of the US Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) Smart Collection Office in Washington has issued a broad agency announcement for the initial phase of the Great Horned Owl (GHO) programme. The programme seeks to develop fuel-to-electricity systems that couple advanced combustion engines to alternators or generators, as well
Research
Dr. Jayant Sirohi has focused his research on determining the most effective and efficient way to build tiny unmanned aircraft that can fly off and complete missions on its own. For the past two years, Sirohi has been developing, building and testing prototypes to find the most efficient design for
Research
Micro Air Vehicles are tiny, hovering bots that have been deployed for battlefield reconnaissance. But they’re still as limited as they are small. MAVs can’t really navigate urban environments or maintain a stable hover when the wind suddenly shifts. ”Get them among buildings or give them something to
Research
The US Army just handed out a half-dozen contracts to firms to find faces from above, track targets, and even spot “adversarial intent.” “If this works out, we’ll have the ability to track people persistently across wide areas,” says Tim Faltemier, the lead biometrics researcher at Progeny Systems Corporation,