“What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?” asks Regina Dugan, then director of DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. In this breathtaking talk she describes some of the extraordinary projects — a robotic hummingbird, a prosthetic arm controlled by thought, and, well, the internet — that her agency has created by not...
There will be a queue forming for this posting in the American RPA world. From the Age Craig Whitlock, Washington A CONTROVERSIAL proposal for a joint Australian-US military air base in the Indian Ocean could lead to the launch of drone spy flights across the region, according to officials quoted in Washington. The proposed base on the Australian-controlled Cocos...
Wichita Kansas – A new Company, Fat Head Solutions, LLC (www.fatheadllc.com) is open for business effective immediately. The new company, with three major operating locations, will provide low cost, high value, and complete subsystem solutions for small unmanned aerial systems. Capitalizing on an emerging $17B/year market, Fat Head Solutions, LLC will be a major supplier to the small Unmanned Aircraft Vehicle (sUAV) market...
Researchers from West Virginia University (WVU) have successfully demonstrated that a low-cost, remotely controlled (R/C) aircraft can provide a stable aerial platform with the potential to aid transportation professionals in a variety of research and applied uses. The small unmanned air vehicle (UAV) acquires high-resolution images that could be used in work zone management, traffic congestion, safety, and environmental...
NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center flew its Ikhana MQ-9 unmanned aircraft with an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, or ADS-B, device, for the first time on March 15. It was the first time an unmanned aircraft as large as Ikhana – with a 66-foot wingspan, a takeoff weight of more than 10,000 pounds, and a cruising altitude of 40,000 feet —...
CHELMSFORD, Mass. March 26, 2012 Mercury Computer Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRCY, www.mc.com), a trusted provider of commercially developed application-ready ISR and EW subsystems for defense prime contractors, announced it received $2.8 million in follow-on orders from a global provider of electronic equipment for digital signal processing modules for an airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) application. The orders are...
Meet sUAS New’s Patrick Egan at Stanford. Watch out for robots wandering around Stanford! In celebration of National Robotics Week , Silicon Valley’s Robot Block Party returns to the Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Lab at Stanford Wednesday, April 11 2012, from 1 to 6pm. There’ll be wonderful robots on display ranging from Mars Rovers from The Tech Museum, to middle...
Israel Aerospace Industries has unveiled the prototype of its “Butterfly” unmanned air system, as part of an effort to develop covert miniature equipment for use by special forces personnel. Shown for the first time on the opening day of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) conference in Tel Aviv on 20 March, the innovative design imitates the...
Navy Times reports By Joshua Stewart - Staff Writer If you’re interested in working with unmanned aerial vehicles, you may get some career guidance from a bathroom scale. The Navy has set a weight-based threshold for who will operate unmanned aircraft, with UAVs weighing more than 55 pounds being operated as adjuncts to manned systems, while operators of lighter aircraft will...
The unmanned aircraft world is getting ever more popular and to match the interest and increase in stories we have decided to make the weekly email daily. It will now publish at 12:00 GMT every day. sUAS News enjoys a large global audience that is growing week on week. If you interested in advertising don’t just take our word...
An Indian-promoted aviation company in New Zealand is developing what it claims to be the world’s first Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) for cloud seeding. Auckland-based Apeiron Aerospace, an innovative aerospace company focussed on delivering technology to the global UAV sector, has designed a tactical UAV system for cloud seeding as the existing process involving manned aircraft endangers the lives...
UAV Factory’s heated Pitot-Static Tube is the lightest and most power efficient commercially available probe for small unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAV). Manufactured from carbon fiber and aircraft grade aluminum, this probe provides both dynamic and static pressure measurements in a single ultra-light and rigid package. The simple mechanical interface allows the tube to be quickly removed for easy transportation...
Herzliya, Israel, March 21, 2012 – Simlat is selected by UAS Technologies as its primary training systems provider for the UAS20 advanced unmanned platform. This long-term contract includes integration of Simlat’s UAS flight and mission trainer with the UAS20 operational console, as well as customized platform and payload simulation for current and future UAS Technologies customers. “Choosing Simlat as...
Revolutionary “Smart Wing” Created for UAV Model Demonstrates Groundbreaking Technology From Stratasys and Optomec Stratasys and Optomec Inc. today announced that the companies have successfully completed a joint development project to merge 3D printing and printed electronics to create the world’s first fully printed hybrid structure. Additive manufacturing first: Electronic circuitry was printed onto a model of a UAV wing, which itself...
From the Middlesex University website A team of students from Middlesex University will take on some of the world’s top engineers after making the final of UAVForge, an international competition for unmanned air vehicles, held in the USA in May. The contest is run by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (US equivalent of the MoD) and the Space...
I had attended a TTC offering once before as a spectator in Las Vegas a couple of years ago. TTC is known to attract higher-level speakers at their shows, and true to form the conference got off to a relevant start and never let up. The first two speakers were; Congressman Duncan Hunter, (UAV Caucus) and Congresswoman Susan Davis,...
Order your taco via smart phone and a flying robot whisks it to your door. A very clever viral marketing trick or April? We wonder how many thousands of hits this site is going to get today. Its already gone viral on twitter. It goes without saying for the audience here that this would be illegal beyond all doubt....
By Angus Batey Chris Norton spent 22 years as a Royal Air Force fighter pilot before he co-founded 2Excel Aviation in 2005. The U.K. company operates a fleet of stunt planes known as the Blades and is licensed as an airline, so it can take fare-paying passengers on ride-alongs as the planes do barrel rolls and other aerobatics. Behind the...
MUNICH, Germany, 21 March 2012.Transforming the world’s air traffic control (ATC) systems to accommodate commercial and military aircraft, as well asunmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is proceeding, but is proving to be difficult, says the military representative to the European air traffic management (ATM) authority EUROCONTROL. Progress to integrating manned and unmanned aircraft in shared airspace has been slow, and predictions about when manned and...
Story by Cpl. Johnny Merkley FORWARD OPERATING BASE GERONIMO, Afghanistan – The Marine Corps makes improvements to operational capabilities and equipment with one goal in mind – supporting the Marine on the ground. One of the Corps’ most recent upgrades is an unmanned aircraft known as a Kaman K-1200, or “K-MAX”, which transported cargo to a Marine patrol base for...
Sentient today announced the release of Kestrel Land MTI 3.0, a major software upgrade to Sentient’s automated target detection solution, deployed in theatre by a number of militaries. Kestrel Land MTI is a software solution that automatically detects and tracks small moving objects in electro-optical (EO) and infrared (IR) full motion video from manned and unmanned aircraft. Enhancing airborne intelligence, surveillance and...
BINGEN, Wash., March 19, 2012—Insitu announced today that it has signed a contract to deliver its ScanEagle unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) to the Netherlands to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) for the Ministry of Defense (MOD). The Netherlands will use ScanEagle with the MOD both domestically and abroad. “We’re excited to be part of the Netherlands’ ISR solution...
The Electronic Countermeasures project is essentially an autonomous, roaming Internet swarm, constructed from repurposed UAS. The project is lead by Liam Young of think tank Tomorrow’s Thoughts Today and Unknown Fields Division, with assistance from Eleanor Saitta, Oliviu Lugojan-Ghenciu, and Superflux and was demonstraeted at the Glow Festival in the Netherlands last year. Electronic Countermeasures @ GLOW Festival NL...
Aurora’s Skate small unmanned air vehicle system (SUAS) was awarded first place in the 2012 Border Security Technology/Product Challenge at the recently held 2012 Border Security Expo in Phoenix, Arizona. The top prize is awarded to a technology or product that best demonstrates innovation in the border security arena. “Aurora is very proud to have won this prestigious award,”...
Interesting draft standards for simple RPAS flight in Australia outside of built up areas, within VLOS and below 400′. Much the sort of thing that might come into place in the USA eventually. This qualification reflects the role of a Remote Pilot working in the Aviation Industry. Successful completion will require competency in units that relate to work defined...
Interesting that ETH used a Falcon 8 from Asctec for their demo. Swiss Federal Councillor and Head of the Swiss Federal Department of Home Affairs, Dr Alain Berset, and Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources in conversation with Prof Dr Armin Gruen of the Future Cities Laboratory at the inauguration of the Singapore-ETH Centre. Prof...
Elbit Systems will present a vast array of advanced next-generation systems and solutions at the upcoming FIDAE exhibition, set to take place at Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport, Santiago-de-Chile March 27 through April 1, 2012. The Company’s exhibition (Israeli Pavilion, stand D1-i) will be the venue for a full spectrum of advanced systems demonstrating leadership in all of its...
