Drones & UAVs News & Discussions

[wjfox]

[Nanotechandmorefuture]

Dang those things are LOUD! It figures since they are huge drones after all. I wonder how long until they put guns on these as well even if the fire rate may not be so hot due to the recoil.

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

The Drone Threat to Critical Infrastructure
by Zachary Kallenborn
November 26, 2021

https://thebulletin.org/2021/11/a-casca ... structure/

Introduction:

(Bulletin of Atomic Scientists) The FBI recently revealed an attempted drone attack on the American electric grid, via an electrical substation in Pennsylvania. Someone or some group modified a drone to dangle a length of copper that, if it hit high-voltage equipment below, would have caused a short circuit. While the drone crashed into the ground without causing any harm, in theory a successful attack could have caused broader power outages and much bigger problems.

The 2020 attack failed, but a blueprint for trouble remains.

Risks to critical infrastructure are growing as terrorists increasingly adopt drones as an attack vehicle. Commercial drone producers are not only making larger drones available at lower cost, they are making increasingly sophisticated systems that incorporate capabilities like autonomy. But drones have numerous legal and popular uses— from taking glam real-estate photos to checking on pipelines—the United States and global governments face a balancing act in trying to reduce the risks drones could pose

[Yuli Ban]

The Cleo Robotics Dronut is the world’s first bi-rotor ducted drone that makes it look like something straight out of science fiction.

The Boston-based company that specializes in unconventional robotic systems has released a drone that sports an unconventional design and capabilities which allow it to access spaces that ordinary drones can’t navigate, such as confined rooms and or close to people.

In 2020, the company released a previous version of the drone, simply called the Dronut. The first model was only sold to the military and law enforcement, and at the time the company said its next goal was to make the drone quieter and to release it for consumer use. Thus, the Dronut X1 was born.

[raklian]

The Cleo Robotics Dronut is the world’s first bi-rotor ducted drone that makes it look like something straight out of science fiction.

The Boston-based company that specializes in unconventional robotic systems has released a drone that sports an unconventional design and capabilities which allow it to access spaces that ordinary drones can’t navigate, such as confined rooms and or close to people.

In 2020, the company released a previous version of the drone, simply called the Dronut. The first model was only sold to the military and law enforcement, and at the time the company said its next goal was to make the drone quieter and to release it for consumer use. Thus, the Dronut X1 was born.

Straight out of sci-fi? Yup. Add tentacles to it and you have an Imperial probe droid.

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

[caltrek]

Drone Carrying a Defibrillator Saves its First Heart Attack Patient in Sweden
by Jasmine Hicks
January 5, 2022

https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/5/22868 ... ech-sweden

Introduction:

(Verge) A man in Sweden is alive today thanks to — in part — a drone. The 71-year-old had a heart attack while shoveling snow in December and was resuscitated by a nearby doctor after a drone flew in a defibrillator, Everdrone reported Tuesday.

Someone having a heart attack needs help within 10 minutes in order to survive. Everdrone’s Emergency Medical Aerial Delivery (EMADE) service is designed to deliver help as quickly as possible — it allows emergency dispatchers to send a drone carrying the device to a caller’s home, kickstarting the lifesaving process before the ambulance arrives at their home. In this particular patient’s case, it took three minutes for the services to deliver the defibrillator to his home. A bystander, who happened to be a doctor on the way to his job, used the AED on the patient after providing CPR.

The drone was developed with the Center for Resuscitation Science at Karolinska Institutet, SOS Alarm, and Region Västra Götaland.

“This is an excellent real-world example of how Everdrone’s cutting edge drone technology, fully integrated with emergency dispatch, can minimize the time for access to live-saving AED equipment,” Everdrone CEO Mats Sällström said.

In a four-month pilot study testing the EMADE program, the service got 14 heart attack alerts that would be eligible for drones. Drones took off in 12 of those cases, and 11 successfully delivered the defibrillators. Seven of those defibrillators were delivered before the ambulance arrived.

[caltrek]

U.S. Drones to be Deployed at Japanese Self Defense Force Base for First Time
by Kaigo Narisawa and Naoki Matsuyama
January 26, 2022

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14532327

Introduction:

(The Asahi Shimbun) Amid China's maritime aggression, the U.S. forces in Japan will temporarily deploy MQ9 Reaper drones at the Maritime Self-Defense Force's Kanoya Air Base in Kagoshima Prefecture, according to multiple government sources.

It will mark the first time that the U.S. military will deploy the high-flying drones at a base of any SDF branch. The aim is to heighten vigilance and surveillance to the southwest.

Around seven MQ9 Reapers are set to be deployed in the base. Nearly 100 U.S. military personnel will be stationed in Japan to operate the unmanned, long-range surveillance aircraft.

The drones are expected to be deployed at the base from as early as this spring, for about a year.

The Defense Ministry will brief local authorities near the base on the plan and start research necessary for the deployment.

[Yuli Ban]

Wing Blog: Your Guide to Wing's Upcoming Deliveries in Dallas

What’s even cooler than drones flying you things in a matter of minutes? This is the first time ever that drone delivery will be available in a major US metropolitan area. The residents of Frisco and Little Elm will be among the first people in the US, after Christiansburg, VA, to experience our service.

Customers will use the marketplace within our app to select items, then choose a delivery zone option for their home - could be a yard, driveway, or both - and place their order. You can get the details on how it works here. In another Texas first, Walgreens, not Wing, employees will fulfill orders placed with their store.

[Yuli Ban]

In better times, Ukrainian drone enthusiasts flew their gadgets into the sky to photograph weddings, fertilize soybean fields or race other drones for fun. Now some are risking their lives by forming a volunteer drone force to help their country repel the Russian invasion.

“Kyiv needs you and your drone at this moment of fury!” read a Facebook post late last week from the Ukrainian military, calling for citizens to donate hobby drones and to volunteer as experienced pilots to operate them.

One entrepreneur who runs a retail store selling consumer drones in the capital said its entire stock of some 300 drones made by Chinese company DJI has been dispersed for the cause. Others are working to get more drones across the border from friends and colleagues in Poland and elsewhere in Europe.

“Why are we doing this? We have no other choice. This is our land, our home,” said Denys Sushko, head of operations at Kyiv-based industrial drone technology company DroneUA, which before the war was helping to provide drone services to farmers and energy companies.

Sushko fled his home late last week after his family had to take cover from a nearby explosion. He spoke to The Associated Press by phone and text message Friday after climbing up a tree for better reception.

Here we see the formal start of drone warfare on a major scale. It was inevitable, and it will be horrible.

[weatheriscool]

RoboKrill: A crustacean-inspired swimming robot for marine exploration
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-03-rob ... ation.html
by Ingrid Fadelli , Tech Xplore

To better understand seas and oceans on Earth, their processes, and the living organisms inhabiting them, scientists must be able to explore them and collect data underwater. In recent years, roboticists have thus been trying to develop increasingly advanced systems that could aid the exploration and monitoring of underwater environments.

Researchers at Brown University and Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico have recently created RoboKrill, a new robot inspired by a shrimp-like species of crustaceans, called krill (Euphausia superba). This robot, introduced in a paper pre-published on arXiv, artificially replicates the swimming kinematics of krill to seamlessly move around in underwater environments.

"Before this project, I was conducting different studies aimed at understanding the role of plankton aggregations in the ocean," Monica M. Wilhelmus, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told TechXplore. "For this purpose, I carried out an experiment where I controlled the behavior of organisms using light signals. After that, I thought a good idea would be to, instead of externally controlling the behavior of the organisms, to use a robotic system that has the same signature, the dynamic signature, as swimming live creatures."

Initially, Wilhelmus only planned to briefly explore the possibility of developing a robotic system that replicated the swimming kinematics of krill. However, she soon realized that her project had a lot of potential, as it addressed an existing gap in the literature.

"Currently, there are either swimmers that are engineering to swim really slowly or very quickly, but there is nothing in between," Wilhelmus explained. "I thus realized the vast opportunities that developing such an 'intermediate' system could open, particularly for completing tasks that are difficult to tackle with big systems. The product we created is the baseline to reach this end."

[Yuli Ban]

Ion-propulsion drone!

[Yuli Ban]

[Yuli Ban]

Amazon, Alphabet and Others Are Quietly Rolling Out Drone Delivery Across America

Delivery drones are arriving, at last.

After nearly a decade of largely unfulfilled hype about flying robots dropping orders at your doorstep, a handful of companies have started commercial operations in the U.S. involving dozens or hundreds of deliveries a day at each location. The companies are vying to be Americans’ choice when they want a bottle of Advil, a takeout meal, or the next iPhone delivered in under 30 minutes—once federal regulators enable broader rollouts.

[weatheriscool]

Wing, Walgreens begin drone delivery in Dallas suburbs

Source: Axios

The first commercial drone delivery service in a major U.S. metropolitan area will launch this week in suburban Dallas, where Google-owned Wing will begin delivering items from Walgreens and a few other partners.

Why it matters: Until now, drone delivery trials have been limited to small towns and rural areas, which are less congested. But Wing aims to prove it can provide on-demand deliveries in more complex urban settings as well.

The launch marks a new, "more scalable" approach for drone delivery, says Wing.

The company will partner with retailers, staging its drones at their stores so they can deploy their own dedicated fleet from their parking lot, roof or nearby spaces.

Read more: https://www.axios.com/wing-walgreens-be ... ab591.html

[Nanotechandmorefuture]

Guess that lethal autonomous weapons thread was a bit early on what was bound to happen. I remember back in 2019 or even 2020 or so not sure there were videos of, I presume, older footage of people in one of those Middle East to Central Asia countries using thermals on their rifles making the playing field equal for the opposite side. It was the countries' defense army having some of their troops annihilated with a simple optic giving any random person expertise. I imagine if drone weapons gets proliferation like regular ones do it may finally tell people not to be so war loving because it won't end well.

Then again there may always be a blood thirsty segment of the population that will always fight so as such weapons will keep flowing as usual. Either way when anyone can deploy similar weapons like this in due time it is going to be one very unsettling battlefield for those involved.

[raklian]

[Yuli Ban]

Consider the idea of a package delivered by drone, and it’s easy to imagine a small flying machine depositing an item in a consumer’s driveway or backyard. And indeed, that’s what companies such as Wing, from Google’s parent Alphabet, are working on right now. But FedEx, which announced last week that it’s teaming up with a drone company called Elroy Air, has something else in store: an exploration of how to use drones for what they call “middle mile” logistics.

The drone in question is called the Chaparral, which Elroy took the wraps off of earlier this year. Here’s what to know about how it works, and how FedEx is thinking of using it.

The Chaparral isn’t small: It measures about 27 feet across, 19 feet long, and weighs some 1,900 pounds. The wing can be rotated so that the drone takes up less space in storage or transport. If you stood next to the tail, you’d find that it is taller than you, unless you stand about 7 feet in height. The aircraft can schlep about 300 to 500 pounds in a pod below its belly, and has a range of some 300 miles, meaning it could make it from New York to Boston. It’ll travel at speeds faster than 100 mph. The plane is autonomous—no pilots needed—and it can take off and land vertically.

In short, think of it like other large flying machines that companies like Joby, Wisk, and Beta have in development; those craft are called eVTOLS, for electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft. But unlike some of Elroy’s peers in this next-chapter-of-aviation space, the Chaparral aircraft is hybrid electric, not purely electric. It features 8 rotors on its wings to help it take off and land vertically, and four propellers for forward flight, and all of them are driven by electric motors. However, the source of that electricity is what makes this craft unique: it has a gas turbine and generator inside it to make that juice.