This hole-digging drone parachutes in to get the job done

A new drone from the NIMBUS group at the University of Nebraska can fall out of a plane, parachute down, fly to a certain place, dig a hole, hide sensors inside it, and then fly away like some crazy wasp. Robots are weird.

The goal of the project is to allow drones to place sensors in distant and hostile environments. The system starts on a plane or helicopter which ejects the entire thing inside of a cylindrical canister. The canister falls for a while then slows down with a parachute. Once it’s close enough to the ground it pops out, lands, and drills a massive hole with a screw drill, and leaves the heavy parts to fly home.

Drones can only fly for so long while carrying heavy gear so this ensures that the drone can get there without using battery and escape without running down to empty.

“Battery powered drones have very short flight times, especially when flying with a heavy load, which we are since we have our digging apparatus and sensor system. So to get to distant locations, we need to hitch a ride on another vehicle,” said NIMBUS co-director Carrick Detweiler to Spectrum. “This allows it to save energy for return trips. In this video we used a much larger gas powered UAS with multiple hours of flight time, but our same system could be deployed from manned aircraft or other systems.”

The drone can even sense if the ground is too hard for digging and choose another spot, allowing for quite a bit of flexibility. Given that these things can land silently in far off locations you can imagine some interesting military uses for this technology. I’m sure it will be fine for us humans, though. I mean what could go wrong with a robot that can hide things underground in distant, unpopulated places and escape undetected?

Acer Predator Triton 900 Hands-on: Flipping out on gaming excess

We got the chance to get up close and personal with the Predator Triton 900 this week at CES 2019. This Acer-made computer brings gaming power with a robust (read: not made just to be thin and light) laptop with a transforming appearance. The display does a flip. Instead of being relegated to one open position, this laptop flips on … Continue reading

How Cartographers for the U.S. Military Inadvertently Created a House of Horrors in South Africa

The visitors started coming in 2013. The first one who came and refused to leave until he was let inside was a private investigator named Roderick. He was looking for an abducted girl, and he was convinced she was in the house.

Read more…

Google activity cards now help you find previous searches

After months of teasing, Google is making it easier to resume your past searches. The internet pioneer is rolling out activity cards that will show what you’ve looked for based on various topics, whether it’s a new workout regimen or a recipe. So l…

Google Adds Android Auto Support To Podcasts


Many were surprised by the lack of features when Google launched its new Podcasts app. It didn’t have Cast support, auto-downloading, and compatibility with Android Auto. The company is rectifying at least one of things today. It has added support for Android Auto to the Podcasts app.

Most people tend to listen to podcasts on their commutes. It makes perfect sense to do so. It was thus surprising to see that Android Auto support was not a part of the new Podcasts app when it was released not too long ago.

The latest version of the Podcasts app finally brings Android Auto support. This means that users will now be able to listen to their podcasts when their phone is hooked up to an Android Auto compatible system in the car. It will also be easier for them to control the various options as the controls would be optimized for the in-car experience.

The navigation drawer has four separate groups: Your Podcasts, New Episodes, Downloads, and In Progress. There are Next and Previous buttons within the player aside from buttons for going back by 10 seconds or forward by 30. Those who are using Android Auto need to update to the latest version of the app to get podcasts support.

Google Adds Android Auto Support To Podcasts , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

R. Kelly Under Investigation Over Claims Made In Lifetime Series: Reports

The “Surviving R. Kelly” documentary has reportedly sparked a new look into women’s disturbing allegations against him.

Trump Nominates Andrew Wheeler As Permanent EPA Administrator

The former coal lobbyist and longest-serving acting chief in the EPA’s history is set to become its 15th administrator.

Temi Robot Telepresence Follows You Around with Alexa Onboard

While we are waiting for robots that can cook us dinner and clean the toilets, we have to get by with robots that perform more mundane tasks. A robot is on the floor at CES 2019 from called the Temi. The minimal, armless robot has Amazon Alexa onboard allowing it to respond to voice commands. It can also follow you around, so it’s always by your side.

Temi was initially envisioned as a telepresence robot to help the elderly. The big screen now gives users an Echo Show-like experience. That voice-activated screen and Alexa combine to give control from the robot of smart home devices and more. Temi is the first Alexa-packing robot able to navigate around a space autonomously, thanks to path planning and obstacle avoidance on board.

The robot isn’t exactly cheap at $1,499, but you can buy one starting in March. The real question is what will you use the it for? You can ask it questions and tell it to do things, but without arms or grippers of any sort, you’ll need to get up and help the robot with any physical labor beyond pushing around a soccer ball.

[via CNET]

LEGO Death Star Trench Run: Stay on Target!

South Korean LEGO Certified Professional Wani Kim has recreated the Death Star Trench Run scene from Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope with his team, Olive Seon and it is a thing of beauty. This is a true LEGO masterpiece.

It’s pretty huge at 8.79 ft. long by 4.49 ft. deep and stands 3.60 ft. tall. It features some amazing detail. It even has explosions and sparks on Luke’s X-Wing and the Y-Wing from Lord Vader’s pursuit in his TIE Advanced along with another pair of TIE Fighters. This is version 3.0 of Kim’s diorama, and is the biggest version. The other two versions were built to be store installations so their size had to be kept smaller.



The entire thing lights up too thanks to a power supply, and many, many LEDs. An Arduino board coordinates the various lighting effects to recreate the scenes from the movie. How many thousands of dollars would this cost as an off-the-shelf LEGO set?

[via Mike Shouts]

Daily Crunch: Well Facebook, you did it again

The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here:

1. Facebook is the new crapware 

Well Facebook, you did it again. Fresh off its latest privacy scandal, the troubled social media giant has inked a deal with Android to pre-install its app on an undisclosed number of phones and make the software permanent. This means you won’t be able to delete Facebook from those phones. Thanks, Facebook.

2. The world’s first foldable phone is real 

Chinese company Royole has beaten Samsung to the market and has been showing off a foldable phone/tablet this week at CES. While it’s not the most fluid experience, the device definitely works at adapting to your needs.

3. CES revokes award from female-founded sex tech company

Outcries of a double-standard are pouring out of CES after the Consumer Tech Association revoked an award from a company geared toward women’s sexual health.

4. Everything Google announced at CES 2019 

Google went all in on the Assistant this year at CES. The company boasted that the voice-enabled AI will make its way onto a billion devices by the end of the month — up from 400 million last year. But what’s most exciting is the expanded capabilities of Google’s Assistant. Soon you’ll be able to check into flights and translate conversations on the fly with a simple “Hey Google.”

5. Rebranding WeWork won’t work 

The company formerly known as WeWork has rebranded to the We Company, but its new strategy has the potential to plunge the company further into debt.

6. Despite promises to stop, US cell carriers are still selling your real-time phone location data

Last year a little-known company called LocationSmart came under fire after leaking location data from AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint users to shady customers. LocationSmart quickly buckled under public scrutiny and promised to stop selling user data, but few focused on another big player in the location tracking business: Zumigo.

7. The best and worst of CES 2019 

From monster displays to VR in cars, we’re breaking down the good, the bad and the ugly from CES 2019.