Hasta La Gadget!

Not so much little green men as no men at all: the craft that triggered 911 calls and Twitter furore after being mistaken for a UFO back in June has been put on show by the US Navy, a human-made drone rather than ET’s escape pod. The X-47B is a new, experimental unmanned aircraft the Navy has admitted, with a spokesperson telling Fox 5 that while the stealth aircraft wasn’t meant to be a secret, the team “all got a laugh” after it was confused for something extraterrestrial while being transported on a truck two months ago.

“There was nothing real secretive about it,” US Navy Test Engineer Matt Funk said of the drone, “but we didn’t go out of our way to publicize it.”

The drone itself, an X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) made by Northrop Grumman, is entirely remote instructed and the first of a new breed of air surveillance and attack systems expected to be increasingly commonplace in the coming years. Commanded remotely from a computer system – that will eventually be on an aircraft carrier, the Navy says – the UCAS can also return to base autonomously should it lose connection with its controller.

Unlike existing drones, the X-47B doesn’t require continuous controlling from a human operator, but is instead given a flight target and relied on to get itself there and back. There are “space, weight and power provisions for weapons and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance sensors,” Northrop says, but the current prototypes are not equipped with weaponry.

Its otherworldly looks make it a good candidate for something from outer-space. At 62.1ft wide and 38.2ft long, with distinctive kinked and truncated wings (that fold up to reduce width), the X-47B is more science-fiction at first glance than warfare-fact. Northrop Grumman says it will have a range of over 2,100nm and a maximum altitude of over 40,000ft, with “high subsonic” speed potential. It will also support in-flight refueling for continuous missions.

A 36 minute test flight at the end of July saw the X-47B fly at a maximum altitude of 7,500 feet and a maximum air speed of 180 knots. It’s worth roughly $800m, and will begin aircraft carrier testing in 2013.

Remember that “UFO” spotted in June? Well, here it is in daylight is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Switzerland’s EPFL has managed to catch our attention with its various UAV-related activities, and it looks like it’s also been the radar of Parrot, maker of the AR.Drones. EPFL announced today that the French company is investing 7.4 million Swiss Francs (or about $7.5 million) in two companies that have been spun out of the institution: senseFly and Pix4D. As you may recall, those two have collaborated in the past, with senseFly providing the camera-equipped UAVs necessary for Pix4D’s 3D mapping software. Broken down, the investment works out to 2.4 million Francs put into Pix4D and five million invested in senseFly, the latter of which is enough for Parrot to claim a majority stake company. As for the future, senseFly’s CEO says that the deal will give Parrot “access to the expertise and the technology for specialized drones,” while Pix4D’s CEO says that the investment “reinforces our position as a leader in software for professional drones” and opens up new business opportunities. It also makes it clear, if it wasn’t already, that Parrot is getting pretty serious about drones. You can find the official announcement after the break, along with a video from EPFL explaining the deal.

Continue reading Drone-maker Parrot invests $7.5 million in two EPFL spin-offs, sets sights beyond toys

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Drone-maker Parrot invests $7.5 million in two EPFL spin-offs, sets sights beyond toys originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Nonami Group at Chiba University is developing drone robots for information gathering, and the group has demonstrated four multi-rotor helicopters, flying in formation using image processing.
“The cameras capture the markers, and send all the images to the host computer, which calculates the position and attitude. Positioning can be done to within 1 mm. The control frequency is 100 Hz, so position and attitude are calculated every 10 ms, to prevent collisions.”
Each helicopter …

Aerial drone designers have been pushing hard to get devices that can stay airborne for days. After all, what’s the point of having an observer that routinely lets its guard down? Lockheed Martin must have this question forever etched in its collective mind, as it just completed tests of a modified Stalker drone that was continually charged by laser power beamed from a ground-based source. The LaserMotive-built test was admittedly conducted in a wind tunnel, not a wind-swept battlefield, but it kept the drone aloft for more than 48 hours and was so efficient that it might even have gone indefinitely, if it weren’t for staff intentionally bringing the trial to a halt. The true test is coming next, when Lockheed Martin and LaserMotive fly the drone on laser power outdoors. Should the Stalker sail the friendly skies for long enough, it could help usher in an era of UAVs that can spot intruders at all hours — a little too close to the aircraft’s name for comfort, perhaps, but potentially vital for Special Operations troops that might not have to put themselves in danger. You can check the underpinnings of both the laser power system and the Stalker in videos after the break.

Continue reading Lockheed Martin Stalker drone stays airborne 48 hours using laser power, all-seeing eye gets literal (video)

Filed under: Robots

Lockheed Martin Stalker drone stays airborne 48 hours using laser power, all-seeing eye gets literal (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jul 2012 02:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Where are the bad guys? The military has eyes and ears everywhere these days, including drones large and tiny, satellites, radar imaging, LIDAR, infrared, thermal and even the enemy’s own cellphones. The problem is how to take all that imaging and create a single picture of the environment. To that end, DARPA and George Mason University in Arlington have created the first Innovation House Project, which will put eight teams together for eight weeks in a “crucible-style” living environment to try to invent new ways of crunching the diverse sensor info. The military’s research arm wants those units to think way off-piste “without fear of failure” to dream up solutions, and will have access to specialists and mentors from the military and academia. Unlike DARPA’s usual challenges which have a grand prize, all teams accepted to the project will receive $30,000 in funding, but groups who go on to survive a four week cut will get an additional $20K. Proposals will be accepted up to July 31 (with no academic credentials needed), and the competition will begin in earnest on September 17. DARPA will get a license of any software created, allowing teams to hold the rights — and hopes to continue the concept down the road, with new themes for team-based research on a tight deadline. So, if you’re a data, imaging or “geospatial” whiz — and don’t mind being locked in a house and put under the brainstorming gun by DARPA — check the PR for all the details.

Continue reading DARPA Innovation House project wants teams to take imaging data, see the big picture

Filed under: Science, Software

DARPA Innovation House project wants teams to take imaging data, see the big picture originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Jul 2012 13:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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