Hasta La Gadget!

Combat is a grizzly business, and despite the best efforts of medical evacuation crews, it’s not always feasible to send rescue teams into the fray. The US Army is seeking to address this with “autonomous vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) unmanned aircraft systems (UAS)” (read: drones) for dropping off medical supplies and picking up injured troops. In its latest request for research and development proposals, the Army calls not for new tools, but for the repurposing of current aircraft to do the job. Preferred candidates in the already unmanned class include the A160 Hummingbird and the K-MAX, while one of the suggestions for remote-control modification is the infamous Black Hawk. Makes the AR.Drone seem a little wimpy, doesn’t it?

Filed under: Robots, Transportation

Army seeking proposals for casualty-carrying UAVs originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 05 Aug 2012 14:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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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Contrary to the Vigilus UAV from MBDA that we covered last week, this entirely different UAV is built for peace and will be released to the masses soon. A company called Rotary Robotics is now working on a project called Drones for Peace. The project aims to develop a $100 drone for aerial photography. The prototype drone can reportedly fly with speeds up to 20 to 30 knots. But due to its simple and cheap design, the drone cannot be controlled manually. Instead, it uses a smartphone app that users will use to select specific points on a map that they want to explore.

The drone is currently in its conceptual phase, but Rotary Robotics co-founder James Peverill expects to launch the drone in the near future. Peverill  also expects that the consumer-ready version of the drone will be able take multiple photos around a specified point before returning to the base. “We are engineers who were working in the military UAV space for awhile. We wanted to a create an aerial surveillance aircraft that was cheap enough that it would be accessible to everyone,” Peverill said.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: No more friendly fire deaths from dones, Remora UAV weaponized drone,

We hear more and more about military drones that spy or even conduct attacks, but a company called Rotary Robotics knows that Unmanned Aerial Vehicles or UAVs can be used for peaceful purposes too. The company is working on bringing affordable drones to the masses. So you can spy on your neighbors and attack them with water bombs.

Rotary Robotics calls their project Drones for Peace. The company has entered the MassChallenge program – a competition for startups and entrepreneurs – to boost the project’s progress. As for the drones themselves, they won’t be as high tech as the ones used by the military (nor should they be). The goal is to create $100 drones that are meant to take pictures from the air. To further reduce the costs, these drones won’t be controllable. Instead, users will tell the drone where or what to take a picture of via a smartphone app. Once the drone is launched, it determines its movements on its own, goes to the right spot, takes the picture and goes back. So scratch the water bomb attacks.

There are already alternatives for sale like the Parrot AR.Drone, but a $100 drone will be a game changer. Rotary Robotics hopes that their cheap drones will help enhance activism and citizen journalism, as well as help people do their jobs and of course have fun. Unfortunately, once they see this, thieves and perverts will also no doubt be eager to take their lows to new heights.

[via Fast Co. Exist]

Military drones rely heavily on GPS for navigation guidance while in the air. But in areas where a signal can’t be found, or where someone is using a GPS jammer, a drone will find itself in a troublesome predicament. Military sub-contractor BAE Systems has come up with a solution to that problem: A positioning system called NAVSOP that uses any wireless signal to find its location. More »