The Navigation Laboratory of the European Space Agency (ESA) has acquired an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can carry different types of satellite navigation receivers to collect data for follow-on analysis. Continue reading
Category Archives: Research
Flights Help ‘Teach’ Drones to Navigate the World
If small, unmanned aircraft could be made smarter and more independent, they could help firefighters and other responders do even more in the wake of natural disasters. In December 2021, NASA’s Scalable Traffic Management for Emergency Response Operations activity, or STEReO, ran early flight tests of technology the team is developing, at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. Continue reading
German Aerospace Center Studies Autonomous Drone Flight in Congested Traffic
What happens when the radio connection to a drone is interrupted? How can drones fly autonomously even in congested traffic? These and other questions were addressed by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) in the final phase of its City Air Traffic Management (City-ATM) project. Continue reading
Verizon 5G & Caltech to Enable Drones to Navigate Weather
Verizon engineers are exploring how its 5G Ultra Wideband, mobile edge compute and artificial intelligence (AI) can help drones detect, interpret and respond to changing weather conditions in real time. Verizon deployed its 5G Ultra Wideband network and edge compute platform at the Caltech Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies (CAST). Continue reading
FAA Awards Drone Research Contracts at Grand Sky
Senator John Hoeven, a member of the Senate Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Committee, announced that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has awarded two contracts totaling nearly $2.3 million to General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) and Appareo Systems LLC to conduct unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) research in collaboration with the Northern Plains UAS Test Site in North Dakota. Continue reading
Australia Opens Hypersonics Research Centre
The Australian Government’s commitment to innovation and national security is at the forefront following the official opening of Defence’s state-of-the-art, purpose built Australian Hypersonics Research Precinct at Eagle Farm in Brisbane. Continue reading
Georgia Tech Gets $35M ONR Contract for Swarm Autonomy Research
Georgia Tech Applied Research Corp., Atlanta, Georgia, is awarded a $35,237,674 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for the effort titled “Heterogeneous Autonomy Prototyping Evolution.” This contract provides for the investigation of heterogeneity across the swarm and super swarm systems. Continue reading
Simple Trick Makes Drones Hallucinate
Michigan State University’s Qiben Yan’s Secure and Intelligent Things Lab in the College of Engineering has discovered that it was possible to trick drones into thinking they were heading for an obstacle. And all that what was required was two bright spots of light, for example from projectors or flashlights. Continue reading