The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency has set its sights on a new kind of drone ship — one that doesn’t contemplate a human ever setting foot on it. Dubbed NOMARS (No Manning Required, Ship), the new ships could feature radical new designs and cut costs by removing any elements normally needed to accommodate people.
Update January 29th, 10:10AM ET: SpaceX successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket on time this morning, deploying all 60 satellites into orbit. The rocket also performed another landing on the company’s drone ship in the Atlantic after launch. While SpaceX did catch one half of the rocket’s fairing, the other half just missed its boat.
Original story: A week after performing a crucial test flight for NASA, SpaceX is poised to launch yet another Falcon 9 rocket from Florida. This mission is tasked with sending up the latest batch of internet-beaming satellites for SpaceX, adding on to the roughly 180 satellites the company already has in orbit.
Today’s flight is the fourth launch for SpaceX’s Starlink project, a massive constellation of satellites that aims to provide internet coverage to every point on the globe. SpaceX has permission to launch nearly 12,000 satellites and has expressed interest in launching 30,000 more. To fulfill its licensing obligations, SpaceX has to launch nearly 6,000 within the next five to six years. The company plans to launch up to 24 Starlink missions this year.
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Yates Electrospace Corporation (YEC), whose Silent Arrow platform is bringing disruptive innovation to the heavy payload, unmanned cargo delivery market, today announced the design completion and specifications of a wide-body version of its successful GD-2000 cargo delivery drone, with unveiling set for July 20–24, 2020 at YEC booth 4470, Farnborough International Airshow, UK.
Public-safety drone consultancy Skyfire Consulting has announced a partnership with UAV company Doosan Mobility Innovation and hydrogen-fuel service provider ReadyH2 to tackle a pipeline-inspection project for an unnamed American company.
Doosan will deploy a hydrogen-powered octocopter. The drone sports a hydrogen-powered generator fueling two hours of flight time per mission over nearly 50 miles.
ReadyH2, in cooperation with parent company Fortress UAV, will be responsible for providing a ready supply of hydrogen gas for the project.
GORHAM, Maine (AP) — A Maine woman who was harassed by a drone for two days says police told her they could do nothing about it.
Mary Dunham says a drone tracked her in her car on Tuesday as she drove to a gas station, where she called police, and then to her home in Gorham. It followed her eight miles to her brother’s house in Standish the following day.
It was an “unnerving” experience, she said. “The officer arrived and said, ‘Yeah, I see it. I don’t know what to tell you though. We can’t do too much,’” she said.
As the U.S. military and defense contractors eye a potential drone war with Iran as tensions with the country remain elevated, the defense industry is also preparing to test-fly domestic versions of its combat drones over major American cities in an effort to fully integrate military-grade drones into civil airspace alongside commercial air traffic in the coming years.
That’s right, those robotic killing machines used for counterterrorism strikes in the Middle East are coming home — and could eventually be used to surveil large protests and communities of color throughout the U.S.
The Poway-based defense contractor General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., will test-fly its SkyGuardian drone, outfitted with a 79-foot wingspan and advanced surveillance capabilities of more than 2,000 feet, over San Diego, California, sometime this year.
The algorithm lets robots find the shortest route in unfamiliar environments, opening the door to robots that can work inside homes and offices.
The news: A team at Facebook AI has created a reinforcement learning algorithm that lets a robot find its way in an unfamiliar environment without using a map. Using just a depth-sensing camera, GPS, and compass data, the algorithm gets a robot to its goal 99.9% of the time along a route that is very close to the shortest possible path, which means no wrong turns, no backtracking, and no exploration. This is a big improvement over previous best efforts.
Why it matters: Mapless route-finding is essential for next-gen robots like autonomous delivery drones or robots that work inside homes and offices. Some of the best robots available today, such as Spot and Atlas made by Boston Dynamics and Digit made by Agility Robotics, are packed with sensors that make them pretty good at keeping their balance and avoiding obstacles. But if you dropped them off at an unfamiliar street corner and left them to find their way home, they’d be screwed. While Facebook’s algorithm does not yet handle outside environments, it is a promising step in that direction and could probably be adapted to urban spaces.
As camera technology progresses, resolutions are increasing, and stability is like never before. Drone pilots require a great deal of balance when using drones. Drones have the potential to capture elevated wide-angle lens shots, discover never before seen locations, and soar through the clouds. Pictures obtained by drones are unparalleled from other devices. A tripod will provide greater stability, but drones can stare into volcanoes and observe from a unique perspective.
There are a plethora of drones in the market with leading models belonging to brands such as GoPro, Parrot, and DJI. Drones can be sold with a camera, or they can be sold separately. GoPro’s cameras are synonymous with action and drones, making them a suitable selection. DJI’s Mavic Pro Drone is capable of flying 4 miles (7 kilometers) away from a user. Stability of current drones allows them to hover in a spot while it takes photos.
Those who have never used a drone in combination with a camera before, need to check out these photos. Some of the pictures contained on this listicle have won awards for creativity and resplendence. One doesn’t have to be a photographer to appreciate the qualities of these photos. These are 25 pictures of things only ever captured by drones.
NASSAU, BAHAMAS – A Bahamian drone delivery service is rolling out its last-mile delivery service in the first quarter of this year with its inter-island offering expected within 12–15 months.
Fli Drone, a Bahamian firm authorized to perform drone delivery services, was founded by two former college classmates: Abaco native Robert Sweeting (Chief Executive Officer) and Arthur Frisch (Chief Technology Officer).
The company officially launched in 2018.
Swiss Post and Matternet will once again resume using drones to deliver lab samples between hospital facilities and labs after being suspending in August 2019 after two crashes. Flights will resume on January 27th.
