Festo has created yet another spectacular biomimetic machine, called Smartbird. (To skip to the flight part of the first video, go to 2:04) https://www.youtube.com/user/FestoHQ
Archive for the ‘flying’ Category
Land- and ground-based robots communicate to track down targets
Posted by Eric on November 26th, 2011
“Two small planes fly low over a village, methodically scanning the streets below. Within minutes, they spot their target near the edge of town. With no way to navigate through the streets, they radio for help. Soon after, a metallic blue SUV begins moving cautiously but purposefully along the dirt roads leading to town, seeking [...]
Posted in AI, autonomous, DARPA, defense, ethics, featured, flying, military / law enforcement 
No Comments »Drone deployment in U.S. skies
Posted by Eric on July 23rd, 2010
“In June, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) agreed to expand flights of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, along the Texas-Mexico border for surveillance purposes. Although unmanned aircraft have been used extensively by the military in Afghanistan and Iraq, the FAA has been hesitant to issue flying rights for the pilotless vehicles in the U.S. other [...]
Video of laser phalanx shooting down unmanned aerial vehicle
Posted by Eric on July 21st, 2010
Raytheon CGI rendition: As we initially reported here, we now have the ability to shoot down aircraft with high-powered lasers. The LaWS (Laser Weapon System) and Maritime Laser Weapon Systems are built onto the Phalanx target-tracking platform, but use lasers instead of bullets to take down targets. Raytheon’s Maritime Laser Weapon System was just [...]
Posted in DARPA, defense, flying, milestone, military / law enforcement, video, weapon 
Tags: anti-aircraft, laser, LaWS, Maritime Laser Weapon System, phalanx, r2-d2, Raytheon, uav No Comments »UK military unveils “Taranis” – semi-autonomous, flying, armed robot
Posted by Eric on July 15th, 2010
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Posted in AI, autonomous, defense, ethics, flying, government, military / law enforcement, weapon Tags: aircraft, autonomous, flying, Taranis, uav, UK, weapon No Comments »Robotic milestone – full-sized helicopter makes autonomous flight
Posted by Eric on July 14th, 2010
“In mid-June, a single-turbine helicopter took off from a test field in Mesa, Arizona, avoided obstacles in-flight, scoped out a landing site and landed safely. It’s like the kind of flight choppers have made tens of thousands of times before. Except this time, the helicopter did it entirely on its own – with no humans [...]
Posted in autonomous, flying, milestone, video Tags: flight, helicopter, helo, milestone No Comments »AVX Aircraft also vying to build DARPA’s flying SUV
Posted by Eric on July 13th, 2010
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Posted in DARPA, defense, flying, military / law enforcement Tags: DARPA, flying, suv, vtol No Comments »NASA successfully tests autonomous lunar lander navigation system GENIE
Posted by Eric on July 7th, 2010
On June 23rd, NASA and partner Armadillo Aerospace tested the new Guidance Embedded Navigator Integration Environment (GENIE) for safely landing lunar spacecraft. It was hoped that it could “figure out the complex algorithms necessary to process volumes of data from the laser altimeter, GPS and inertial sensors, and quickly enough to steer the rocket engine [...]
Logi Aerospace vying to build DARPA’s VTOL flying SUVs
Posted by Eric on July 2nd, 2010
Some of DARPA’s requirements for the vehicles: * flying/driving range of 250 miles * measure no more than 30 feet long by 8.5′ wide and 9′ high * perform vertical take-off and landing * carry four people * perform unmanned operations * and be easy enough to control that anyone who can drive a Humvee [...]
Posted in DARPA, defense, flying, government, military / law enforcement Tags: DARPA, flying car, suv, vtol 2 Comments »Tiny robot spyplanes can perch anywhere
Posted by Eric on July 1st, 2010
A new method for UAVs to perch nearly anywhere and broadcast video or other data. via [dvice]
