Lifeboat Foundation

Consumer drones have over the years struggled with an image of being no more than expensive and delicate toys. But applications in industrial, military and enterprise scenarios have shown that there is indeed a market for unmanned aerial vehicles, and today, a startup that makes drones for some of those latter purposes is announcing a large round of funding and a partnership that provides a picture of how the drone industry will look in years to come.

Percepto, which makes drones — both the hardware and software — to monitor and analyze industrial sites and other physical work areas largely unattended by people, has raised $45 million in a Series B round of funding.

Alongside this, it is now working with Boston Dynamics and has integrated its Spot robots with Percepto’s Sparrow drones, with the aim being better infrastructure assessments, and potentially more as Spot’s agility improves.

Continue reading “Industrial drone maker Percepto raises $45M and integrates with Boston Dynamics’ Spot” »

Using drones for agriculture! Technology used to benefit one of the oldest industries. 😃

Designed for use in agriculture, the new DJI T20 is bringing the latest tech to one of the world’s oldest industries 👏 😎.

Florida’s Undefined Technologies claims it has managed to increase the thrust levels of ion propulsion systems to “unprecedented levels” with its “Air Tantrum” technology, enabling near-silent drones with no moving parts, that look like flying pallets.

All aircraft propulsion systems provide thrust by moving air or another propellant, and for the vast majority of drones that means some kind of fan or propeller spinning angled blades to push air through and create thrust in the opposite direction. Ionic propulsion, on the other hand, is entirely electromagnetic.

The process uses a high-voltage electric field to ionize the nitrogen and oxygen molecules in the air, liberating electrons to create, primarily, a lot of positively-charged nitrogen molecules. These are drawn toward a negatively-charged electrode, usually in the form of a flat screen grid, and as they accelerate, they bang into other air molecules and bump them in the same direction to create an ionic wind.

The chip could potentially be used to power drones, robotics, smart watches, and bionic implants.

You can now protect your home with this security drone! 😃

This security system deploys a drone when it senses intruders.

Its taking a bit more time for soldiers to adjust to their new drones.

• Land Warfare, Networks / Cyber

Let Your Robots Off The Leash – Or Lose: AI Experts.

In DARPA-Army experiments, soldiers tried to micromanage their drones and ground robots, slowing their reaction times and restricting their tactics. Can AIs earn troops’ trust?

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In 2019, Switzerland-based Flyability had a mystery to solve at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Was nuclear waste still present in one of the plant’s decommissioned reactors?

“At the time of the disaster, the fifth block of the Chernobyl Plant was under construction and nearing completion,” a Flyability spokesperson said. “Given the rush to leave, there was no record of whether the holding pools in Reactor Five had ever received the depleted uranium fuel bars for which they had been made.”

Continue reading “Drones Solve a Nuclear Waste Mystery at Chernobyl” »

This simple laser demonstration is actually a great crash course on how these anti-drone weapons work.

At first glance, this video is just a simple promotional video for Rafael’s Drone Dome, an anti-drone laser weapon. But at just two minutes long, it does a really excellent job at explaining what how a laser weapon actually takes down a drone.

Continue reading “This Is How a Laser Weapon Torches Drones Out of the Sky” »