Drones – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Scientists are making genetically modified cyborg dragonflies

Posted by Bryan Gatton in biotech/medical, cyborgs, drones, genetics, surveillance

Jan 26
2017

They could be used for guided pollination… or for surveillance.

Chinese EHANG 184 EHang Air Taxi

Posted by Dan Kummer in drones

Jan 23
2017

Chinese EHANG 184 EHang Air Taxi. Watch the flight test of Ehang’s latest innovation.

A 20th Century Bullring Reimagined as a 21st Century Drone Station

Posted by Klaus Baldauf in drones

Jan 22
2017

Bullfights arouse strong feelings on both sides. Their aficionados see them as a place of near reverence, where animal and man engage in an athletic dance summoning the shadows of mankind’s struggles for both dominance over and stewardship of his natural counterparts. Opponents of the sport decry its violence and bloodshed, the unnecessary cruelty of what they see as a prolonged infliction of torture upon one of our planet’s fellow creatures. In 2012, Catalonia, the region of Spain that contains Barcelona, agreed more with the latter characterization than the former and banned the sport.

Equipping Insects for Special Service

Posted by Klaus Baldauf in bioengineering, biotech/medical, drones

Jan 19
2017

Draper combines navigation and neuromodulation to guide insects

CAMBRIDGE, MA – The smallest aerial drones mimic insects in many ways, but none can match the efficiency and maneuverability of the dragonfly. Now, engineers at Draper are creating a new kind of hybrid drone by combining miniaturized navigation, synthetic biology and neurotechnology to guide dragonfly insects. The system looks like a backpack for a dragonfly.

DragonflEye, an internal research and development project at Draper, is already showing promise as a way to guide the flightpath of dragonflies. Potential applications of the technologies underpinning DragonflEye include guided pollination, payload delivery, reconnaissance and even precision medicine and diagnostics.

DARPA wants to build “Vampire Drones” that turn into gas at sunrise

Posted by Karen Hurst in drones, military

Jan 18
2017

Never ceases to amaze me what DARPA is up to these days.

Drones are everywhere these days – from using them to take elaborate selfies to launching missiles at military targets, delivering aid to war torn areas to imaging the deadly environment around lava lakes, they appear to be the multipurpose tool of the moment. Perhaps slightly strangely, then, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants drones to vanish into thin air. Specifically, they want drones that are biodegradable, able to fade away after completing their mission.

Airbus working on flying cars, flying buses, ridesharing flying vehicles and drone product delivery

Posted by Klaus Baldauf in drones, transportation

Jan 16
2017

Airbus Group plans to test a prototype for a self-piloted flying car as a way of avoiding gridlock on city roads by the end of the year, the aerospace group’s chief executive said on Monday.

Airbus last year formed a division called Urban Air Mobility that is exploring concepts such as a vehicle to transport individuals or a helicopter-style vehicle that can carry multiple riders. The aim would be for people to book the vehicle using an app, similar to car-sharing schemes.

“One hundred years ago, urban transport went underground, now we have the technological wherewithal to go above ground,” Airbus CEO Tom Enders told the DLD digital tech conference in Munich, adding he hoped the Airbus could fly a demonstration vehicle for single-person transport by the end of the year.