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Category: drones – Page 17

CAPE TOWN, Dec 22 (Reuters) — Shipping companies sailing around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid Houthi attacks on the Red Sea face tough choices over where to refuel and restock, as African ports struggle with red tape, congestion and poor facilities, companies and analysts say.

Hundreds of large vessels are rerouting around the southern tip of Africa, a longer route adding 10–14 days of travel, to escape drone and missile attacks by Yemeni Houthis that have pushed up oil prices and freight rates.

The attacks by Iranian-backed militants have disrupted international trade through the Suez Canal, the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia, which accounts for about a sixth of global traffic.

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Japanese researchers have created and open-sourced a flying firefighting hose that levitates and steers itself to fight fires using its own water pressure as a two-part propulsion system, spraying water down onto fires and keeping operators safe.

The “flying dragon” system has two four-nozzle propulsion units built in – one at the end of the hose, one maybe 3 m (10 ft) back. Each of these can be thought of as something like a watery quadcopter – valves and swivels on each nozzle control flow and direction of thrust, allowing it to rise, balance and steer itself in the air the way a regular drone might … Well, two drones really, connected with a heavy rope and dragging a heavy tail.

A maximum flow rate of 6.6 liters (1.5 gal) per second gives pressure ratings up to 1 megapascal (145 psi). That’s enough to lift the hose some 2 m (6.6 ft) above the last thing it’s been draped on. The hose on the prototype at this point is just 4 m (13.2 ft) long, and runs back to a little control station trolley, where an operator stands and drives the thing.

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Watch live coverage as SpaceX launches a Falcon 9 rocket with 23 second-generation Starlink internet satellites. Liftoff from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is scheduled for tonight at 11:01 p.m. EST (0401 UTC). The first-stage booster, making its third flight, will land on the drone ship ‘A Shortfall of Gravitas’ about eight and a half minutes into the flight.\

Our live coverage from Cape Canaveral, with commentary by Will Robinson-Smith, will begin about an hour before launch.\

Videos like this are made possible by the support of our members. Join this channel to get access to perks:\

/ @spaceflightnowvideo

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R550X can carry loads of up to 1,200 pounds, boasts a flight time exceeding three hours, and a top speed of 150 miles per hour.

Rotor Technologies Inc., a firm engaged in the development of autonomous vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft, has unveiled and commenced the production of what it claims to be the “largest uncrewed civilian helicopter on the market.”

Termed R550X, the VTOL is derived from the U.S. firm’s Robinson R44 platform and is developed as a versatile autonomous helicopter designed for multiple missions.

According to Rotor, R550X is capable of hoisting substantial loads of up to 1,200 pounds (lbs) — or 550 kilograms, kg —in diverse weather conditions, including night operations and situations with limited visibility. The vehicle comes in a ready-to-fly configuration for immediate flight and can be personalized with various mission-specific payloads and autonomy equipment.

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The Chinese firm, Unitree, claims that its upgraded humanoid robot, “powertrain provides the highest level of speed, power, maneuverability and flexibility.”

Chinese robotic systems firm Unitree marks a groundbreaking development with the upgrade of its humanoid robot.

The robot, called H1, has also been billed as the ‘world’s most powerful general-purpose humanoid robot’ with its advanced “powertrain [which] provides the highest level of speed, power, maneuverability and flexibility,” claims Unitree’s website.

Situated in Hangzhou, just outside Shanghai, Unitree Robotics was established in 2017. The company’s mission is to democratize legged robotics, aspiring to make them as widespread and cost-effective as smartphones and drones are in contemporary times.

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Optical scientists have found a new way to significantly increase the power of fibre lasers while maintaining their beam quality, making them a future key defence technology against low-cost drones and for use in other applications such as remote sensing.

Researchers from the University of South Australia (UniSA), the University of Adelaide (UoA) and Yale University have demonstrated the potential use of multimode optical fibre to scale up power in fibre lasers by three-to-nine times but without deteriorating the beam quality so that it can focus on distant targets.

The breakthrough is published in Nature Communications.

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NASA’s maiden mission to explore Saturn’s moon, Titan, has progressed to the next phase of development.

If everything goes as planned, the launch of this car-sized nuclear-powered drone will take place in 2028.

The Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, will move to the final stages of design and development of the Dragonfly drone with NASA’s preliminary design approval.

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