They consist of two blades looping together so that the tip of one blade curves back into the other.
The MIT Lincoln lab has produced some new devices for aircraft and drones that make some impressive efficiency gains and are radically quieter.
“The toroidal propeller allows a small multirotor unpiloted aircraft, or drone, to operate more quietly than current drones that use propeller forms unchanged since the beginning of aviation,” said a statement by the lab.
The method would charge drones while their airborne, meaning they would never have to land.
A team of researchers from the Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) in China has developed a method for using high-energy laser beams to keep drones airborne “forever,” according to a report from The South China Morning Post.
Laser-powered drones could remain aloft “forever”.
You might be rolling your eyes as you see the drone take off to the skies and hover over the Australian coastline, camera angled straight down towards the glistening turquoise water. “Another TikTok influencer trying to get the perfect shot,” you grumble to yourself. But if you look closely at the pilot, you’ll notice they’ve got a sign next to them that says “Keep Clear” in bright yellow and red letters. This is no TikTok influencer.
It’s an Australian surf lifesaver, using the above drone to spot sharks at the beach before they get too close to swimmers like yourself.
Australian surf lifesavers are increasingly using drones to spot sharks at the beach before they get too close for comfort. Can AI help them with identifying dangerous species?
“Five strangers were pulled together” in an engineering challenge to find a solution to a real-world problem.
Engineering researchers of an innovative academy program have designed a Submersible Remotely Operated Vehicle (SROV) in a span of six weeks after accepting the U.K. Navy’s challenge.
“I was skeptical at first that we could pull off such an ambitious project within the timeframe,” said Dylan Brennan, project team lead, a nuclear graduate working for Jacobs.
Amazon has launched drone delivery trials in a couple of new locations in California and Texas.
David Carbon, vice president of Prime Air Amazon, announced the development on LinkedIn. His post included a photo (below) showing one of its drones carrying a small box on the end of a tether.
“First deliveries from our new sites in Texas and California,” Carbon wrote in his post. “Couldn’t be prouder of the amazing people that make up Prime Air. These are careful first steps that we will turn into giant leaps for our customers over the next number of years.”
Robots and autonomous cars will have eyes that see much more than the human eye is capable of, a review of the growing field of meta-optics has found.
Meta-optics is advancing science and technology far beyond the 3,000-year-old optical paradigm that we rely on for the visual human-machine interface, such as through cameras in our mobile phones, the lenses in microscopes, drones, and telescopes. Optical components are the technology bottleneck that meta-optics aims to transform, bringing the stuff of science-fiction stories into everyday devices.
The field, which blossomed after the early 2000s thanks to the conceptualization of a material with negative refractive index that could form a perfect lens, has grown rapidly in the last five years and now sees around 3,000 publications a year.
The transportation system in the future will be very different from our current system. We will see flying cars, self-driving cars, passenger drones, hyperloop one system that is projected to reach a top speed of 760 mph (1,220 km/h) and with Starship and the Super Heavy Rocket, most journeys will taking less than 30 minutes, with access to anywhere in the world in an hour or less.
Starship-Super Heavy Earth to Earth : With Starship and the Super Heavy Rocket, most of what people consider to be long distance trips would be completed in less than half an hour. In addition to vastly increased speed, one great benefit about traveling in space, outside of Earth’s atmosphere, is the lack of friction as well as turbulence and weather. Consider how much time we currently spend traveling from one place to another. Now imagine most journeys taking less than 30 minutes, with access to anywhere in the world in an hour or less. It’s designed to service all Earth orbit needs as well as the Moon and Mars. This two-stage vehicle—composed of the Super Heavy Rocket (booster) and Starship (ship).
Hyperloop One : The Hyperloop is a new mode of transportation that moves freight and people quickly, safely, on-demand and direct from origin to destination. Passengers or cargo are loaded into the hyperloop vehicle and accelerate gradually via electric propulsion through a low-pressure tube. The vehicle floats above the track using magnetic levitation and glides at airline speeds for long distances due to ultra-low aerodynamic drag. Hyperloop One systems will be built on columns or tunneled below ground to avoid dangerous grade crossings and wildlife. It’s fully autonomous and enclosed, eliminating pilot error and weather hazards.
The drone is highly maneuverable, with a flight time of five hours and an operational altitude of 35,000 feet, as per the defense company.
Turkey’s first jet-powered uncrewed aerial combat vehicle (UCAV), Kizilelma, “Red Apple,” has completed its inaugural flight, as per the country’s lead defense manufacturer.
The makers of this new combat ariel vehicle, Baykar (a Turkish defense company), posted the test results via social media on Wednesday.