đČ Assault Droids!
A video showing a demonstration of a Chinese drone acting as a mini dropship for a robot dog armed with a machine gun has emerged online.
Category: drones – Page 42
Putin may test underwater nuke 150 times stronger than Hiroshima bomb near Ukrainian border: report
Defense officials fear Russian President Vladimir Putin may flex his military power by testing a massive nuclear torpedo called Poseidon, a report said.
NATO reportedly issued an intelligence report to its members and allies warning that the Kremlin is planning to test so-called âdoomsdayâ nuclear torpedo drones, a senior UK defense source told the Times of London on Monday.
Poseidon is a long-range undersea nuke designed to hit coastal cities at extremely long range by traveling to targets underwater.
Raytheon Intelligence & Space and Kord team-up to defeat multiple mortars and large drones with Stryker-mounted high-energy laser
LAS CRUCES, N.M., May 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ â In four weeks of continuous live-fire exercises, an industry team led by Raytheon Intelligence & Space, a Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX) business, and Kord, a wholly owned subsidiary of KBR, defeated multiple 60mm mortar rounds with a 50kW-class high energy laser integrated on a Stryker combat vehicle.
The directed energy weapon system â part of the U.S. Armyâs Directed Energy Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense, or DE M-SHORAD â acquired, tracked, targeted and defeated multiple mortars and successfully accomplished multiple tests simulating real-world scenarios.
Continuing to put the DE M-SHORAD system to the test, the recent operational assessment at White Sands Missile Range also included defeating several small, medium and large drones.
Blainjettâs hemi-rotor concept promises faster, more efficient VTOL performance
Blainjett Aviation announced that initial testing of its hemi-rotor aerodynamic concept has confirmed its potential to deliver faster, more efficient performance in VTOL aircraft. Subscale tests demonstrated the novel configurationâs net positive lift and low drag through the ascent/hover, cruise, and descent/hover phases of flight.
The startup is applying the hemi-rotor concept to a subscale drone as part of a path to demonstrating that the configuration can scale to larger unmanned or manned aircraft in eVTOL applications from package delivery and cargo to transport and tactical military roles. Blainjettâs hemi-rotor design situates familiar vertical lift rotors partially inside opposite sides of an enclosed fuselage. The airfoil-shaped fuselage also houses a pair of electric motors to drive the lift-rotors. Situated in the empennage above an inverted V-tail, the third motor powers a pusher prop.
In a hover, conventional open-rotors generate an even amount of lift all the way around. But when a traditional rotorcraft flies forward, its rotor blades both advances forward into the relative wind and retreat from it during rotation. This yields a dissymmetry of lift on opposing sides of the rotor arc, eventually creating a hard speed limit.
A robot went inside Hurricane Fiona. The wild footage is unlike anything youâve seen before
Saildrone/NOAA
Recently, the collaboration between the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Saildrone, a company that develops sailing drones, did exactly that. They sent a robot into Hurricane Fiona, the tropical storm that has deluged Puerto Rico and is now headed towards Canadaâs east coast, Mashable reported.
How drones, crypto, and satellites are changing the face of war / Thomas Frey & Trent Fowler
Russiaâs war on Ukraine has turned a lot of assumptions about the fundamental nature and trajectory of how wars are fought, on its head.
For one thing, Ukraineâs strong defense has upended conventional wisdom about big powers being able to violate at will the sovereignty of little powers.
Technology, in particular, drones, has also leveled the playing field in unique ways.
The emergence of cryptocurrency, both as a means to fund the war and the relief efforts, raises all kinds of interesting questions about the ability to enforce sanctions and bypass the traditional financing of wars with alternate means.
I had a great discussion about these and other topics with Thomas Frey, and Trent Fowler, who have been giving a lot of thought to the future of war.
Frey is the founder and Executive Director of the DaVinci Institute and co-host of the Futurati Podcast. Over the past decade, he has built an enormous following around the world based on his ability to develop accurate visions of the future and describe the opportunities ahead.
3D-printed drones work like bees to build and repair structures while flying
The technology, which has been tested in the lab, could ultimately be used for manufacturing and building in difficult-to-access or dangerous locations such as tall buildings or help with post-disaster relief construction, say the researchers.
3D printing is gaining momentum in the construction industry. Both on-site and in the factory, static and mobile robots print materials for use in construction projects, such as steel and concrete structures.
This new approach to 3D printingâled in its development by Imperial and Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories of Materials Science and Technologyâuses flying robots, known as drones, that use collective building methods inspired by natural builders like bees and wasps who work together to create large, intricate structures.
Undefined claims 4.5-min flight for its âsilentâ ion-propulsion drone
Floridaâs âsilentâ flying dish-rack, powered by ionic propulsion, is on track for commercial rollout in 2024, according to Undefined Technologies, which has released new outdoor flight test video. We remain curious, but unconvinced itâll be viable.
The âSilent Ventusâ drone doesnât use propellers to fly. Instead, its entire broad structure creates two stacked grids of electrodes, designed to create high-voltage electric fields that can ionize the oxygen and nitrogen molecules in the air, freeing electrons to give them a positive charge, and then propelling these downward to create an âionic windâ that can produce thrust.
Itâs not new; ionic propulsion has been used in space, and as we pointed out when we first saw the Silent Ventus drone project, for a few very small-scale terrestrial projects as well, one of which was used to levitate Orville the mouse in 2003. Undefined says its âAir Tantrumâ technology yields âhigher levels of thrust, up to 150% compared to current ion thruster technologies.â
Animal-inspired flying robots are going to 3D build mid-flight
The drones will help the construction industry in hard-to-reach and dangerous places.
Consider the drone bees. These bees, which probably gave their name to todayâs drones, are also may have inspired by their physical features. Letâs learn how.
Researchers from Imperial College London and Empa have created a fleet of bee-inspired flying drone printers for 3D printing buildings.