drones

Drone dogfights by 2015? U.S. Navy preps for futuristic combat

MONTEREY, Calif.--Imagine an aerial dogfight of epic proportions: Fifty aircraft on a side, each prowling the sky for advantage over dozens of adversaries.

If Timothy Chung has his way, such a battle could take place over Southern California by 2015. But before you worry that war is coming to American soil, you should know that Chung's vision is really about a high-tech game of Capture the Flag played by as many as a hundred small, lightweight unmanned aerial vehicles playing their role in a grand challenge of an experiment.

Chung is an assistant professor in the Systems Engineering … Read more

U.S. Navy turns to Linux to run its drone fleet

Seeming eager to avoid potential malware attacks that could cripple its drone fleet, the U.S. Navy will begin installing Linux to control some of its autonomous flying vehicles.

The contract, which is worth $27,883,883, calls for a "Linux transition on the tactical control system software for vertical take-off (VTOL) unmanned air vehicle ground control stations."

According to The Register, the Navy has just one VTOL drone model, of which it hopes to eventually have 168, Northrop Grumman's MQ-8B Fire Scout, which "has the ability to autonomously take off and land on any aviation-capable … Read more

Why does a two-bit Alabama town have two spy drones?

I would like to quote from the Web site of the City of Gadsden, Ala. (pop. 104,303):

Gadsden is the perfect place to live, raise a family and retire, while you enjoy relaxation, historical and scenic sites, cultural events and all sorts of entertainment and activities.

Why, then, would anyone in this perfect place have ordered two surveillance drones (in 2010, apparently) for use by the police department?

A similar question appears to have occupied the sleuths at the Gadsden Times. For in an act of concerned public-spiritedness, they confronted police chief John Crane with this disturbing information.

The … Read more

More drones take to the sky, like it or not

New documents shed light on which government agencies are experimenting with the domestic use of unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as drones.

Drone use isn't restricted to Homeland Security, the FBI, and the Air Force. Legal authorization to fly drones has also been extended to police departments including ones in Herington, Kan., (population 2,526) and Gadsden, Ala., (which touts the nearby Foggy Hollow Bluegrass Gatherin' on its town Web site).

The Electronic Frontier Foundation had to sue the Feds to obtain the lists of drone approvals, which the Federal Aviation Administration finally released this week. A second list … Read more

Shimon Peres calls for tech to leverage infantry

SAN FRANCISCO--Shimon Peres, president of Israel, continued his high-profile swing through Silicon Valley by speaking at the Launch Conference this morning. Speaking to an audience of venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, he made the case for working in Israel and appealed to the entrepreneurs to create technological goods and services that could help humanity, and Israel itself.

The country of Israel, he said, "had nothing. No water, no oil, no resources." He said that the only true resource in the country was, and is, the people. That has made for a highly technological society. Israel has more scientists per … Read more

DARPA plans 'Avatar' surrogate robots

Could soldiers of the future fight battles in robot bodies controlled from afar? DARPA apparently thinks so, and the agency wants to create an army of surrogate fighting droids.

The U.S. military's research wing apparently is planning surrogates like in the film "Avatar" but with robots instead of giant Na'vi. It has a $7 million program code-named "Avatar" in its 2013 budget, according to Wired.

The robots would reduce risk to human fighters, just as thousands of aerial drones are already keeping pilots out of harm's way. … Read more

Redbox partners up to challenge Netflix

Google is working on augmented-reality goggles, say goodbye to Blockbuster Express kiosks, and Redbox and Verizon team up to take on Netflix.

Links from Monday's episode of Loaded:

Kickstarter grounds Eye3 flying camera

Fancy having your own self-guided flying camera mount? One that could get your Canon dSLR soaring over your house and neighborhood for only $2,500?

Kickstarter fans would, so much so that they ponied up triple the $25,000 funding goal for the Eye3 hexacopter, powered by the open-source APM2 autopilot platform.

After all, flying drones, military and civilian, can record stunning footage for a lot less than the price of a helicopter camera crew.

But Kickstarter has poked its finger in the Eye3, pulling the plug on funding. … Read more

Parrot AR.Drone quadcopter gets better specs and software

The cool smartphone-controlled Parrot AR.Drone quadcopter, first shown at CES in 2010, is getting some good updates that are being announced at this year's conference.

The biggest changes for the AR.Drone 2.0 are hardware and software improvements to make the device easier to fly. Better location and orientation sensors should make the drone more stable in the air, and a new pressure sensor will help it hold its altitude more accurately when it's more than a few feet off the ground (when the ultrasonic ground proximity sensor is ineffective).

On the software side, a new &… Read more

In 2011, these flying machines soared

In 2011, Boeing's 787 Dreamliner carried passengers for the first time, and the space shuttle landed for the final time.

For aviation buffs and aerospace junkies, those were the signature events of the year. In the case of the shuttle, there were actually three such moments, and each time we got more verklempt: Discovery, Endeavour, and Atlantis all flew their final missions. But as the door closes on that 30-year piece in history, a window is opening to private space ventures like SpaceX and the newly unveiled Stratolaunch effort from Paul Allen and Burt Rutan.

Boeing got a lot … Read more