Lifeboat Foundation

Engineers have designed and successfully tested a more efficient wind sensor for use on drones, balloons and other autonomous aircraft.

These wind sensors—called anemometers—are used to monitor wind speed and direction. As demand for autonomous aircraft increases, better wind sensors are needed to make it easier for these vehicles to both sense weather changes and perform safer take-offs and landings, according to researchers.

Such enhancements could improve how people use their local airspace, whether it be through drones delivering packages or passengers one day flying on unmanned aircraft, said Marcelo Dapino, co-author of the study and a professor in mechanical and aerospace engineering at The Ohio State University.

In 1903, the Wright brothers invented the first successful airplane. By 1914, just over a decade after its successful test, aircraft would be used in combat in World War I, with capabilities including reconnaissance, bombing and aerial combat. This has been categorized by most historians as a revolution in military affairs. The battlefield, which previously included land and sea, now included the sky, permanently altering the way wars are fought. With the new technology came new strategy, policy, tactics, procedures and formations.

Twenty years ago, unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) were much less prevalent and capable. Today, their threat potential and risk profile have increased significantly. UASs are becoming increasingly more affordable and capable, with improved optics, greater speed, longer range and increased lethality.

The U.S. has long been a proponent of utilizing unmanned aircraft systems, with the MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-1 Predator excelling in combat operations, and smaller squad-based UASs being fielded, such as the RQ-11 Raven and the Switchblade. While the optimization of friendly UAS capability can yield great results on the battlefield, adversarial use of unmanned aircraft systems can be devastating.

The technology, even the interceptor systems already exists; We just need to integrate them. See my survey of the existing interceptors and how we could use them in conjunction with space launch rockets, such as a derivative of the Ares I-X which has already flown! Listen as I explain how many of these various interceptors you can fly in massive drone swarms from Ares I style boosters and larger variants.

Awesome deals for long term food supplies for those long missions to deep space (or prepping in case your spaceship crashes: See the Special Deals at My Patriot Supply: www.PrepWithGreg.com.

Continue reading “Stop Sarmat (Satan II), Hypersonics — All Missiles — the Details” »

Come Monday, August 8, and a drone delivery mailbox located in a suburb of Indianapolis will create history by accepting traditional posts from US Mail. That delivery will be followed by McDonald’s delivering Big Mac and french fries to the same mailbox through a drone.

Dronedek smart drone mailboxes are powered by Oracle. The company uses a platform-agnostic approach to consolidate and funnel deliveries (and pickups) from all carriers, couriers, and logistics services to GPS-verified locations. Dronedek is in talks with several national delivery services, including UberEats, DoorDash, and other major retail delivery companies, to cater to its next-gen mailbox.

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A US Robotics company is adding new artificial intelligence anomaly detection capabilities to its autonomous Scout System drone. A leading US provider of private wireless data, drone and automated data has announced that the new containment capabilities will enable oil and gas customers to minimize environmental risks, clean-up costs, fines, and litigation expenses.

Suasnews.com reports that the loss of containment analytics feature will accelerate early detection and location of crude oil leaks before they become critical to customers by providing frequent, autonomous inspections of oil and gas pumpjacks, heater treaters, tanks, pipes, pumps, and more via the autonomous Scout System. Autonomous drones have become a crucial component to ensuring safety and conducting regular inspections within the oil and gas industry.

War is changing. As drones replace snipers, we must consider the ethics of autonomous weapons making life or death decisions.

Circa 2019 😀 What a fun mind controlled toy drone 😗

How much more fun could drones be if you got fiddly hand controllers out of the way and flew them with your mind? That’s the question EEGSmart poses with its UDrone mini-quad, which responds to brainwaves and head movements instead of thumbsticks. It’s not perfect, but it does give a glimpse of a mind-controlled future.

Continue reading “Review: Hands-free flight with EEGSmart’s mind-controlled UDrone” »

These include aquatic drones that can be programmed to scoop up floating debris from the surface of rivers, and buggies that use artificial intelligence (AI) to search for and pick up litter for use on beaches.

Scientists are also hoping to scale up the use of magnetic nano-scale springs that hook on to microplastics and break them down.

Continue reading “MailOnline takes a look at technologies to remove plastic in oceans” »