• Silent Falcon solar electric unmanned aerial system unveiled

    Silent Falcon UAS Technologies last week unveiled the much anticipated Silent Falcon solar electric unmanned aerial system (UAS) at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) conference in Las Vegas

  • Manned planes beating drones as the more capable tool in war on drugs

    In the never-ending war on drugs, U.S. Navy planes are showing that technology does not necessarily mean improvement, as manned planes are outmaneuvering unmanned drones in catching cocaine smugglers traveling by sea; in 2011 the manned planes caught an average of $30 million of cocaine per day, and during the last five years they have detected more than 853,000 pounds of cocaine

  • Drones used by police, firefighters raise privacy concerns

    DHS is accelerating the use of unmanned drones by police and firefighters around the country with the intent of detecting fires, radiation leaks, and other potential threats, but Congress and privacy advocacy organizations think the se of drones raises several privacy issues

  • UAVs with dexterous arms to help in infrastructure repair and disaster recovery

    With current technology, most UAVs perform passive tasks such as surveillance and reconnaissance missions, tasks which are performed well above ground; researchers are interested in how UAVs might interact with objects at or near ground level; a UAV with dexterous arms could perform a wide range of active near-ground missions, from infrastructure repair and disaster recovery to border inspection and agricultural handling

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  • Researchers say spoofed GPS signals can be countered

    From cars to commercial airplanes to military drones, global positioning system (GPS) technology is everywhere — and researchers have known for years that it can be hacked, or as they call it, “spoofed”; the best defense, they say, is to create countermeasures that unscrupulous GPS spoofers can not deceive

  • Unmanned systems emulate animals’ conditioned fear-response mechanism for self-preservation

    When animals in the wild engage in eating or grazing, their eyes, ears, and sense of smell continuously monitor the environment for any sense of danger; researchers developed a similar conditioned fear-response mechanism for unmanned systems

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  • UAV Code of Conduct for unmanned aircraft systems operations released

    The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) has published the Unmanned Aircraft System Operations Industry Code of Conduct, a set of guidelines to provide AUVSI members — and those who design, test, and operate unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for public and civil use — with recommendations for their safe, non-intrusive operation

  • UAV Code of Conduct for unmanned aircraft systems operations released

    The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) has published the Unmanned Aircraft System Operations Industry Code of Conduct, a set of guidelines to provide AUVSI members — and those who design, test, and operate unmanned aerial systems (UAS) for public and civil use — with recommendations for their safe, non-intrusive operation

  • First successful "spoofing" of UAVs demonstrated

    A research team successfully demonstrated for the first time that the GPS signals of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), or drone, can be commandeered by an outside source — a discovery that could factor heavily into the implementation of a new federal mandate to allow thousands of civilian drones into the U.S. airspace by 2015

  • DARPA’s UAVForge shows challenge of developing perch and stare UAV

    DARPA’s UAVForge is a crowdsourcing competition to design, build, and manufacture an advanced small UAV; the competition aims to determine whether a loosely-connected community of UAV enthusiasts could develop a militarily relevant back-pack portable UAV with specific capabilities

  • Lawmaker proposes restrictions on domestic drone use

    Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) on Tuesday introduced legislation into the Senate which he says aims to protect individual privacy against unwarranted governmental intrusion through the use of the unmanned aerial vehicles commonly known as drones

  • Day of wide-spread domestic drone use nears

    So far, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration( FAA) has issued 266 active testing permits for civilian-drone applications, but has yet to allow drones wide-scale access to U.S. airspace; law enforcement and industry officials say that it is only a matter of time before the FAA would allow the more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies and departments to begin to use drones for surveillance

  • NASA to operate unmanned aircraft over hurricanes this year

    Beginning this summer and over the next several years, NASA will be sending unmanned aircraft dubbed “severe storm sentinels” above stormy skies to help researchers and forecasters uncover information about hurricane formation and intensity changes

  • Can UAVs emulate bats’ flight capabilities?

    The natural world has countless examples of creatures with extraordinary flight capabilities, but bats have evolved with truly extraordinary aerodynamic capabilities that enable them to fly in dense swarms, avoid obstacles, and fly with such agility that they can catch prey on the wing, maneuver through thick rainforests, and make high-speed 180 degree turns; researchers want to know whether UAVs can emulate bats

  • First response, law enforcement UAVs, robot markets to grow

    Training and simulation account for $13.73 billion in spending by the U.S. Department of Defense budget in 2012, roughly 2 percent the DoDs total budget, and UAV training is a not-insignificant part of that budget; first-responder robot markets, valued at $440.4 million in 2011, are anticipated to reach $1.6 billion by 2018