Watch a team of robots launch and target a missile

Watch a team of robots launch and target a missile

Post Views: 263 The demonstration was part of a NATO exercise called Robotic Experimentation and Prototyping Augmented by Maritime Unmanned Systems, or REPMUS. The training ran for two weeks, concluding September 24, and was designed to facilitate collaboration between navies and robots from several nations. The REPMUS series of exercises began in 2019, and it…

This solar-powered British drone will surveil from the stratosphere

This solar-powered British drone will surveil from the stratosphere

Post Views: 314 PHASA-35 stands for “Persistent High Altitude Solar Aircraft.” The number 35 is its wingspan in meters: that’s 115 feet, as wide as those of a Boeing 737. But the carbon fiber aircraft weighs a mere 330 pounds, which is one three-thousandth the weight of the 737. The drone is a high-altitude long-endurance…

Inspired by a seed, this rotating drone will make your head spin

Inspired by a seed, this rotating drone will make your head spin

Post Views: 225 Created by a team at the Singapore University of Technology & Design, this new seed-inspired one-wing drone is named F-SAM. It is a type of monocopter, or a helicopter with only one rotating blade. Engineers first developed a monocopter in 1913, with testing in 1915, but a problem arises in trying to…

These gliding drones could deliver supplies from Air Force planes to the battlefield

These gliding drones could deliver supplies from Air Force planes to the battlefield

Post Views: 225 This contract is, formally, “Guided Bundle Derivative of Silent Arrow for Side Door and Palletized Swarm Deployment at High Speeds and Altitudes,” with the drones themselves deemed Precision Guided Bundles. That’s a mess of a program name, but it tells a story in pieces. In 2019, Silent Arrow exhibited a large version…

Flying, amphibious drones may help us fight wildfires in a warming world

Post Views: 213 In the plains of central Spain, just about 90 minutes south of Madrid, a firefighting robot is taking flight. With two engines, a smooth underbelly, and a construction straight out of World War II’s Atlantic theater, the Singular Aircraft Flyox is a drone designed as an aerial workhorse on land and water….

The US Navy is testing autonomous seafaring robots that patrol the ocean

The US Navy is testing autonomous seafaring robots that patrol the ocean

Post Views: 287 Saildrones can be outfitted with a range of sensors. The version of the robotic surfer that Popular Science selected for a 2021 Best of What’s New award was used by NOAA to track hurricane winds. The drones can carry sensors for wind speed and direction, for air temperature and humidity, for measuring…

The most compelling military tech stories from the land, air, and sea this year

The most compelling military tech stories from the land, air, and sea this year

Post Views: 285 Microsoft inked an enormous, multi-billion-dollar deal to deliver high-tech augmented reality goggles for the US Army. The gadget is based on Microsoft’s HoloLens, although the Army refers to it as the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, or IVAS. The devices are a head-up display with night-vision tech and more, and while they promise…

The US Navy is testing out drone-zapping laser weapons

The US Navy is testing out drone-zapping laser weapons

Post Views: 306 To better understand modern directed-energy weapons, it’s important to take a step back from the science-fiction idea of a laser weapon. High-powered beams of light are expensive to develop and deploy, but they offer a kind of cost-savings once they are up and running. Provided a ship can generate the electrical power…