U.S. Department of Transportation said it would use the same process to consider approval of drone taxis that would carry passengers and cargo for hire as it does for approving traditional commercial air carriers. Under U.S. law, the agency must certify that any business carrying people or cargo for hire is economically “fit, willing and …
China has a relatively profitable foreign policy by only investing in reconstruction, trade deals with dictators and not committing troops to alter other countries. China will let whoever is in power in Iraq, Iran, Syria and other places. Those leaders do what they need to do and partner with whomever they need to partner with …
The subcommittee on Emerging Threats and capabilities met Dr. Michael Griffin undersecretary of defense for Research and Engineering on accelerating new technologies to meet emerging threats. Rapid technological advancements have the potential to change the very character of war. Michael Griffin said “We need to have 100-kilowatt-class weapons on Army theater vehicles. We need to …
Foxconn and Tesla have been targeting extreme automation plans. Both have had to cut back plans for full automation and adding robotics to replace people by many years. Foxconn will be raising $4.3 billion to boost their automation efforts that will still be over decade behind original plans. This means that regular companies with far …
DARPA’s OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) program envisions future small-unit infantry forces using small unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) and/or small unmanned ground systems (UGSs) in swarms of 250 robots or more to accomplish diverse missions in complex urban environments. By leveraging and combining emerging technologies in swarm autonomy and human-swarm teaming, the program seeks to enable …
Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) and the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) are developing unmanned aerial system (UAS) technology to fly into the containment vessels of the damaged units at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station and assess conditions. During the project, the SwRI-UPenn team demonstrated that the UAS was capable of autonomously navigating in a confined, …
Raytheon ramping up High Energy Laser (HEL) and High Powered Microwave (HPM) weapons that can find, fix and kill or disable the increasingly cheap and capable drones. Antidrone lasers and microwave weapons will be a several billion dollar market over the next five years. Above – This is the Raytheon laser dune buggy, a solid-state …
IBM’s mission is to help their clients change the way the world works. There’s no better example of that than IBM Research’s annual “5 in 5” technology predictions. Each year, we showcase some of the biggest breakthroughs coming out of IBM Research’s global labs – five technologies that they believe will fundamentally reshape business and …
Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq:KTOS) has received U.S. State Department approval to market its Mako High Performance Jet Tactical Unmanned Aerial System to certain European and Asia Pacific region countries. The XQ-222 Valkyrie and UTAP-22 Mako are relatively cheap drones that could double as a fighter pilot’s expendable wingmen in future wars. The …
Drone delivery could be coming to the US very soon: Package delivery trials are expected to begin “within months,” according to a recent Wall Street Journal report. The White House is pushing for closer collaboration between the government and companies like Amazon to get authorization for drone ventures like Amazon’s Prime Air. Delivery initiatives have …
Commercial drones in the U.S. are expected to begin limited package deliveries within months, according to federal regulators and industry officials. According to a Federal Aviation Association official at the FAA Symposium, there are 10 times more drones registered in the US than manned aircraft. FAA’s websit describes the Unmanned Aircraft System Traffic Management (UTM) …