Researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) broke the endurance record for small electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) by developing a vehicle powered by liquid hydrogen fuel and a fuel cell. This flight shatters their previous record of 26 hours and 2 minutes set in 2009 using the same vehicle, but with gaseous hydrogen… »
The Office of Naval Research (ONR) funded a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program which examines birds’ perceptual and maneuvering abilities when flying at high speeds through complex environments, such as forests or urban settings in order to improve performance of small unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in those settings. Aside increasing their agility, these small UAVs… »
Nearly two years after it has been revealed to the public during a ceremony in St. Louis, Boeing recently revealed that their high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) named Phantom Eye managed to complete its first take off and landing. Although its performance is still far from the goals set by Boeing, it does… »
Max Planck Institute (MPI) researchers are using computer simulations and prototypes in order to enhance the simulations control of multiple robots. They are developing flying multi-robot systems, which receive instructions from a user and fulfill the commands in an autonomous manner. Navigated by a human operator, four or more of these Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)… »
Engineers at the University of Southampton have designed and flown a 3D printed aircraft named Southampton University Laser Sintered Aircraft (SULSA). SULSA is an unmanned air vehicle (UAV) whose entire structure has been printed on an EOS EOSINT P730 nylon laser sintering machine, which fabricates plastic or metal objects, building up the item layer by… »
Birds routinely land on small surfaces, using wing morphing and flapping techniques. The UC San Diego engineers, led by mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Tom Bewley and graduate student Kim Wright, analyzed slow motion videos of birds landing to generate a working hypotheses for how biomimicry of wing morphing and flapping can be used for… »
