Important Innovations

Little Ripper, the Lifesaver Drone from Australia Source:  The Ripper Group "Little Ripper" Flying Drone for Search, Rescue and First Alert Missions This is important drone innovation developed by the University of Technology-Sydney and the Ripper Group of Australia.  Little Ripper is a remotely piloted, flying drone being deployed in Australia for search, rescue and first alert mission.  It even provides shark sighting alerts for swimmers. For a news blog on this remarkable, new innovation, go to journalist Ed Kane's blog at Important Innovations Collection: Little Ripper - Drone Lifesaver : Multi Tasking Flying Drone - Alert, Search and Rescue Source:  The Little Ripper Award Winning Drone Innovation from Down Under It&#3...

Lift Aircraft's Manned Drone Multicopter Just Flew Over Texas.  It's all electric and is being called a world first.   https://importantinnovationscollection.blogspot.com/2018/12/manned-multicopter-takes-off.html Source:  Lift Aircraft Photo of Hexa Readying for Takeoff Maryanne Kane

New, Low Altitude Radar Innovation Capable of Tracking Widespread Drone Use Source:  Raytheon Skylar Rollout of Widespread Drone Deliveries Enabled Raytheon Corporation, the US defense contractor, has developed a low altitude, radar system capable of tracking flying vehicles below 3200 feet. It's an innovation breakthrough for the drone aviation industry.  For drones to be able to deliver on their potential, we have to be able to track the small, low flying vehicles, 24/7. Enter Raytheon's Skylar Raytheon's new, low power radar is known as Skylar.  It's a compact unit that's less than one meter square.  It scans for objects using a radar system similar to that in modern fighter jets. Top Innovation - Potential Use This system has been cited as a top innovation in 2018.  Here's Raytheon vision of how it could be deployed.  Networks of these units on cell towers, hills and on buildings.  They say that would be far cheaper and far more effective for

US Navy's Huge Drone Sea Hunter Source:  Office of Naval Research - The Sea Hunter The Drone Sea Hunter Ship The US Navy's Office of Naval Research is developing a huge drone ship.  It's called the Sea Hunter.  The prototype ship is undergoing sea trials.  It's a fully autonomous behemoth built to roam and surveil the 7 seas. No Humans Onboard The 140 ton drone ship has been built for the US Navy to autonomously track enemy submarines.  It also is being used to detect mines in the open ocean.  It can operate with no human intervention for up to 90 days.  Following more successful sea trials, it will be fully operational.

Soaring Like a Bird AI Glider Nature Inspired Breakthrough Innovation Scientists at the University of California, San Diego have built an artificial intelligence powered glider - an autonomous, fixed wing drone - that learns to fly with the dexterity and maneuverability of birds.  This is another fascinating example of highly advanced technology imitating nature.  It also has ramifications for future drones. By riding air currents, they'd be able to fly longer and more efficiently. Advanced Algorithm They've equipped the drone with an advanced algorithm and control system.  That enables it to navigate wind currents like birds do.  The glider is totally dependent on the wind. It has learned to seek updrafts which enable it to stay aloft indefinitely. Very Smart Glider Bottom-line:  this is a very smart glider.  It can tell when it's approaching an updraft and then use the wind to maximize its time in the air.  The scientists' research and results were j

Controlling Drones and Aircraft by Brain Waves Image from DARPA Mind over Matter The US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA is working on highly innovative technology that enables humans to control drones and full-sized aircraft by their minds' brain waves.  It's command and control by thoughts. Microchip Implant that Sends and Receives Data For the DARPA research, a micro-chip was implanted into a volunteer's brain. In simulations with drones on computer screens, the person was able to command and control the drones. DARPA also disclosed at a recent symposium the system works with swarms of drones and multiple aircraft.  The user is able to steer multiple jets at once. The user of the microchip can send and receive signals from the aircraft and understand the dynamics of its environment. Innovative & To Some Controversial Thinking To some this is controversial research.  DARPA's mission is to provide the US military wi

Novel, Tiny Robot Has Big Applications for Drones DelFly Robot - Image Courtesy of Delft University New Robot Mimics Insect Flight Researchers at Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands have developed a novel flying robot that mimics the flight control and dynamics of insects.  Its flying wings beat 17 times per second.  And it generates enough force to stay airborne and controls the flight by slight changes in wing motion. DelFly Nimble The engineers have named it DelFly Nimble. The tiny robot is autonomous.  It can hover on the spot,  do 360० flips and fly any direction with agility like an insect.  Right now it has top speeds of 15.5 mph and excellent power efficiency with a flight range of 1 km on a fully charged battery. Important Applications DelFly Nimble has exceptional flight qualities which open up new drone applications.  Scientists say it's also exceptionally well suited to advance biological and engineering research into insects and their fli

Thwarting Bird Strikes on Planes Miracle on the Hudson Caltech, Imperial College London & South Korean scientists have just developed an autonomous flying drone that herds birds out of airspaces.  They investigated the problem of flocking birds hitting aircraft, which happens daily, putting passenger lives in danger.  They've developed a robotic aerial device - a robo bird that herds.  Their research was inspired by the "Miracle on the Hudson" - the US Air jet hit by birds that the pilot landed on the Hudson River. Robo Bird Just one of the new drones can redirect an entire flock of birds.  It has a new herding algorithm.  The algorithm enables a flying drone to herd a flock of birds away from an airspace without hurting them or breaking their formation.  The scientists and engineers created the algorithm by carefully observing flock dynamics and how the flock interacts with flying objects. Successfully Tested The herding drone was successfully tested in So

"Amateur" Engineer Success Story with His Flying Car Kynz Mendoza's Flying Car Taking Off in Philippines Up and Away in Flight Tests This is an innovation story you just have to love.  In the Philippines, inventor Kynz Mendoza has had it with daily traffic jams.  To avoid them he's created and just successfully tested his solution.  It's his own flying car that's actually a large drone which can carry one person. It's the start of something that may be great. Good News for the Inventor The car tested successfully. It rose 25 feet into the air, can fly 15 minutes and land safely.  It has a metal frame of super light and strong carbon fiber and is powered by 2 batteries.  A lot more testing and development will need to be done but his achievement is great.. Plans Mendoza and his group of flying car enthusiasts called Koncepts Millenya are developing the model for 2 passengers.  They also want longer flight durations beyond the 15 minutes on a sin

Quadcopter Drones with Wheels MIT roboticists have created what may be the world's most versatile robots.  They can fly and drive.  They are also autonomous.  And, according to the scientists, they can find their own safe paths. No Collisions The MIT team took 8, 4-rotor quadcopter drones and equipped them with 2 small motors and wheels. They developed algorithms to make sure they don't collide.  In test simulations, they fly and drive perfectly. Combo Vehicles that Work The robots can fly for 295 feet and drive 826 feet until their batteries run out.  The scientists say the most important implication of their research is that vehicles which combine flying and driving have the potential to be more efficient and useful than vehicles that just fly or drive.  They believe their experiments are helping to explore and forward ideas for flying cars.

Columbian Police Drone Test Program to Search & Destroy Cocaine Crops Drone on Patrol in Columbia  Drone Test Program to Search & Destroy Illegal Crops Columbian police are testing drones to destroy coca plants used to make cocaine.  There's a surge in the cultivation of illegal crops in Columbia.  New President Ivan Duque prefers drones over planes to drop herbicides and destroy the illegal crops.  There's a reason.  Drones are remote-controlled saving human lives, fly low and are more precise, minimizing collateral damage to legal crops.   10 Drones on Test Duty With Good Results 10 drones are now deployed in the southwest Narino province.  They weigh 50 pounds when loaded with herbicides.  Thus far, the remotely guided drones have destroyed hundreds of acres of coca plants. The tests will continue until January 2019. Columbia Cocaine Fields Growing In Columbia, coca fields have increased 160% to 516,000 acres in the past 5 years.  It's a growi

Reliably Controlling Drones thru Mobile Network Voice Channels German scientists have developed a new way to control drones.  They're using mobile network voice channels which are virtually everywhere and very reliable.  Current practice is to use cellular data channels, which often fail resulting in loss of contact and control of the drone.  The scientists say connecting to a drone through voice channels on mobile networks is as easy as making a phone call. Expanding Drone Deployments This is a very important and ingenious development by scientists at the Fraunhofer Heinrich-Hertz Institute in Berlin.  Increased use of drones in cities for deliveries, transportation, search and rescue, etc. requires more dependable connections between the unmanned flying vehicles and operators.  Data channels have proven to be unreliable, frequently interrupted and drop out. Great Idea - Infrastructure is Already There What's so great about this innovation is the infrastructure is a

Power Beaming is an Emerging Disruptive Technology Source: Silent Falcon UAS Technologies -Silent Falcon California-based Silent Falcon UAS Technologies is partnering with the Pentagon's Advanced Research Projects Agency -DARPA -  to implement laser power beaming for its solar-electric powered drones.  Silent Falcon drones can fly non-stop 6 hours using batteries and solar energy. They are the world's first solar electric, long range, long endurance unmanned aircraft system or UAS. DARPA wants to make the flight time much longer by topping off the batteries via laser beams from the ground.  DARPA officials say they're right on the brink of delivering this disruptive technology. Endless Uses for Endless Flights What DARPA wants is drones capable of indefinite flight.  The drones would engage in sequences of flying and flying while charging from a high powered laser beam directed from the ground.  There would be no need to land and refuel.  This emerging technology

Disappearing Act  ICARUS Mid-stage Disappearance MIT founded Morse Corporation of Cambridge, MA has developed a drone designed to self-destruct and disappear after its mission is accomplished.  It's called ICARUS or Inbound, Controlled, Air-Releasable, Unrecovered System project.   DARPA Funded DARPA, the Pentagon's Advanced Research Projects Agency, provided Morse $8million to create an aerial disappearing delivery system.  Essentially drones deployed from aircraft, deliver their payload and then self-destruct and disappear. ICARUS ICARUS can fly 100 miles, land within 30 feet of its target and dissolve within 4 hours or within 30 minutes of sunrise.  It's in a highly advanced research stage right now.  It's for the military in dangerous situations.  For instance, to deliver blood supplies without compromising their position. Components ICARUS is made of film with a guidance system smaller than a tennis ball. The polymers that comprise the rest of it

What's New Under the Sun Source:  DARPA The Silent Falcon Laser Powered Drones DARPA, the US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency, is ramping up a program to power drones solely by lasers.  It's part of the program that created The Silent Falcon, a solar electric, unmanned aircraft system that uses laser power. The Silent Falcon The Silent Falcon is designed for long range, long endurance military missions.  It uses solar arrays to charge its batteries and power its motors, avionics and payloads. Never Ending Flights DARPA is planning a test to demonstrate the feasibility of recharging Silent Falcon's batteries onboard, inflight by using a powerful laser.  The light energy transmitted by a ground based laser will be received by photovoltaic receiving arrays in the aircraft's vertical tail.  This will enable indefinitely long flights and eliminate the need to land to refuel.  DARPA expects to deliver this system to the US military in t

Tiny, Laser Powered and Wireless Flier University of Washington mechanical engineers have cracked the code on tiny, flying robots.  Their creation RoboFly is the first tiny robot to fly free, untethered to a power source.  It's remarkable tech so tiny it can sit on your finger and then takeoff powered by laser light. Teaching RoboFly to Smell The University of Washington team has a goal and mission for RoboFly.  It's tiny and highly maneuverable.  They want to teach it to smell.  So that it can fly into crevices and detect, for instance, the smell of gas.  In effect, it's a tiny search robot that initially through smell can serve as an early warning system that there's a gas leak. Tech on the Fly This flying robot is just like its insect inspiration.  It has delicate, transparent wings.  It contains a photovoltaic cell that converts laser light into electric power that lets it fly.  A microcontroller in an onboard circuit acts as a brain.  It sends pulses of v

Up, Up and Away With the intense global R&D underway to bring the first flying car to market, I wondered what the status of jet packs is.  They were all the rage earlier in this decade  Turns out, they're still around but haven't matured technologically for widespread commercialization...yet.  They are one of the most difficult and complex pieces of flying equipment to engineer.  They also remain dangerous to fly. New Takeoffs with Jet Pack Man Nick Macomber is known as the Jet Pack Man.  He and his jet pack opened the London Olympics, flew over bridges in Ireland and have flown as part of innovation conferences in China.  His company Go Fast Sports & Jet Pack International predicts an upcoming renaissance in jet packing.  They've created a prototype with a turbine based platform that's capable of flying 30 minutes.  That could open up the possibility of commuting to work or school by jetpack. Weight to Thrust Ratio Challenge With jet packs, the challen

BMW's Hover Bike Source:  BMW's Concept Flying Bike Vehicle BMW's Flying Bike It started as a toy.  A Lego, 603 piece kit to build a miniature motorcycle - the BMW R 1200 GS Adventure Bike. The kit was developed by teams from Lego and BMW.  BMW engineers were so intrigued by the results, they built the real deal - a flying motorcycle prototype that was showcased in 2017. Fast-Forward BMW engineers have been tweaking the prototype for months.  It's now morphing into a new model concept.  What we know about the concept vehicle is this.  It incorporates BMW Motorrad design with typical components such as a boxer engine and GS silhouette.  But engineers have modified the front rim to form a propeller.  It appears BMW is working toward commercialization of the flying bike.  There's no word on price or timing. C rowded Skies There's competition for air space.  Besides flying cars and drones, there are a number of prototype flying motorcycles.  The

Taxiing Above It All It's rush hour.  Traffic is at a standstill. Then, out of the sky, it's your flying taxi.  That's the promise of Pop.up Next.  There are numerous flying taxi projects underway such as the Chinese EHay, Volocopter and Uber's Elevate machine.  However, Pop.up Next has the backing of and is a collaboration among engineering greats Audi, Airbus and also the German government. Electric &Autonomous Flying-Driving Machine Pop.up Next is part car and part quadcopter.  It is electric powered and has autonomous technology. There are still many engineering challenges for Pop.up Next. But, the German government has approved testing the flying taxi in and around the German city of Ingolstadt, which is Audi's hometown. In a statement by the German Transport Ministry:  "Flying taxis aren't a vision any longer.  They can take us off into a new dimension of mobility." Pop.up and Let It Go As you can see in the prototype picture, P

Flying Aircraft Carrier with a Drone Payload Gremlins Launch The US Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency DARPA is building a flying aircraft carrier.  It's a transport and bomber style aircraft carrier capable of launching and recovering swarms of fighter, killer drones in mid-flight.  The flying aircraft carrier, which may itself be a drone, is a key component of the military's Gremlins drone program, a strategic part of future warfighting. The options for in-air, recovery of the drones include recovery bays on the carrier wings or recovering them in the cargo bay. Tests in 2019 Tests to demonstrate launch and recovery of swarms of drones from a C-130 will take place in 2019.  The first phase of determining the feasibility of the program ended successfully in March.  Second phase involves full scale test demonstrations.  Dynetics and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems are contracted and now designing prototype drones. The TERN Drone Tech DAR