Artificial Intelligence and Robotics blog
Posts tagged UAV
Robotic seagull takes flight in Europe
Mar 30th
Festo are once more impressing everybody with the unveiling of their new SmartBird (or robotic seagull) technology (see also their incredible Elephant-inspired robot arm and AirJelly). The new flying robot which is inspired by the herring gull was shown autonomously flying both indoors and outdoors.
This is what the company has to say about their creation,
SmartBird is an ultralight but powerful flight model with excellent aerodynamic qualities and extreme agility. With SmartBird, Festo has succeeded in deciphering the flight of birds. This bionic technology-
bearer, which is inspired by the herring gull, can start, fly and land autonomously – with no additional drive mechanism. Its wings not only beat up and down, but also twist at specific angles. This is made possible by an active articulated torsional drive, which in conjunction with a complex control system makes for unprecedented efficiency in flight operation. Festo has thus succeeded for the first time in realizing an energy-efficient technical adaptation of the natural model.
The engineering team behind this magnificent flying machine has achieved an incredible task minimizing the weight of the robotic bird while maximizing lift from its flapping winds. The robotic seagull is one meter long, weighs less than half a kilogram and boasts a 2-meter wingspan. To compare with the real bird, the European herring gull is a bit over half a meter long, has a wingspan up to 1.5 meters and weighs around one kilogram.
Festo have designed SmartBird as a platform for developing and testing new ideas in lightweight construction and aerodynamics that might transfer to the development and optimization of hybrid drive technologies and open the gates for new advances in automation. However, considering how realistic this robotic bird looks like, I wouldn’t be surprised that in a a few years these are not used by the military or law enforcement agencies for surveillance; but to get to that point, SmartBird will probably need to improve its range of autonomous operation and carry a sensor pack for data gathering both of which seem to be lacking in the current model.
At any rate, words can’t do this robot justice so enjoy the below video.
[source]
Project Anubis Micro-Drone
Jan 12th
The US government has been working on a new military project dubbed “Project Anubis”, named after the Egyptian God of death. And as one can guess from an ominous name like that, this project has been devised for one purpose—to hunt down and kill people.
“Project Anubis” is a tiny robotic drone that has been in development by The Air Force Research Laboratory since 2008, and is said to be a big improvement on previous remotely-operated drones such as the Predator and the Reaper. For one, it is smaller, weighing less than a pound, it can be operated within a three mile radius and can last up to 45 minutes. Although some may point out that it has less fire-power, its limited size works in its advantage, because its relatively quiet motor allows it to reach targets without being noticed.
The “Micro-Air Vehicle (MAV) with innovative seeker/tracking sensor algorithms that can engage maneuvering high-value targets”, as described by the Air Force, is also more agile and able to track down moving targets. Previous drones were mostly designed to fire on tanks and lacked that freedom of movement. Another important improvement is that Project Anubis is more precise and may limit the loss of civilian life.
Of course, the use of this drone will be specially selected and confined mostly to treacherous environments that would be hard to otherwise penetrate. The mountainous Afghan region would serve as a perfect example of this, and a potential target would be Osama Bin Laden or other high-ranking Al-Qaeda officials.
Whether the development of such robotic weapons will turn out to be a good or bad thing remains to be seen. It feels like a little bit of a paradox. Drones might decrease direct human involvement and minimize damage, but then again that might encourage more war.
[source Wired]
V-STAR: The military’s flying Humvee unmanned flying vehicle
Jun 19th
If you want to win a war, you have to make sure that the proper supplies, i.e., water, food, and ammunition, can reach your soldiers as needed. For those who have followed the recently conflict in IRAQ might remember how the speed of the USA’s advance towards Baghdad was to a large degree constrained by how quickly supplies could be transported to the front line. During the occupation that followed and continues until today, getting supplies to the many bases and soldiers out on missions is a huge nightmare for the military. It is no wonder that events such as the Grand and Urban Challenges were organized in an effort to accelerate the creation of technology that could improve the supply chain in war zones.
Frontline Aerospace has now designed a new unmanned flying vehicle (UAV) named V-Star for the purpose of supplying troops in combat situations. The company refers to the UAV as a flying Humvee because of its size, load capacity, and functionality as a transport for supplies. The autonomous aircraft can take-off and land vertically while it can fly anywhere from 600 to 1000 miles and carry 400 pounds of cargo. The V-Star is about the size of a large SUV (which once again explains the nickname flying Humvee.) Finally, the V-Star can fly as high as 15,000 feet and it makes less noise than a helicopter due to its propeller design.
Frontline Aeorspace envisions the usage of their UAV in a scenario in which a soldier could request supplies via a wearable computer system and have these supplies delivered to his location by the robotic vehicle without endangering the lives of more soldiers.
PS: I should mention that this vehicle is not in production but only a concept.
Image is copyright Frontline Aerospace.
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