Tag: drone
Watch this drone do a backflip from a simple hand gesture
MIT is developing a drone that can be controlled using hand gestures. The drone reacts to a sensor on the users arm that detects muscle movement and can even do a backflip. We spoke with MIT Postdoctoral Associate Joseph DelPreto to discuss the technology further.
Terrifying Drone Footage Shows Ghost of ‘Black Eyed Girl’ Stalking Walkers Near Forest – Daily Record
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Researchers created a sticky drone to collect environmental DNA from forest canopies
Swiss scientists have developed a proof-of-concept method to collect environmental DNA (eDNA) from high-arching forest canopies, an under-observed habitat. Rather than hiring skilled climbers to risk their lives to grab a little bug and bird DNA, the team flew a collection drone into the trees to capture genetic material — giving them a clearer picture of the area’s organic breakdown.
The researchers used a quadcopter equipped with a sticky collection cage. But since tree branches can bend at the slightest touch — and the drone needs to touch the branches to collect DNA — it has a haptic-based control scheme using force sensors to measure the pressure between the drone and the branch. Then, it adjusts its landing accordingly, leaning against the branch gently enough to avoid flinging valuable material to the ground.
The drone’s cage then grabs samples with a sticky surface made from “adhesive tape and a cotton gauze humidified with a solution of water and DNA-free sugar.” The cage spends around 10 seconds leaning on each branch and collecting eDNA before zipping back to the base, where the scientists retrieve the samples and ship them to a lab. The experiment’s drone successfully collected enough genetic material to identify 21 animal classes ranging from insects and mammals to birds and amphibians.
However, the scientists make it clear this is a work in progress. For example, on the last research day, the team noticed a drop in eDNA detection because of rainfall the night before — suggesting the method only tells them which creatures visited since the last downpour. Additionally, they noted unexplained differences in the performance of their two collectors, highlighting the need for more research on equipment variations.
The researchers hope their work will make it easier and cheaper for environmental biologists to learn which critters live in some of the hardest-to-reach places. The approach could eventually help the scientific community understand how environmental changes affect biodiversity, perhaps helping identify endangered or vulnerable species before it’s too late.
Japan’s Terra Drone gets $14M lift from Saudi investors
Terra Drone said today it has raised $14 million in Series C funding from Wa’ed Ventures, the venture capital arm of Saudi Aramco, marking the VC firm’s first investment in Asia. The Japan-headquartered company, which builds drone software, hardware and uncrewed aircraft traffic management software, said the new capital brings its total raised to $97 […]
Japan’s Terra Drone gets $14M lift from Saudi investors by Kate Park originally published on TechCrunch
Amazon’s drone delivery division was reportedly hit hard by layoffs
Earlier this month, Amazon confirmed plans to lay off around 18,000 workers. The move has hit certain divisions hard, including Comixology and Prime Air. The latter’s drone delivery program was just starting to gain traction after commencing deliveries in test markets and unveiling a new model, but the layoffs have reportedly had a significant impact on that team.
Prime Air employees learned about the cuts on Wednesday, according to CNBC. Employees in the drone delivery department’s design, maintenance, systems engineering, flight testing and flight operations teams are said to have been laid off. Workers at multiple locations have been dismissed, it has been claimed, including at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters and a drone testing facility in Oregon. Around half of the employees at the test site were reportedly let go.
Headcount reductions were seemingly expected given the many struggles that the drone delivery group has endured over the years. In 2013, Amazon founder CEO Jeff Bezos announced a plan to start delivering packages by drone within 30 minutes. After years of testing, the company finally gained approval from the Federal Aviation Administration in 2020 to start delivering orders by drone. Amazon began doing so in Lockeford, California, and College Station, Texas, just a few weeks ago.
A spokesperson declined to tell CNBC how many Prime Air workers Amazon has let go. The layoffs come only two months after the company unveiled a redesigned drone that could fly further than its predecessor and withstand light rain.
In recent months, Amazon executives have laid off workers from the hardware, Alexa, robotics and physical store divisions. CEO Andy Jassy said in early January that the company was “prioritizing what matters most to customers and the long-term health of our businesses.”
Disneyland Paris To Celebrate 30th Anniversary With Marvel Drone Show
Marvel is a huge part of Disney not just in the United States, but the whole world over. Case in point is Disneyland Paris’ 30th-anniversary celebration. To finish out the festivities, the park will debut a new Marvel drone show, Avengers: Power the Night.
The show will run from January 28, 2023 through May 8, 2023 and will “combine music, lights, pyrotechnic effects, and video projections onto the Tower of Terror,” with 500 drones forming a series of lighting sequences themed to the powers of some of Marvel’s biggest heroes. Disney calls out Captain America, Captain Marvel, Scarlet Witch, and Shang-Chi specifically in its press release for the show. Backing the show will be a series of newly re-orchestrated scores from Marvel movies.
Ring offers a first look at its home security drone
At the back end of 2020, Ring showed off a concept device it promised would be coming to homes at some point in the future. The Always Home Cam is a mini drone, designed to zoom around your home, patrolling for intruders when you weren’t in. Now, at CES 2023, the company offered us a first real-world look at the hardware in flight, although it’s still reluctant to commit to a release date, or a price.
The whole package looks more like a kitchen countertop gadget, a smart bread bin or similar, rather than a security drone. It’s a little larger than it looks in Ring’s initial demo videos, although not by very much, and while it doesn’t look like any other drone on the market, it certainly sounds like one. If you’ve ever annoyed a pet with a toy mini drone, then you can expect a similarly disgruntled animal whenever this thing is on patrol.
Ring’s team did explain how this would work when it eventually made its debut, like the fact it’ll cover one floor — ideally the ground floor — in your home. You’ll train it by holding it (without obscuring the camera) and walking around your home in a series of flightpaths. You’re able to set multiple paths, and individual waypoints, so if you want to check the back door, or if you’ve left the stove on, you can without having to wait too long.
Should you spot something amiss, you can also set the camera to pause in mid-air and rotate around to surveil the local area. And there won’t be another app dedicated to controlling the drone, it’ll all be folded in to Ring’s existing app, at least when we finally see it in the real world. Sadly, Ring isn’t yet ready to share its thoughts on that matter, but the fact it’s ready to show off prototypes means it has to be closer to sale than not.
Iranian Attack Drone Found To Contain Parts From More Than a Dozen US Firms
Of the 52 components Ukrainians removed from the Iranian Shahed-136 drone, 40 appear to have been manufactured by 13 different American companies, according to the assessment. The remaining 12 components were manufactured by companies in Canada, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan, and China, according to the assessment. The options for combating the issue are limited. The US has for years imposed tough export control restrictions and sanctions to prevent Iran from obtaining high-end materials. Now US officials are looking at enhanced enforcement of those sanctions, encouraging companies to better monitor their own supply chains and, perhaps most importantly, trying to identify the third-party distributors taking these products and re-selling them to bad actors.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Your Next Amazon Delivery Could Be From a Drone
Amazon has been trying to deliver packages with remote-controlled drones for years, but work has been slow-going. Now the company is testing drone deliveries in two areas of the United States.