AeroVironment, maker of several important military UAVs like the Wasp, Raven, and Dragon Eye , has received a Phase II SBIR grant from DARPA to continue work on it’s hummingbird-like nano UAV (NAV), which propels itself with flapping wings. In the video shown above, the vehicles stability control is shown, including take-offs from a standstill.

“The goals of the NAV program — namely to develop an approximately 10 gram aircraft that can hover for extended periods, can fly at forward speeds up to 10 meters per second, can withstand 2.5 meter per second wind gusts, can operate inside buildings, and have up to a kilometer command and control range — will stretch our understanding of flight at these small sizes and require novel technology development.”

The Phase II contract is worth $2.1 million USD and will continue through the summer of 2010.

[Via Slashdot]

Honda recently had a media extravaganza in which they demoed their recently announced “Stride/Bodyweight Assist Machine”, an experimental device that aids human walking by reducing stress on joins and muscles. It’s a cross between an exoskeleton and a chair - the former because it’s powered and aids your movement, and the latter because you sit on it, and it doesn’t require cumbersome straps and fixtures to stay attached to your body. The smaller “Stride Assist” weighs 6 lbs and the larger “Bodyweight Assist” weighs 14. The former, after getting used to it, seems to quite natural.

Honestly, the first few steps felt awkward and a bit otherworldly. However, the prototype is designed to learn how you walk, at the same time as you’re learning how to walk with it. Within a few moments, I was walking quickly down a hall and then even running back through it. All of my actions felt natural, but improved, compared to my normal gait and running style.

The device anticipates your walking motion and aids you. It aids muscle activity and is designed for people with limited mobility - those than can stand, but have trouble walking.

The larger cousin of the Stride Assist, the “ Bodyweight Support Assist”, wasn’t nearly as “transparent” but still would allow a great many impaired people have a greater range of mobility.

Video of the Stride and Bodyweight Assist below.

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General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has unveiled it’s latest version of the wildly popular Predator Drone - the Predator C Avenger. The Avenger, which made its first flight tests earlier this month, is expected to be a viable product within 10 - 12 months, and could be patrolling the unfriendly skys shortly thereafter.

The Avenger has landing gear from the F-5 aircraft, approximately a 66″ wingspan, and can carry up to 3,000 lbs of weapons or surveillance equipment. The new Predator also has many design modifications to achieve a higher level of stealth, including a, “vertically-oriented V-tail [that] both deflects radar and shields the 4,800-lb. thrust Pratt & Whitney Canada’s PW545B engine exhaust’s infrared signature”, and stealth techniques from planes like the B-22 and B-2.

It really doesn’t pay to be a Bad Guy these days.

Jon Stewart and his crew tackle the difficult ethical questions of involving robots in war. Hidden behind the humor, there’s some decent points.

[Via The Robot Report]

Boeing reported today that it has successfully destroyed several flying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) using a laser weapon mounted on a truck. The weapon was mounted to an Avenger Air Defense vehicle, which normally uses surface-to-air missiles for attacks. The successful test involved the Laser Avenger tracking and destroying three UAVs in flight, which set a milestone for, “the first time a combat vehicle has used a laser to shoot down a UAV”.

Boeing was a little reserved when addressing the question of how exactly the UAVs were destroyed, only saying, “A hole was burned in a critical flight control element of the UAV, rendering the aircraft unflyable.” As for how long it took to do this, what “critical flight control element” it was, or if such a system is truly viable in a combat situation, that is left to the reader’s imagination. It should also be noted that Boeing has apparently made significant progress with this system, as only about 1 year ago they were proclaiming the destruction of IEDs by the Laser Avenger.

“We doubled the laser power; added sophisticated acquisition, tracking and pointing capability; and simplified and ruggedized the design,” said Lee Gutheinz, Boeing program director for High-Energy Laser/Electro-Optical Systems. “Boeing developed and integrated these upgrades in less than a year, underscoring our ability to rapidly respond to warfighters’ needs.”

An interesting point is that Boeing seems to be trying to sell the Military on the idea of destroying UAV threats to our soldiers, while, to my knowledge, there haven’t been any such threats to date. In fact, robotic air authority seems to be solidly on the USA’s side. Do they know something we don’t, or are they just being pessimistic?

Regardless, while we mourn for our robotic bretheren, I say this is pretty darn cool.

 

If anyone doubted the US Air Force’s commitment to unmanned (read: robots) aircraft, you won’t after you hear this: The Air Force plans on acquiring more unmanned than manned aircraft next year. That’s a pretty amazing statistic, and amounts to billions of dollars of potential new business for companies in that market. The USAF currently maintains about 27 unmanned vehcles in the air above Afghanistan and Iraq at all times, and plans to double that number over the next 3 years. But, in order to do that, they need to train hundreds of new pilots to help fly them. They might also considering training more counselors to help the pilots deal with the trauma.

We’ve reported on such matter before, but once again a US Military drone (robot) has successfully fired on and killed at least 5 militants (terrorists) on the Pakistani border. It’s great to hear that the “bad guys” are getting the due, and that US soldiers are being kept from harm by our robotic pals. Unfortunately, simply using an unmanned system to do your dirty work doesn’t eliminate all of the risks of combat. While the robot may be one the one carrying and firing the missile, humans are still ultimately giving the command and stuck with the consequences of taking a human life.

With great (robotic) power, comes great (robotic) responsibility. Shoot wisely.

A couple interesting submarine launched UAVs, one by Raytheon and another, VOLANS, built by a German company, are featured in this Register article. The Submarine Over the Horizon Organic Capabilities, or SOTHOC, built by Raytheon, is launched out of the waste disposal lock of a submarine. SOTHOC then decents to a preset depth where it rises to the surface and launches a unmanned flying vehicle to gather data. The UAV can relay the data back to the sub via antenna, or if the sub whishes to remain anonymous the data can be relayed via satellite back to the US. This system allows a submarine to lauch an UAV while remaining submerged, in contrast to the VOLANS, which launches via a mast attached to the robot. The VOLANS functions as a mobile periscope for the sub.

The US Army has decided to move it’s Robotics Systems Joint Project Office to Warren, MI, outside of Detroit. In response to this, many large robotics companies are following suit and opening offices in the area. The office is currently hiring engineers and designers to create robots to do “dull, dirty or dangerous” jobs.

Robot ground vehicles are said to be the main focus and officials say that should produce about 100 new jobs by next year and maybe double that in the future. Which future is still in question, though. Already, money is flowing into local universities for robotics research and iRobot, Foster Miller, and QuinetiQ are looking to open local branches.

So, is robotics the hot new industry for Southern Michigan? It sure looks like they could use a few new ideas.

 

In what is pretty stunning news to me, iRobot has purchased Nekton Research for $10 million USD. The reason this is so stunning, is because Nekton is 30min down the road from me, and I’ve interviewed there! Nekton is a small business located in Durham North Carolina and specializes in underwater robots. You can see one of their robots, the Transphibian, operating after the jump. Up till this point Nekton has based it’s business on government research contracts and hasn’t done any large scale product sales - this looks to change. iRobot says they plan on moving their “Maritime Programs office” to the Raleigh-Durham area. Eventually iRobot plans to have all their underwater research and development happen at this location. This will be where the Seaglider program eventually moves to.

iRobot has updated their website to reflect the new acquisition and features the Seaglider, Ranger, Transphibian, and “High Speed UUV“. I’m looking forward to see what exciting things will pop out of the water, so to speak.

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Chris Anderson, over at DIY Drones, recently posted a full page advertisement, from the July edition of the AUVSI magazine, for AUS International’s AirSniper product. The AirSniper is described as, “a VTOL combat mini UAV intended for close infantry support.” Or, in other words, “a gun with wings.”

Now, this idea seems like a solid one – why not mount weapons on UAVs? In fact, it’s been done before. However, I don’t think anyone has every proposed a UAV sniper system that can also be torn-down to work as a regular, old, gun. Also, AUS claims,

Our patent pending “tilt and stop” rotor design concept gives AirSniper hovering performance and agility of helicopters, with speed and endurance of fixed wing airplanes.

Supposedly the airframe also allows for “precise aiming at any flight speed.” Quite a claim. The comedic aspects of the advertisement give some reason to doubt as to AUS International’s ability to bring this to market. Chris even said, “if this were the April edition, I’d think it was an April Fool’s joke”.

Some of the more laughable lines from the ad:

For an enemy up there, you could be like a sitting duck.
With AirSniper, sitting duck is the other guy.

WIRED’s DangerRoom blog also got into the action with their latest idea, the AirKnife.

Ok, so after AUS International had been give such a bad rap, what did I do? Well, I contacted them to find out what the skinny was. Check out our correspondance after the jump. (more…)

Boeing has announced that they will be purchasing Insitu Inc., which is a major player in the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) market. The two companies have a prior history of working together from as early as 2002, on the ScanEagle project. Insitu is projected to have revenue of $150 million USD this year, which is up 70% from last year. Insitu also makes the Integrator, GeoRanger, and Insight UAV systems. The purchase price has not been disclosed. Insitu will operate as a seperate subsidiary of Boeing. Insitu is based in Bingen, Washington and currently has 360 employees.

This will most definitely not be the last of such acquisitions. As the UAV market grows, be on the lookout for much larger aerospace companies like Northrop Gumman and Lockheed, to buy up all the smaller companies.

About two years ago we reported on the pretty amazing BigDog robot built by Boston Dynamics. Well, BigDog has returned and is better than ever.

 

The latest video shows BigDog (with the same-old characteristic whine) carrying its load up steep hills (up to 35 degrees), over very rough terrain (like a huge pile of cinderblocks), and even over slippery ice (while being viciously kicked)! The BigDog robot is capable of carrying up to 350lbs and is designed to be a "pack mule" of sorts for the army.

You can check out the video below. You can read more about BigDog at the Boston Dynamics website. Check the video after the jump for a hilarous spoof.

[Via Automaton ] 

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You may remember our posts on the sad plight of iRobot, who had accused their ex-employee, Jameel Ahed, of stealing their design, only to have the US Military award a whopping $280 million dollar contract to said ex-employee, and rejecting iRobot. Oh the injustice!

Weep no more, fellow shareholders and Roomba lovers, because justice has been served! Unfortunately, the price of that justice was a cool $2.9million dollars. But, nobody said good ol’ Lex Rex came cheap.

In addition to the judges in both lawsuits rulling in favor of iRobot - one ruling that Robotic FX had infringed iRobot’s patent, and the other ruling that, Robotic FX stole proprietary information - Robotic FX will now be dissolved and its assets given to iRobot as payment.



In response to the news, the US DoD awarded iRobot the $280 million dollar contract that was previously awarded to Robotic FX. While iRobot’s stock price has a long way to go from the $24 high it was before all of these events transpired, the future is looking much brighter.



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The US Department of Defense (DoD) has released a report detailing the future of robotic military equipment and how the US military should proceed. The 188 page report (pdf) covers the next 25 years of unmanned military systems in the air, and sea, and on land.



This report is unique in that it address both ground and sea vehicles in addition to the much more "popular" and oft-used arial systems. This reinforces the Department’s position that integration of air, land, and sea systems is a vital part of the future of US military systems.

The report details recomendations made by field commanders and how further AI developments can lead to "thinking" systems.


Another fascinating aspect of the report is a huge appendix listing all the unmanned systems currently in use by the military. The image to the left is a shot of the Lockheed Martin Protector Unmanned Surface Vehicle.

If you have a hard time downloading the document, Roland Piquepaille provides a good outline.


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