Scientists at TU Delft’s Micro Air Vehicle Laboratory (MAVLab) have developed a 72-g (2.5-oz) autonomous racing drone, deemed the “smallest” of its kind. Even though it’s tiny, its stats make it a viable challenger against larger, state-of-the-art competitors. Drone racing by human pilots has risen in the e-sport arena, while autonomous drone racing has presented…
U.S. Postal Service to Test Self-Driving Trucks
Self-driving vehicles may soon be used by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), with the company announcing Tuesday, May 21, that it plans to test autonomous delivery trucks. The two-week trial period will go on a 1,000-mi journey to deliver packages between two distribution centers in Dallas, Texas, and Phoenix, Ariz. A safety engineer and a…
Measuring the Strongest Winds of Intense Tropical Storms from Space
ESA’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite has been in orbit for almost 10 years. As its name describes, SMOS collects soil moisture and ocean salinity data to increase knowledge about the water cycle, as well as to measure the wind speed of extreme weather. During a storm, thick swirling clouds and strong winds…
Ford’s Spare-Part Robot Deliverer Frees 40-Employee Hours Daily
Ford’s self-driving robot nicknamed “Survival” can be found at one of their manufacturing plants in Valencia, Spain, delivering spare parts to human workers. It’s been programmed to navigate the plant’s layout, updates its route if an obstacle is detected, and uses lidar to visualize its surroundings. “We programmed it to learn the whole of…
Unlocking the Mysteries of the Deep Sea with AI-Enhanced Underwater Vehicles
Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) armed with mounted cameras and artificial intelligence (AI) for data processing can help map the species that live on the ocean floor. To create the last part of that vision, roboticists and marine scientists recently tested a new computer vision (CV) system to identify seafloor creatures. The research was part of…
Drones Continue to Plague Germany’s Frankfurt Airport, 143 Flights Canceled
The morning of Thursday, May 9, Germany’s Frankfurt Airport was shut down for almost an hour after a drone sighting, according to digital news publisher The Local. The drone, which The Local reports had a 1.5-m diameter, was seen flying over the southern region of the airport. During the hour-long timeframe before the area was…
Ready, Set, Go! Students Gear up for Autonomous Go-Kart Racing
Purdue University Motorsports will hold the evGrand Prix event at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway May 14 and 15. There, high school and college divisions will duke it out in a competitive electric go-kart race. Although not all of the races will feature a driver, some will let software take the wheel. Aside from manned races, the…
Testing the Radio Link Between the Two Satellites of Proba-3
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Proba-3 mission will consist of two satellites flying together, proving precision formation flying technology. They’ll also be conducting a large-scale experiment, where the two will “form a 150-m long solar coronagraph to study the Sun’s faint corona closer to the solar rim than has ever before been achieved,” according to…
Watch This Robot Walk Across a Path of Unsteady Cinder Blocks
Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot is one for theatrics, such as flaunting its parkour skills and sticking a backflip. IHMC Robotics used Atlas to test out its algorithms, which bestowed the robot with some measured footwork across tricky terrain. As seen in the video below, the robot was able to walk across a narrow route with…
Radar Can Wirelessly Monitor Your Vital Signs While You Sleep
University of Waterloo researchers have developed a radar system that monitors patients’ vital signs wirelessly, which eliminates the need to be hooked up to machines. The radar system is enclosed in a device that’s smaller than a smartphone, according to the University of Waterloo, and sends radar waves that record breathing and heart rates. Then,…