The Houma-Terrebonne Airport Commission of Houma, Louisiana has been awarded a $1.3 million grant to make the necessary infrastructure improvements needed to establish a UAS facility at the Houma-Terrebonne Airport. The project is expected to help create 150 jobs, retain 70 jobs and generate $50 million in private investment.
The investment was made by the Economic Development Administration (EDA), an agency under the U.S. Department of Commerce.
“The Trump Administration is working diligently to empower innovators who fuel job creation in communities across the nation,” says Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross.
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UAS facility to be established at Houma-Terrebonne Airport through U.S. Department of Commerce grant
RE2 Robotics to enhance LIFELINE system with Phase III SBIR grant award
RE2 Robotics will continue developing its LIFELINE system, which is designed to help combat medics in the field, thanks to being awarded a Phase III Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the U.S. Army SBIR office and the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA).
Described as a medical module applique kit that can easily be installed on either a manned or unmanned vehicle, the LIFELINE system allows a single person to lift and stow up to two litters (stretchers) on a vehicle to facilitate medical evacuations. According to RE2 Robotics, the system reduces the “cognitive and physical burden” on combat medics as they focus on saving lives.
MILTON selects FlightWave Edge UAS as its light tactical drone of choice
MILTON, which is a firm that focuses on technological innovations to strengthen the capabilities of warfighters at home and in the field, has selected FlightWave Aerospace’s Edge UAS as its light tactical drone of ch
Volvo Group, NVIDIA partner to develop decision making system for autonomous vehicles
The Volvo Group and NVIDIA have signed an agreement to collaborate on the development of the decision making system of autonomous commercial vehicles and machines.
The system will be designed to safely handle fully autonomous driving on public roads and highways, the companies say.
The system will use NVIDIA’s end-to-end artificial intelligence platform for training, simulation and in-vehicle computing. It will be built on NVIDIA’s full software stack for sensor processing, perception, map localization and path planning, which will facilitate a number of possible autonomous driving applications including public transport, freight transport and refuse and recycling collection.
Raytheon, AirMap collaborating to safely integrate UAS into national airspace system
Raytheon and AirMap have announced that they will collaborate on future projects to safely integrate UAS into the national airspace system, and “unlock the positive economic and social benefits of expanded commercial drone operations.”
The agreement combines the expertise of each company. Air traffic controllers across the U.S. use Raytheon's Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) to provide safe and efficient aircraft spacing and sequencing guidance for more than 40,000 departing and arriving aircraft daily at both civilian and military airports.
Domino's, Nuro partner to deliver pizzas using autonomous vehicles
Domino’s Pizza customers in Houston, Texas will have the opportunity to experience autonomous vehicle technology firsthand later on this year thanks to a partnership between the pizza company and robotics company Nuro.
Domino’s will use a fleet of Nuro’s R2 autonomous vehicles to serve select Houston Domino's customers who place orders online.
“Nuro's vehicles are specially designed to optimize the food delivery experience, which makes them a valuable partner in our autonomous vehicle journey,” says Kevin Vasconi, Domino's executive vice president and chief information officer.
Eramet gets access to new collaborative platform for analyzing UAS data through Delair partnership
Eramet, a global mining and metallurgy group, has signed a framework agreement with Delair to accelerate the digital transformation of its mining activities.
Through the agreement, Eramet will get access to Delair Aerial Intelligence (delair.ai), which is a new collaborative platform for analyzing UAS data and turning the results into valuable business insights.
Delair notes that its Delair.ai platform has been up and running at the Tiébaghi mine in New Caledonia since January. By the end of the year, it will be used by all of Eramet’s mines.
Currently, nine UAS are operating at Eramet. The plan is for nine more to be deployed by the end of the year, including Delair’s fixed-wing UX11 drone.
Pima Community College, TuSimple launch autonomous driving certificate program for truck drivers
Pima Community College (PCC) and TuSimple have announced the launch of the first autonomous driving certificate program for truck drivers.
Known as the “Autonomous Vehicle Driver and Operations Specialist” certificate program, the program will provide truck drivers with the knowledge and skills needed to expand their roles in the industry, as it prepares individuals for a variety of jobs including training the autonomous system as test drivers, operating the vehicle in situations where autonomous driving is not suitable and to remotely monitor the system from a command center.
Hyundai, Kia invest in Aurora to accelerate development of autonomous vehicle technologies
In an effort to accelerate the development of autonomous vehicle technologies, Hyundai Motor Group and Kia Motors Corporation have invested in autonomous technology developer Aurora.
Having formed a strategic partnership in 2018, the companies say that this investment will strengthen that partnership which, thus far, has seen Hyundai, Kia, and Aurora working together on self-driving technologies on NEXO, Hyundai’s flagship fuel cell vehicle.
The companies will use this new investment to expand research to a wide range of models, and to build an optimal platform for Hyundai and Kia’s autonomous vehicles.
Auterion announces new hires and U.S. office
Known for providing an open-source-based, enterprise operating system for drones called Auterion Enterprise PX4, Auterion has announced two new hires, and a U.S. office to guide the company’s growth.
David Sharpin, formerly vice president of Sales and Business Development for AeroVironment, has been named the General Manager for Auterion U.S., while Marco Bill-Peter, current SVP Red Hat, has been named an Auterion Board Member.
Auterion notes that currently, the Defense Department’s drones run largely on custom software that is created and maintained by several military contractors. The open source software development model is starting to change that, though, according to Auterion.