Yandex has selected Ann Arbor, Michigan as the third urban testing ground for its self-driving cars.
A variety of factors make the city of Ann Arbor an ideal testing place, Yandex says, including the city’s wealth of research and engineering facilities and many bright young minds, and the state’s “very progressive and supportive” regulatory environment for the development of self-driving cars.
Ann Arbor joins Moscow and Tel Aviv as Yandex's other self-driving testing locations. According to Yandex, it will have more autonomy in Ann Arbor than it does in Moscow and Tel Aviv, as those two locations require engineers to be behind the wheel of self-driving vehicles at all times.
Technology
Technology
Brain Corp's manufacturing partners deploy autonomous delivery tugs across the U.S.
Artificial intelligence software technology company Brain Corp has announced that its manufacturing partners are involved in several pilots and initial deployments of autonomous delivery tugs powered by BrainOS, which is Brain Corp’s cloud-connected operating system for commercial autonomous robots.
According to Brain Corp, these commercial rollouts mark the industry debut of a “new robotic application that helps retailers bridge the automation gap in moving inventory from the stockroom out to store shelves.”
Parrot, Dronisos expand partnership to explore new applications for drone flight automation
Parrot has announced that it is expanding its ongoing partnership with Dronisos, a European company that creates and produces customized drone swarm light shows. Leveraging the Parrot ANAFI drone platform, the companies will explore new applications for drone flight automation.
A combination of “sophisticated technology and artistic expression,” Dronisos’ drone swarms are designed to entertain audiences around the world with dancing drones and lights for clients such as Lancôme, Peugeot, FIFA, and Oreo. To pull these shows off, sophisticated drone flight automation is needed to synchronize up to one thousand drones to perform choreographed movements, tricks and flight patterns.
AVS speakers emphasize importance of uniform legislation, safety for autonomous vehicles
From helping address the driver shortage currently plaguing the trucking industry to transporting passengers to and from their destinations, autonomous vehicles (AV) have no shortage of potential use cases for the present and beyond.
“As autonomous technology comes to market, it’ll have a broad and positive impact on the overall industry,” said Shawn Kerrigan, co-founder and chief operating officer of self-driving truck technology company Plus.ai, during the Automated Vehicle Symposium (AVS).
Before these vehicles can hit the roads at scale, though, there first needs to be some sort of uniform legislation to guide this technology, many speakers noted during AVS, which took place as a fully virtual show this year.
Volansi, NCDOT to begin commercial, middle-mile drone delivery projects in North Carolina
Cargo drone delivery service provider Volansi has signed a teaming agreement with the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) to begin commercial, middle-mile drone delivery projects in North Carolina.
Volansi and NCDOT will collaborate with the FAA to gather data on drone delivery programs and how they could be incorporated long-term into the current transportation infrastructure and regulations.
“We are excited to have this opportunity to work closely with the FAA and the N.C. Department of Transportation to help shape how drones fit into our home country’s infrastructure,” says Hannan Parvizian, CEO and co-founder of Volansi.
Florida Poly researchers turning disused golf cart into solar-powered autonomous vehicle
In an effort to “advance cutting-edge research for years to come,” a team of researchers at Florida Polytechnic University (Florida Poly) is turning a disused golf cart into a solar-powered autonomous vehicle.
Funded by the University’s Advanced Mobility Institute, the project will support a $350,000 National Science Foundation award to develop a large-scale Hardware-in-the-Loop simulation facility for connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV).
Oscilla Power to further develop tech that enables AUVs to recharge themselves using ocean waves
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded Oscilla Power Inc., a company focused on developing advanced technology to extract energy from ocean waves, a $200,000 grant to further develop technology that enables AUVs to recharge themselves using ocean waves.
Through their Rotary and Mission Systems group, Oscilla Power will work with Lockheed Martin during this Small Business Innovation and Research (SBIR) project to explore how they can equip their AUV and UUV systems with this capability.
Swiss Army contracts Lockheed Martin for fleet of Indago 3 small UAS
In Switzerland, the Federal Office for Defence Procurement (Armasuisse)—a federal agency of the Swiss Confederation—has contracted Lockheed Martin for a fleet of Indago 3 small UAS, with options for spares, training and tech support and additional systems for the Swiss Army.
The first phase includes manufacturing development to optimize the Indago 3’s configuration to meet Swiss Army requirements, which will include the integration of a transponder for sense and avoid; installation of the Silvus Technologies’ radio; and implementation of Lockheed Martin CDL Systems’ VCSi Touch SUAS Ground Control System software that includes access to Swiss maps, including digital terrain elevation data (DTED), and Geofencing.
Weekend Roundup: July 31, 2020
This Week in the Unmanned Systems and Robotics World
Canada’s civil aviation authority, Transport Canada Civil Aviation (TCCA), has issues a Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC) to EHang for its EHang 216 autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV). In addition to this announcement, EHang has also announced plans to build a new AAV production facility in Yunfu city in Guangdong, China.
Beep, Local Motors partner to expand number of AV shuttles on public and private roads
Florida-based autonomous Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) provider Beep and Local Motors by LM Industries have announced a strategic partnership and new reseller agreement.
Through the collaborative agreement, the companies will seek to significantly expand the number of autonomous shuttles on both public and private roads, which will not only offer more people autonomous transportation options, but also enhance the rider experience through continued testing and safe deployments.
