UAVOS and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) in Saudi Arabia are collaborating on the scientific research and development of the Flight Control System (FCS), which is designed to fit and leverage multi-mission, multi-domain UAS platforms.
As a result of their shared experience and first-class knowledge, UAVOS and KACST have created a Saker-1B Medium Altitude Long Endurance (MALE) UAS. More than 500 hours of day and night test missions under various weather conditions have confirmed the drone’s specifications. In total, 1,000 hours of take-off and landing test missions have been successfully performed, with the long endurance flights lasting up to 19 hours.
Technology
Technology
AIRT to produce DroneResponders Emergency Management and Disaster Forum through new partnership with EDRC
The Energy Drone & Robotics Coalition (EDRC) is partnering with Airborne International Response Team (AIRT), which will result in AIRT producing the DroneResponders Emergency Management and Disaster Forum.
GreenPower Motor Company, Perrone Robotics partner to build fully autonomous electric transit vehicles
GreenPower Motor Company Inc. is partnering with Perrone Robotics Inc. (PRI) to build fully autonomous electric transit vehicles based on GreenPower’s EV Star shuttle platform.
A designer, manufacturer and distributor of a diverse line of electric powered buses for the transit, shuttle, tourist and school sectors, Greenpower was founded a decade ago with the intent to bring the “most compelling” zero-emissions buses to the market.
Schiebel, Nordic Unmanned successfully test Camcopter S-100 equipped with sniffer capability
Schiebel and its partner Nordic Unmanned have successfully completed a two-day test of the sniffer capability onboard the Camcopter S-100 UAS in the shipping lane outside Gniben, Denmark.
The entities note that ships operating in Europe’s busiest sea routes are allowed to emit exhaust fumes with a Sulphur oxide content limited to no more than 0.1 percent. One potential option to enforce this International Maritime Organization (IMO) 2020 regulation is using UAS such as the Camcopter S-100 equipped with a Sulphur sniffer. The UAS measures the Sulphur emissions by flying through the ship’s exhaust plume, and identifies the ships using its Automatic Identification System (AIS).
City of Fremont, California, Pony.ai launch autonomous vehicle pilot program for city employees
On Monday, Feb. 24, the City of Fremont, California and Pony.ai launched a pilot program that uses Pony.ai’s shared, on-demand, autonomous last-mile service to provide rides for a group of City employees.
Participating employees will be transported from Fremont’s Amtrak/ACE Station to City Hall and City of Fremont Development Services Center via Pony.ai’s autonomous vehicles, which have a safety operator present in each vehicle to ensure safe and smooth navigation of complex road scenarios.
Each vehicle is equipped with Pony.ai’s full-stack autonomous driving technology, which serves as the “brains” of the vehicle. The technology is also expected to serve as a building block to the future Smart City, the entities say.
COLREGs update, testing and public acceptance key to boosting unmanned maritime systems
For unmanned maritime systems (UMS) to reach their full potential, COLREGs, the set of regulations that provide the “rules of the road” for vessels to prevent collisions, need to be updated to include the innovative waterborne technologies.
“COLREGs for us is really the biggest issue. We need to have UMS put into COLREGs,” said Mike Smitsky, AUVSI’s senior manager of advocacy and government relations who manages and staffs the AUVSI UMS Advocacy Committee.
Quaternium sets world record of endurance with eight-hour hybrid-drone flight
Six years after developing the first hybrid fuel-electric drone, Quaternium has announced that it has set the New World Record of Endurance with the longest hybrid-drone flight.
The eight-hour, 10-minute non-stop flight was completed using Quaternium’s new drone, HYBRiX 2.1, of 25 kilograms maximum takeoff weight (MTOW), in Valencia, Spain.
According to Quaternium, HYBRiX is ideal for aerial missions such as surveillance or first response thanks to the advantage it offers in flight time.
PEO USC grants Milestone C approval to the Unmanned Influence Sweep System program
The Unmanned Influence Sweep System (UISS) has been cleared for low-rate initial production (LRIP) following the Program Executive Officer for Unmanned and Small Combatants (PEO USC) granting Milestone C approval to the UISS program.
The Navy plans to exercise options for the procurement of three LRIP systems on the current Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) contract with Textron Systems, the UISS prime contractor.
NAV CANADA, Unifly partner to deploy national system to ensure safe UAS ops in Canada
Canada’s air navigation service provider NAV CANADA has entered into an agreement with Unifly to deploy a national system that provides digital services for the safe operations and management of drones in Canadian airspace.
Equipped with an intuitive user interface, the system, which is designed to support current regulations for drone flights within visual line of sight, will allow Canadian drone pilots to access web and mobile applications to perform various functions, including identifying safe and legal airspace, planning flights, and managing operations, pilots and fleet of drones.
