This Week in the Unmanned Systems and Robotics World Scientific Systems Company Inc. (SSCI) has demonstrated a team made up of a fully autonomous UAS and a search and rescue canine working together without intervention from a human handler to conduct a simulated search and rescue mission. During the demonstration, SSCI's newly developed Teammate Aware Autonomy (TAA) system was used together with its Collaborative Mission Autonomy (CMA) and Finding Objects thru Closed Loop Understanding of the Scene (FOCUS) software. (PRNewswire)

As autonomy and artificial intelligence continue to be integrated into systems across society, making sure these systems work properly continues to be of the utmost importance.   “It’s really important to make sure these systems work like they’re supposed to, but it can be really hard,” says Dr. Cara LaPointe, co-director, Institute for Assured Autonomy, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. The goal is to reach a point of assured autonomy, where people can be confident that the autonomous systems around them are, and will, operate the way they are designed to. Reaching this point requires making sure that these systems are safe, secure, resilient and capable of operating within an ecosystem alongside humans and other technologies. 

IQ Motion Control, a tech startup that delivers high performance motor modules for commercial UAS and robotics applications, announced the launch of its latest motor module, the Vertiq 6806, on Tuesday, Oct. 6. The first commercial-grade UAS and robotics module in its class, the Vertiq 6806, which IQ is presenting during Xponential, will allow users to leverage IQ’s advanced calibration and control software in a more powerful package. “IQ Motion Control’s launch of the Vertiq 6806 is the next step in bringing the most advanced motor control technology to commercial UAVs and robotics devices,” the company says.

Last week, Persistent Systems unveiled the new Rugged Display and Controller (RDC) for the MPU5 mobile ad hoc networking (MANET) device. The purpose built RDC is an alternative to third-party consumer Android phones used with the MPU5, offering improved ruggedness, ergonomics, and enterprise-class management in one of the few Android End User Devices (EUD) made in America. “When you plug in the RDC, you instantly have a complete situational awareness capability,” says Brian Soles, Persistent’s vice president of Business Development.