Chinese Plan to Use Drone Highlights Military Advances. Unmanned Flight: The Drones Come Home. At the edge of a stubbly, dried-out alfalfa field outside Grand Junction, Colorado, Deputy Sheriff Derek Johnson, a stocky young man with a buzz cut, squints at a speck crawling across the brilliant, hazy sky. It’s not a vulture or crow but a Falcon—a new brand of unmanned aerial vehicle, or drone, and Johnson is flying it. The sheriff ’s office here in Mesa County, a plateau of farms and ranches corralled by bone-hued mountains, is weighing the Falcon’s potential for spotting lost hikers and criminals on the lam. A laptop on a table in front of Johnson shows the drone’s flickering images of a nearby highway. Standing behind Johnson, watching him watch the Falcon, is its designer, Chris Miser. Rock-jawed, arms crossed, sunglasses pushed atop his shaved head, Miser is a former Air Force captain who worked on military drones before quitting in 2007 to found his own company in Aurora, Colorado.
The Falcon has an eight-foot wingspan but weighs just 9.5 pounds. Offspring of 9/11. U.S. Air Force developing terrifying swarms of tiny unmanned drones that can hover, crawl and even kill targets. Air Vehicles Directorate at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, is already developing prototypes of tiny drones that can hoverThe Micro Air Vehicles will work in swarms to provide complex surveillance of a battlefieldThey can also be armed with incapacitating chemicals, combustible payloads or even explosives 'for precision targeting capability' By Michael Zennie Published: 00:11 GMT, 20 February 2013 | Updated: 18:25 GMT, 20 February 2013 The U.S.
Air Force is developing tiny unmanned drones that will fly in swarms, hover like bees, crawl like spiders and even sneak up on unsuspecting targets and execute them with lethal precision. The Air Vehicles Directorate, a research arm of the Air Force, has released a computer-animated video outlining the the future capabilities of Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs). 'MAVs will become a vital element in the ever-changing war-fighting environment and will help ensure success on the battlefield of the future,' the narrator intones. The 7oz helicopter that could help beat the Taliban: £20,000 device enables soldiers to look at enemy territory without risk of being killed. By Ian Drury Published: 23:02 GMT, 2 August 2012 | Updated: 11:10 GMT, 3 August 2012 It fits in the palm of your hand, weighs the same as a bag of sweets – and could become a potent new weapon in our fight against the Taliban.
Military chiefs believe a £20,000 spy drone called the SQ-4 Recon, one of the smallest unmanned aerial vehicles in the world, will save soldiers’ lives in Afghanistan. It is a miniature version of Little Nellie – the autogyro flown by James Bond in the film You Only Live Twice. The ‘nanodrone’ contains two cameras which allow soldiers to look over hills and inside enemy bunkers without the risk of being killed or injured. It can be operated remotely by troops sitting in a control room thousands of miles away or by soldiers on patrol using a seven-inch tablet computer. Its cameras can transmit live images or take still photos or video footage using day or night vision. The Ministry of Defence is also aware of the nanodrone’s potential. Could this bizarre worm robot become the next electronic super spy? Researchers say their prototype could crawl into tiny spaces undetected and send back videoCan be stamped on or even hit with a hammerProject funded by US military By Mark Prigg Published: 11:24 GMT, 10 August 2012 | Updated: 14:06 GMT, 10 August 2012 When you think of a hi-tech super spy able to crawl undetected into any space, the earthworm may not be the first image that springs to mind.
Yet researchers at MIT in Boston claim it could actually be the answer to many robotic problems. Earthworms creep along the ground by alternately squeezing and stretching muscles along the length of their bodies, inching forward with each wave of contractions. Scroll down for video The prototype worm robot can move across surface and fit through tiny spaces by expanding and contracting its body Snails and sea cucumbers also use this mechanism, called peristalsis, to get around, and our own gastrointestinal tracts operate by a similar action, squeezing muscles along the esophagus to push food to the stomach.
Is that really just a fly? Swarms of cyborg insect drones are the future of military surveillance. By Daily Mail Reporter Published: 16:16 GMT, 19 June 2012 | Updated: 17:05 GMT, 20 June 2012 The kinds of drones making the headlines daily are the heavily armed CIA and U.S. Army vehicles which routinely strike targets in Pakistan - killing terrorists and innocents alike. But the real high-tech story of surveillance drones is going on at a much smaller level, as tiny remote controlled vehicles based on insects are already likely being deployed.
Over recent years a range of miniature drones, or micro air vehicles (MAVs), based on the same physics used by flying insects, have been presented to the public. The fear kicked off in 2007 when reports of bizarre flying objects hovering above anti-war protests sparked accusations that the U.S. government was accused of secretly developing robotic insect spies. Researchers have now developed bio-inspired drones with bug eyes, bat ears, bird wings, and even honeybee-like hairs to sense biological, chemical and nuclear weapons. Scientists show off the amazing robotic insect that can hop, skip (and even jump) on water. Tiny robot could be used as an electronic spyCan jump 14 inches with a single leap By Mark Prigg Published: 09:59 GMT, 27 July 2012 | Updated: 10:01 GMT, 27 July 2012 It is the tiny robot that can do something astonishing. Canadian researcher today showed off the incredible tiny machine inspired by an insect.
Like the water strider it was based on, it can walk on water - and even jump, all without sinking. The little robot that could: Canadian researchers have created an insect robot that can walk, and even jump, on water Scientists at the University of Waterloo revealed the 'agile microrobot' in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. They say it could its jumping ability to avoid obstacles on reconnaissance or other missions. Using porous, super water-repellant nickel foam to fabricate the three supporting and two jumping legs, the group made a robot that could leap more 14cm high and 35cm forward, despite weighing as much as 1,100 water striders.
Goldenfly! Hovering robot helicopters can play James Bond theme without any help. By Martin Robinson Updated: 17:43 GMT, 2 March 2012 A British film classic has been revolutionised by a group of flying robots who have managed to play the James Bond theme without any human help. Known as quadrotors - a type of small helicopter - they were programmed and then filmed hitting every note and playing several instruments, helping make the video an online sensation.
The extraordinary pictures have been seen by almost 800,000 people, who have watched them playing an electronic keyboard, a drum, cymbal and a giant guitar made from an old sofa. Incredible: The flying robots are shown hovering over their individual keys, ready to press them in time The robots are able to fly freely and do not collide thanks to infrared sensors on each one. They are just programmed to go to certain instruments at a certain time, with no human controlling them directly. 'Setting up the performance took about 36 hours, all done this past weekend,' the video’s producer Kurtis Sensenig said. Crash!