DARPAs Microdrones Designed To Enter Houses

As drone expert, P.W. Singer said about microdrones, At this point, it doesnt really matter if you are against the technology, because its coming. According to Singer, The miniaturization of drones is where it really gets interesting. You can use these things anywhere, put them anyplace, and the target will never even know theyre being watched.

This has been the promise that the Air Force made quite clear in their video early last year about nanodrone tech that you can see below. According to the USAF, Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs), combined with the ability to harvest energy, will enable insect-sized drone swarms to be dropped from military aircraft to stay aloft for a prolonged amount of time, offering a host of functions, including assassination.

Why UPS Finds Drones Interesting

 

The package delivery giant is testing drones for sending medical items to rural locations.

The United Parcel Service has high hopes for drones.

In late September, the package delivery giant and a drone startup, CyPhy Works, said they had successfully tested a drone delivery, in which a flying robot delivered an asthma inhaler to a children’s summer camp on a small island off the coast of Massachusetts.

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Uber plans self-flying drone taxis

If you summon an Uber in 10 years’ time, you will probably get a car that drives itself. But then again, you may not be travelling in a car at all.

The taxi-hailing app is working on technology that would allow airborne passenger drones to fly its users short distances around cities, it has emerged, raising the prospect of a future in which skylines are dotted with Uber aircraft shuttling commuters back and forth.

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Fuel cells about to power the drone industry

Just as their commercial use begins to spread, fuel-cell technology is improving the way drones are powered

Canadian companies are placing big bets on a better way of powering drones.

So far these stealthy units — long used by military forces for intelligence-gathering, surveillance and striking targets — have been powered by internal combustion engines or lithium polymer batteries.

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The Anti-Drone Arms Race

Last week, the director of the Federal Aviation Administration reported that his department is receiving an average of 2,000 new registration requests for drones every day, and that it has registered up to some half a million drones since new rules went into effect in January. But as sales of drones have increased, so too have other more worrying numbers. The FAA also says it receives more than 100 reports per month of drones flying around airports and other forbidden places, where they could damage infrastructure or accidentally collide with the engine of a landing airplane.

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Donesurfing: A new sport takes flight

 A brand new sport has been created specifically due to new technology: Dronesurfing.

A professional cinematographic company called Freefly used a drone, the Freefly Alta 8, on a day with minimal waves to help pull their boarder across the water. While the drone does have a 20-pound maximum cargo limit, it is able to pull a person across the water (after getting a running start).

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Drone Racing: ESPN’s Newest Televised Sport

 

First there was poker. Then there was the spelling bee, Scrabble and the recent emergence of e-sports.

Now ESPN is betting that speeding drones will be the next noncontact “sport” to find a mass audience.

The Drone Racing League announced on Wednesday that it had signed deals to broadcast a 10-episode season on ESPN and ESPN2, along with the European stations Sky Sports Mix and 7Sports. The schedule begins with an introduction to drone racing on Thursday at 11 p.m. on ESPN2.

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The Construction Industry Loves Drones

The thinking: Spend billions of dollars, save even more.

The $8.5 trillion global construction industry isn’t exactly known for its efficiency. The U.K. Green Building Council estimates that 15% of materials delivered to construction sites end up in landfills, the result of mismanaged scheduling and purchasing.

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Mercedes-Benz Vision Van concept sends drones to last-mile delivery

When it comes to making the concept of delivery drones a reality, using vans to handle the brunt of the work is an idea that has some merit. We saw some researchers float the idea a couple of years ago and it now appears Mercedes-Benz also sees some potential in the approach. It has teamed up with drone company Matternet to create a concept vehicle dubbed the Vision Van which would deploy drones from its rooftop to carry packages over the final leg of their journey.

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Domino’s to kick off drone delivery testing in New Zealand

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Domino’s introduced a pizza delivery drone in the summer of 2013, and now it is going to start testing actual pizza-by-drone deliveries soon. The testing will take place in New Zealand, and is being done in partnership with drone company Flirtey. The company isn’t offering too many details about its plan at this time, though it does say it will kick off the testing later this year and that it’ll happen alongside ordinary (read: people-powered) pizza deliveries.

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