In the past 2 years there has been a growth in uncrewed systems designed for autonomous operations in enclosed, indoor spaces, where GNSS cannot be relied on for navigation. Although SLAM (often the key to indoor autonomous navigation) might once have been confined to high-end military systems...

In the world of autonomous vehicles, demand has arguably grown faster for marine systems than for any other vehicle type...

A small VTOL UAV fitted with a thermographic camera is a powerful tool for inspecting the integrity and energy efficiency of many kinds of installations that are difficult, time-consuming or dangerous to reach by methods that involve people working at height – and rooftop solar panels fit snugly into this category...

Despite the slow lifting of international travel restrictions over the past 2 years, CES remains the biggest show for many tech companies worldwide, particularly those working towards the next generation of autonomous and robotic systems...

We previously featured German aero engine manufacturer Limbach in UST 17 (February/March 2018). In that article, the company detailed its 7 kg L 275 EF two-stroke boxer twin that produces 18 kW and is aimed squarely at the kind of 25 kg MTOW UAV that has become the mainstay of aerial data and surveillance providers.

While people around the world now acknowledge the importance of environmental sustainability and helping the planet, it remains a sad and common sight for those living in city waterfronts to see litter strewn in urban waters...

While the spooky science of quantum mechanics underpins modern microelectronics, there’s a great deal of excitement and no doubt hype about the far less familiar field of quantum computing and its impact on comms, cryptography, sensing and other areas in which uncrewed systems are closely involved...

An early enthusiasm for computers and aviation, combined with talents that leaned more towards the practical than the academic, led Jarno Puff, now CTO of uncrewed subsystems developer LikeAbird, into an eclectic career that has encompassed industrial robotics, computing, UAV design and HMI development, emergency aviation and cloud computing...

If uncrewed systems are to make the most of the opportunities offered by the need to secure large and often complex sites, they will have to exploit automation as far as possible, ensure safety and cost-effectiveness, and stay on the right side of the regulators...

Many UAVs and USVs now come fitted with solar panels covering much of their surfaces. The interest in solar energy comes from more than it being a potentially limitless source of green power; for uncrewed systems it extends autonomy in a practical sense.