Platform One

US Navy demonstrates multi-day solar UAS flight

The US navy has demonstrated its Skydweller Aero UAS, flying continuously for three days on solar power. The nonstop test over three days from Stennis, Mississippi, was led by the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) using the Skydweller UAS...

Platform One

Automating impact protection vehicles

Fusion Processing in the UK is automating Impact Protection Vehicles (IPVs) that are used on highways. The company is conducting a technical feasibility study to trial systems using its CAVstar system. The aim is to remove the...

Platform One

Extending the life of the Mars rover

NASA has updated the capabilities of the Curiosity rover on Mars to extend the mission life. Thirteen years since Curiosity landed, the six-wheeled robot has been given more autonomy and the ability to multitask. There have also been improvements...

Platform One

Cooperative exploration of caves

Researchers in Spain have developed a technique that allows groups of autonomous robots to explore cave systems on other planets. The team at the University of Malaga defined a lava cave exploration mission concept, including four...

Platform One

Triple-loop servo control

Researchers in China have developed a new algorithm for more agile servo control. Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC) is based on a triple-loop approach with a technique called disturbance suppression and does not rely on an accurate...

Platform One

Three-layer UTM

A team in Italy has developed a three-layer uncrewed traffic management (UTM) system for uncrewed aircraft in critical airspace. The AcrOSS (Environment for Safe Operations of Remotely Piloted Aircraft) platform developed by a team at the University...

Platform One

VW details its self-driving ID.Buzz shuttle

Volkswagen has detailed the technology in its self-driving shuttle, based on the ID.Buzz platform. The ID.Buzz AD has been developed from the ground up for autonomous operation by VW’s autonomous driving subsidiary MOIA, and has been tested on public roads...

Platform One

Micro air vehicle flies at high speed

University engineers in China have developed an uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) that emulates the flight capabilities of birds more closely than ever before. The Safety-Assured High-Speed Aerial Robot (SUPER) UAV is capable of flying at speeds exceeding...

Platform One

FMCW laser is smaller than a penny

University teams in the US have developed a laser sensor device that is smaller than a penny for improved Lidar systems in self-driving cars. At the time of writing, optical metrology requires bulky and expensive equipment to achieve delicate...

Platform One

Energy optimisation for UAV swarms

Researchers in Europe have developed a decentralised auction-based system for the energy management of swarms of delivery uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) that has shown some counterintuitive results. The researchers, led by Prof Roderich Groß...