Drones - Page 3

Early reports from police suggest that drones were used to attack oil tankers resulting in explosions that have killed three people and injured a few others.

A report from The Guardian indicates that drones may have been used by Houthi forces in Yemen to attack three oil tankers that were located close to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) airport. The attack was claimed by the Houthi forces, and UAE police have acknowledged and reported the incident, stating that the explosions were likely caused by small flying objects.

The attacks and the quick claim by the Houthi forces is likely to increase the tensions between UAE and Houthi. The apparent drone attacks have killed three people, two Indian nationals and one Pakistani. Additionally, six people have been injured, but most are reportedly suffering minor damage. The Guardian reports that the Houthi have been using drones equipped with bombs to attack the UAE over the duration of the war.

Drones have fast become one of the newest forms of surveillance and weapons for military personnel.

Naturally, when a weapon is developed, defense against the weapon is developed as well. Introducing, HELMA-P, a new turret system that uses lasers to knock drones out of the sky. HELMA-P stands for High Energy Laser for Multiple Applications - Power, and as noted by Interesting Engineering, it resembles a one-eyed WALL-E.

However, I don't believe its intentions are as pure or kind-hearted as WALL-E's as HEMLA-P is designed to take out drones with its lasers. HEMLA-P is equipped with optical sensors that give it the ability to track drones mid-air, and two-kilowatt lasers that are designed to destroy them. During its testing, HELMA-P successfully shot down 37 drones with 100% accuracy. The new system was developed by two French companies, CILAS, and Ariane Group.

The 2021 Olympics have officially begun, with the opening ceremony kicking off with an incredible display of drones flying in the night sky.

The video has been posted to Reddit and shows a collection of small drones, all creating what appeared to be a flat disk in the night sky. The drones then expand the circle and move to their respective positions to form a sphere. After that, the drones initiate the next phase and position themselves accordingly to create the shape of all of the continents on Earth.

The opening ceremony also featured an incredible fireworks show to start the games off with a bang, with each of the athletes representing their countries parading into an almost empty stadium. In other drone news, a Florida man recently shot a drone out of the sky that was "harassed" him, check out more on that story here.

A Florida man felt he was being harassed by a drone near his property and decided to take the matter into his own hands by shooting the drone down.

Wendell Goney, 50, took aim and shot his .22-caliber rifle at a drone that was owned by Lake County Sheriff's Office located in Mount Dora, Florida. According to a report from Orlando Sentinel, Goney believed that the drone was attempting to harass him, so he shot it down and watched as it slammed into a nearby structure before catching on fire.

Sentinel reports that the drone wasn't there to harass Goney but was actually investigating an area that recently experienced a burglary. It should be noted that Goney has run into law enforcement as he was convicted of aggravated assault against an officer back in 2013. Now, Goney faces a slew of new charges, such as possessing a firearm as a convicted felon and criminal mischief. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

Drone maker DJI is known mostly for its line of consumer drones, but the company also makes a lot of commercial drones aimed at industrial use and first responders. DJI has unveiled a new commercial drone platform called the Matrice 300 RTK or M300 RTK. DJI says that the new platform rewrites the standard for the commercial drone industry with modern aviation features, advanced AI, directional sensing and position system, and more.

The drone has a 55-minute flight time and features AES-256 encryption and an IP45 water resistant enclosure. The platform is fitted with the new OcuSync Enterprise transmission system that provides a triple-channel 1080p video transmission signal that can reach up to 15 km away.

M300 RTK supports up to three payloads at the same time and has a maximum payload capacity of 2.7 kg. The platform features a Primary Flight Display that offers real-time flight and navigation data on one display. The display shows standard telemetry data such as altitude and speed along with optical data for visualizing nearby obstacles during flight.

A lot of people out there enjoy filming from the air using drones, such as the line made by DJI. The company is gearing up to launch a new drone that has been leaked several times, called the DJI Mavic Air 2. The latest leak shows appear to be images of the device from the official press release, which is expected today.

The leaked images show the drone from multiple angles and give us a good look at the controller as well. The images give us a good look at the camera mounted up front on a gimbal and the folding design that makes it more compact to transport. The controller is interesting with the sliding section designed to hold the smartphone allowing the pilot to view the camera feed in real-time.

Another interesting feature of the drone are hints that it will have an advanced ActiveTrack feature. The camera is tipped using Sony IMX586 sensor that allows it to capture 4K images and video. The smartphone holder built into the controller is an alternative to the screen integrated into some past devices.

In a new press release, Exyn Technologies has announced its latest military surveillance drone that is designed to save human lives throughout reconnaissance.

Exyn Technologies has introduced us to their new drone called Scoutonomy. Scoutonomy has the capability of navigating within dynamic, complex, and dangerous environments without the assistance of human pre-loaded maps of areas. The new drone uses aerial robot systems to detect the environment it's flying in, adjust its course in real-time, and detect both objects and humans.

According to Nader Elm, CEO of Exyn Technologies, "Our aerial robots provide unique capabilities that the Government is seeking to develop and deploy. They are completely self-sufficient and a significantly valuable asset in providing superior situational awareness. We're most proud of our robots' ability to identify threats, reduce operational risks and save soldiers' and civilian lives in unknown and volatile situations. Now you can send a drone to perform highly sensitive missions that are far too dangerous for human soldiers, and acquire data that is unprecedented in its level of detail, accuracy and timeliness."

Any drone that is deemed unauthorized can be shot out of the sky by defense officials, but maybe this course of action isn't the best choice.

A new contract has been signed by the Department of Defence and a company called Fortem Technology. Above, we have a video from Fortem Technology which displays a new way of disabling unauthorized drones. This new strategy is led by what the company calls DroneHunter, which is a larger drone that uses a radar to track unauthorized drones, and once it has found them, it captures them with a net.

Capturing drone mid-air has many benefits overblowing them out of the sky. Defense officials will be able to retrieve the drone and examine it for further details and hopefully, be able to figure out who the perpetrator behind the drone is. Defense One says that the Pentagon and the general US military is spending millions of dollars investing in this new technology.

The problem with smaller drones these days is the fact that they can't stay up in the air for long periods of time. What if that problem can be solved by listening to mother nature?

Researchers and scientists from Brown University and EPFL have released a video that shows off a new design for smaller drones. This new design is called "a bio-inspired separated flow wing" and allows for the drone to have turbulence resilience and enables high endurance flight.

It is estimated that a small 100g drone will be able to stay in flight for around 3 hours with this new design, which is about four times what a normal drone of this same size would be able to achieve. At the moment, the new drone design has only been tested in a wind tunnel, but the team behind the design has patented it and plans on improving upon it. For more information about how this new drone design works, check out the Brown.edu website here.

CES 2020 - If you are really into home security, and you have every right to be, then you might want to consider picking up the Sunflower Home Awareness System. It does cost close to $10,000, though.

When someone says home security, usually the first thing that pops into your mind is cameras placed around your home, or maybe even Wi-Fi routers that can detect motion. I bet that you wouldn't think of drones. Sunflower did think of drones, though. They thought about it enough to make an entire home awareness system that combines on-ground sensors and a deployable drone.

The Sunflower Home Awareness System uses on-ground sensors called Sunflowers, which resemble garden lights that can detect motion and vibration. The sensors can also tell the difference between people, cars, and pets. Once movement is detected by the Sunflowers, a notification is sent to the owner's phone via an app. After receiving the notification, the owner can then choose to deploy the drone from its home called the "hive".