Coming in all shapes and sizes, from tiny quad-copters to gargantuan solar-powered fixed-wing designs, drones are set to transform our lives in myriad ways. Having already made a huge impact in the military, numerous companies and research teams are exploring the commercial and civilian applications of unmanned aircraft – from autonomous sky-faring taxis to swarms of battlefield-ready flying robots.
Researchers have come up with a wearable exoskeleton designed for control of a fixed wing drone. Named FlyJacket, the device is designed to help beginners control a drone while making intuitive upper body gestures, literally spreading their arms wide like wings.
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In an effort to combat poaching, drone technology has been paired with software and techniques used by astronomers in a system designed to automatically detect and monitor wildlife in hard to reach areas, even at night when most poaching occurs.
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Zipline made headlines when it launched what it claimed was the world's first national drone delivery service, for transporting blood to medical clinics in Rwanda. Now, the company has announced an overhaul of that system, which involves upgrading to the "world's fastest delivery drone."
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If Amazon's delivery drones do actually enter our lives, what will they look like and how might they move around? If the latest patient issued to the company is anything to go by, perhaps they will be waved down by customers awaiting deliveries.
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Traditional quadcopters can be kind of awkward to transport, with their four propeller arms sticking out to the sides. As a result, we've recently seen a number of folding drones. One of the latest, the LeveTop, takes the form of a cylinder when not in use – plus it has some other useful features.
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If you’ve ever wished for a third hand so you can watch your phone while doing the dishes, Samsung might be answering your prayers in a roundabout way. The company has just been awarded a patent for a “flying display device” – a screen mounted on a quadcopter that follows your gaze.
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We've seen efforts to combine drones and Lego in new kinds of toys before. But a new system developed by scientists at Queen's University takes a different, and arguably more impressive, approach, by making drones themselves Lego bricks which arrange in a desired formation during flight.
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We’re increasingly seeing drones that cross over between sea and sky. Now engineers from North Carolina State University have developed the EagleRay XAV, an amphibious fixed-wing drone that can fly above or dive below the waves as needed.
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Our experiences with so-called self-flying drones so far have fallen a little short of the promised entirely handsfree form of fantastical film-making, but if the demo footage that accompanies the newly announced Skydio R1to go by, that could soon change.
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When Canadian engineers Omar Eleryan and Simon Czarnota first tried flying a regular drone, they were put off by how big, loud, hard to control and potentially dangerous it was. That prompted them to form Cleo Robotics, and develop the donut-shaped Cleo drone.
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