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.
While landmines in general are pretty awful, the PFM-1 "butterfly" mine is particularly nasty. Because of its mainly plastic construction, the butterfly-shaped device is notoriously difficult to find using metal detectors. Now, however, it turns out that drones can be used to locate the things.
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MIT’s ongoing efforts to make flying drones ever smaller has passed a new milestone with the latest version of its Navion navigation chip. Essentially the brains for a drone the size of a honeybee, the chip measures is about the size of a Lego minifigure’s footprint.
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Dimitar Karanikolov is a London-based architect with a passion for photography. Over the last few years his experiments with drone photography has led to an exciting, architectural perspective on some of the most amazingly beautiful places on Earth.
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There are various places where people aren't allowed to fly consumer drones. If someone does so anyway, it's always possible to shoot the thing down or remotely disable it. Another option, however, is to net it in mid-air, using the new-and-improved DroneCatcher.
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Well, it's official – the crowdfunded underwater drones are now coming thick and fast. It was just last week that we heard about the MITO, and now Geneinno's Titan has hit Kickstarter. Among other things, it's reportedly able to dive deeper than almost any other model.
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Parrot says that the Anafi drone has been 2 years in the making, and has looked to insects to inform its design. Two rotor -packing arms fold out on each side of its thorax, its head is home to the camera and gimbal and the abdomen contains the drone's battery.
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Quadcopters are most stable with their four propellers arranged in a square configuration, with one prop at each corner of the square. Such a setup makes it difficult for the aircraft to fit through tight spaces, however. That's where the Quad-Morphing drone comes in.
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Although there are currently not many consumer underwater drones that are actually being shipped to customers, there are quite a few that are in pre-production. One of the latest, the Navatics MITO, is claimed to shoot steadier video than any other.
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It's not just domestic plastic waste that's threatening marine life across the globe, discarded fishing gear and marine debris can be just as deadly. DJI has joined forces with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Oceans Unmanned to explore safer whale rescue – using drones.
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If there's one thing that's scary about quadcopter drones – besides their ability to invade peoples' privacy or fall on their heads – it's those fast-spinning rotor blades. An experimental new system, however, is designed to stop the rotors before they can do any cutting.
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