Infrastructure

UAVs could be useful for monitoring railroads or gas pipes if they weren’t limited by battery life. Now SkyX has installed its first xStation, a recharging dock that can be placed periodically along a route to extend the range of its drones almost indefinitely.

​Intel thinks it could use drones to make infrastructure a little safer. Intel CEO Brian Krzanich​ presented the company's vision for how its commercial drones can perform bridge inspections and close mapping that have previously required putting human inspectors in some precarious positions.

Norway's most hazardous shipping route passes around the Stad peninsula but an ambitious plan aims to build the world's first ship tunnel directly through the peninsula, enabling ships to travel in safety. We interviewed Stad Ship Tunnel Project Manager Terje Andreassen about the project.

As cities look for ways to source renewable energy, cleanly charge electric vehicles and provide fast, ubiquitous communication networks, New York-based startup Totem has developed something called the Totem to deliver all three. What's more, it looks pretty good too.

Startup Addibots is looking to help cut the man hours required to maintain our cities, wheeling out a roving 3D printing robot it imagines will scoot around town mending dodgy road surfaces.

Last year, we reported on the Thames Deckway: a very ambitious billion dollar proposal to build a floating, sustainably-powered cycle path on the River Thames, in the heart of London. In a bid to raise funds to move the project forward, an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign has been launched.

The street lighting in the US city of Los Angeles is about to get smarter. LA is to become the first city in the world to deploy Philips' SmartPole street lights, which are equipped with fully integrated 4G LTE wireless telecommunications technology. A total of 100 SmartPoles will be rolled out.

NBBJ has unveiled a new proposal to replace tube trains in the London Underground's Circle Line with travelators, or moving walkways. The firm says this would allow users to stroll relatively long distances more quickly than if traveling by train.

Back in 2011, we reported on BIG's waste-to-power station near Copenhagen. It will boast a ski-slope and an installation that expels a steam ring every time a ton of carbon dioxide is produced. The Danish firm has turned to Kickstarter to get the steam ring generator installation up and running.

Philips has announced that it plans to make 110,000 LED street lights in Los Angeles connected. The company will bring the lights online using new plug-and-play CityTouch technology. It is said to be quick and easy to install, and will allow the city's lights to be controlled via the web.

We might be a ways off having buildings pop up at the push of a button, but on construction sites around the world flying robots are already carrying out surveying tasks more efficiently than we can. And experts say that when it comes to automating construction, that's not all they have to offer.

As water shortage is a serious issue in many parts of the world, a means of efficiently harnessing safe drinking water from thin air could be a real lifesaver. Italy's Architecture and Vision is developing an off-grid bamboo tower called Warka Water that promises just that.