US Navy to create new drone-type helicopter
6 April 2014, 19:49 -- The US Navy intends to spend $100 million over the next five years to create unmanned helicopters capable of resupplying troops and rescuing injured soldiers from the battlefield. The military seeks to create autonomous aircraft that can help soldiers carry out night raids, patrol oceans, and select targets for attack.
According to Fox News, the Navy program has put the system through successful test runs at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Va. Using a special app and a tablet, operators given only a half-hour of training were able to direct small helicopters to land on their own. The helicopters can choose their own routes, pick landing sites and change their destination if they spot unexpected obstacles that emerge at the last minute.
The main goal of developing autonomous helicopters for resupplying troops is to reduce the need to use ground convoys to deliver food, water, and weapons, as they present attractive targets for enemy fighters. An Army study of data from 2003 to 2007 showed that one person was killed or wounded for every 24 fuel resupply convoys in Afghanistan and one was killed or wounded for every 29 water resupply convoys.
In order to assuage concerns over the images of killer drones, capable of choosing targets and hunting them down without human oversight, the Pentagon has devised special guidelines meant to ensure that the military won't allow drones to carry out 'kill missions' without human involvement.
Autonomous drones that require less human oversight could also take some strain off the Pentagon as it cuts back the size of the military to deal with budget cuts.
At the moment, the Pentagon's expanding drone fleet has limited ability to operate autonomously. The Navy's experimental combat drone, the X-47B, landed itself on an aircraft carrier last July. The Army wants to create a robot that can operate on its own in helping soldiers search for suspects.
Drones: from US deadly attacks to South Africa traffic jam control
In the skies of Gauteng province, South Africa, locals may enjoy an unusual sight over the next few days –the so-called traffic drones. Still, many would associate these to US-produced unmanned vehicles bringing death and suffering to the developing lands in pursuit of US ambitious geopolitical goals.
Kagiso New Media and Jacaranda radio have begun a pilot project to investigate the viability of using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to provide traffic updates to Gauteng residents. The drones are to monitor a number of highways and provide updates on traffic conditions, which appears really crucial during peak hours. In addition to the updates being broadcast on Jacaranda FM, the public can log in to the website to learn the traffic news. Jacaranda FM looks forward to drones giving the station a competitive edge. 'In a metropolitan area with so many traffic issues, this offering will save our audience a lot time and hassle. We see it as a potential revolution not only in traffic reporting, but also in news reporting,' said Jacaranda FM general manager Kevin Fine.
Russian scientists build artificial intelligence system for emergency drones
Russian scientists have developed a new aircraft control system, which could be used by drones to monitor wildfires and deliver critical humanitarian aid, a representative of the team that designed the system told RIA Novosti Thursday.
A Scientists from the city of Izhevsk presented their system with artificial intelligence for the multi-engined drones, called quadracopters, at an ongoing scientific conference in the Siberian city Tomsk.
'We are working on a system that allows controlling several robots simultaneously, which lets the operator control groups of robots,' a member of the project, a collaboration between the Izhevsk State Technical University and the Global Storage Technology company, Alexey Pervushin said. 'There is no equivalent technology at the moment, they use the old scheme: one drone plus one operator,' Pervushin added. The programmable system could be used for a wide variety of tasks.
Source: http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_04_06/US- Navy-to-create-new-drone-type-helicopter-5553/
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