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Israeli hover-jeep returns to flight testing

BY 

UNMANNED EDITOR

 – MAY 10, 2011POSTED IN: UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES (UAV) NEWS, UNMANNED GROUND VEHICLES (UGV) NEWS

AirMule

The “AirMule” robot hover-jeep being developed in Israel is back in flight tests following modifications: but the radical ducted-fan VTOL craft still has yet to fly untethered.

According to makers Urban Aeronautics:

Our AirMule prototype has recently resumed its flight testing after a systems and structural upgrade that lasted 4 months. The vehicle is now flying with an expanded sensors suite and the new, energy absorbing wheeled landing gear … Initial results from the tests look very promising.

The AirMule’s original skid-type landing gear has now been replaced by a wheeled undercarriage evidently able to absorb greater shocks. According to Urban Aero, the wheels will also permit rolling takeoffs, which will (as is also the case with helicopters, tiltrotors, jumpjets etc) permit the AirMule to get airborne carrying a greater load than it could lifting off vertically.

Urban Aero’s “fancraft” designs – the AirMule is the only serious one as yet to move off the drawing board – use ducted fans, essentially enclosed helicopter rotors, for lift. The addition of proprietary Venetian-blind style slats to direct the air flow, coupled with modern fly-by-wire controls, is expected to conquer the traditional disadvantages of ducted fan aircraft: an Urban Aero offering will be easy to fly and will not need to tilt itself to maintain a hover in windy conditions, nor to achieve cruise power.

The firm has plans one day to offer manned craft, but for now it is proceeding with the unmanned AirMule. It’s hoped that military customers might use the robot hoverjeep for resupplying embattled troops fighting in cities, where the fancraft’s precise-hover abilities and the fact that it can’t smash off its rotors as easily as a helicopter might let it carry out missions that choppers couldn’t.

Unpiloted aircraft seem unlikely to take up a routine troop- or passenger-lifting role in today’s climate, but it is thought that the military might use them for casualty evacuation as well as resupply. More traditional unmanned missions such as surveillance and strike wouldn’t call for the AirMule’s specialist design and aren’t really seen as likely roles for it.

Manned, future versions of the AirMule would be quite close to being full-fat Jetsons flying cars in some respects: they would be somewhat quieter than helicopters and would offer not just full VTOL but a rock-steady hover providing “comfortable access” to high-rise windowsills, according to company reps. By necessity, having developed from an unmanned craft intended to operate in a difficult comms environment, manned “X-Hawk” hoverjeeps would need no highly-trained pilot – they would be quite capable of flying themselves with only minimal supervision.

However, Urban Aero long ago gave up on the idea that its designs could fly powered by ordinary, low-maintenance engines of the sort found in cars. The AirMule is powered by a gas turbine, so it will never be cheap or really very quiet. Furthermore the need to keep the main lift fans large is such as to dominate the craft’s layout – payload, machinery etc must be packed in around the edge of the fan disc. This minimalist deck plan may mean that future designs are sufficiently awkward as to be hard to love.

Certainly Urban Aero has struggled to attract major backing and development is proceeding slowly as a result. “We are now working to secure additional funding that will carry us through the next few years and up to full scale development and production”, says the firm.

Source: The Register

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THROWABLE ROBOTS TO JOIN BATTLE IN AFGHANISTAN

At dusk, a platoon of soldiers in Afghanistan approach a building. It's surrounded by a low wall, and looks empty, but the wooden front gate is shut. A soldier pulls a small robot out of his backpack that shaped something like a dumbell and throws it over the wall. The little robot rights itself and starts rolling around the grounds, transmitting pictures via it's camera. An infrared scan shows nobody inside, but there's a bomb behind the gate. The platoon calls up its bomb disposal team.

By May, real, throwable robots, called Scout XTs, will be doing jobs just like that. Built by Minneapolis-basedReconRobotics Inc., they weigh about a pound and can be dropped onto concrete from 30 feet up. They have two wheels and an onboard camera that can also see in the infrared. Between them the U.S. Army and Marines have ordered 1,126 of them.

The concept isn't unlike the telepresence robot built from a recycled laptop or the Romotive chassis that works with a smart phone as its "brain." But these are designed for military use, and so were built with the ability to work the moment they hit the ground -- there's no need to worry about whether it is right side up, or rough terrain. They are also simple to control.

The Scout XT is one of several robots that are making their way to battlefields -- the South Korean military is working on a remote-controlled robot grenade. Robots can be in areas where it's dangerous for human soldiers, and small ones can fit into small spaces, such as under a car to check for bombs. via: ABC News

Photo: The Scout XT; Credit: ReconRobotics

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Surveillance Cameras System using an Ad Hoc Network

Surveillance Cameras System using an Ad Hoc Network

The Murata Uemura Laboratory at Ryukoku University is researching a surveillance camera system using an ad hoc network.

"Conventionally, data has been managed on a server, but with this system, the idea is that data is shared using only ad hoc network devices. If a server is used, there's the problem of how to manage data if the server goes down. But by managing data using the devices alone, even if one device is absent, its data management can be done by another device. So this eliminates the problem."

This system consists of two kinds of wireless devices: those with a camera, and those without. When a device with a camera takes a picture, the data is sent to a neighboring device as well as being stored on the original device. Because devices may enter or leave the network, the method used to send the data is broadcasting, which doesn't specify the receiving device. In other words, all devices within the signal reception range receive the picture data at the same time. When a neighboring device receives the picture correctly, it sends it on to the next one. This process is repeated to distribute and share the picture among all the devices.

This system is expected to help prevent crime in two ways. Firstly, criminals don't know where they're being photographed from, so they can't find a blind spot. Secondly, even if a criminal breaks one device, the data has already been shared with other devices, so the photographic evidence isn't lost.

"I think this technology could also be used in emergency situations. If antennas go down in a fire or earthquake, the network won't function. But an ad hoc network could be constructed. We think this system could be utilized in that kind of way."

Service On Demand (SOD) system; SOD - LT500

SOD - LT500

(Line Turbine - 500W)

• Turbine shape like a piece of line
• Fitted on the balloon tether line
• Generate electrical power to energize the payload
• Self sustain so no need to transmit power via the tether line

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Unmanned first