DARPA announced 13 April that it had issued 9 new drone contracts to companies developing drone swarm tech. DARPA is stimulating research through its OFFSET (Offensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics) program. The program works in five main areas: physical test bed, swarm tactics, swarm autonomy, human-swarm teaming, and virtual environments. The agency seeks to encourage rapid innovation in one or more of those areas. “The nine awards mark the fifth such swarm sprint, with this one focused on swarm tactics and physical test beds in an urban environment.”

A key robot assisting with firefighting at the Notre Dame conflagration was the Shark Robotics Colossus. Its fixtures included LEMO connectors. A quick look at the complexity of these connectors illuminates the many functions of plug & play connectors in modern robots. These range from power and electronic data communications to brake control. Significant engineering goes into their design.

The Westport News reported on Tuesday, April 21, that Westport, CT, is the first town in CT to deploy drones to fight the coronavirus. “This pandemic has opened up a new frontier and urgent need for the use of drones,” Police Chief Foti Koskinas said Tuesday. “Using drones remains a go-to technology for reaching remote areas with little to no manpower required. Because of this technology, our officers will have the information and quality data they need to make the best decision in any given situation.”

Khalil Najafi, engineering and computer science professor at the University of Michigan, reports that “Our gyroscope is 10,000 times more accurate but only 10 times more expensive than gyroscopes used in your typical cell phones…” The new gyro design is actually a resonator made nearly-pure glass that can vibrate for extended periods. The new gyro enables use of high-precision inertial navigation and may find applications ranging from field use by the military to warehouse robotics.

A new, updated 2nd edition of Ballard College’s renowned “The Drone Databook” has been released and can be downloaded at the link noted below. The updated report provides comprehensive information on inventory, products, R&D and export activities by country, and much more.

c-Link Systems, Inc., has introduced 7 new unmanned ground systems (UGVs), similar in planform to the original c-Link Forager but smaller in scale. c-Link was established in 1997 and has extensive background in robotics as well as industrial fiber optic communications and controls. The company initially developed its flagship Forager mining and search & rescue UGV, as well as the diminutive S&R Vole-Bot, in the late 1990s. The new UGVs are compact, upgraded systems that address challenges in distinct markets.

To address the surge in global demand for Titan systems, Citadel has expanded their manufacturing capabilities in San Diego, CA to support production of up to 50 Titan systems a month. The company uses U.S. suppliers with over 70% of components being sourced locally in Southern California in order to improve responsiveness when executing on urgent customer requests. The Citadel Defense Titan system, which is depicted as a virtual protective dome, detects approaching drones and classifies whether there is a single unit or a swarm, and reports this in real time to its operators, which can be military, governmental or commercial users. The Titan CUAS system autonomously clears the Warfighter's airspace, allowing them to focus on the mission at hand. The system uses sophisticated electronic countermeasures to induce an intruding drone to land or return to its home base. Enabling technologies include a mix of machine learning algorithms, artificial intelligence and “software defined hardware technology” that rapidly identify airborne intruders, reportedly before they pose a threat.

The 2022 mission of the ExoMars programme will deliver a European rover, Rosalind Franklin, and a Russian surface platform, Kazachok, to the surface of Mars. A Proton rocket will be used to launch the mission, which will arrive at Mars after a nine-month journey. The ExoMars rover will travel across the Martian surface to search for signs of life. It will collect samples with a drill and analyse them with next-generation instruments.

The new NASA Mars rover, Perseverance, is being prepared for a launch to the red planet in the July-August window and will search for alien life. NASA staff are working hard to achieve this launch timeframe while taking all necessary precautions mandated in response to the coronavirus pandemic. If the launch misses the summer flight window, it will be bumped to 2022, as was the ESA/Russian ExoMars rover. As planned, a summer launch will see Perseverance land in February 2021 in Mars’s 45-kilometer-wide Jezero Crater.

Just announced: “While schools across the United States are closed for self-quarantine and travel-based conventions have been cancelled, we’re inviting educators to participate in a hands-on opportunity to learn about microcontrollers and robotics — totally free, from the comfort of your home! This is your time to pick up an entire STEM curriculum!”

Rosalind P. Walter, aka “Rosie the Riveter,” was a symbol of the grit and patriotism of the women workers in WW2, who spent long hours doing factory work because so many able-bodied men had entered the military and gone abroad to fight. Walter, an iconic WW2 national hero, passed on Wednesday, March 3rd, at the age of 95. She was a major philanthropist and PBS benefactor who supported “PBS News Hour”, “Great Performances”, “Nature”, Ken Burns documentaries and other notable productions.
During the war and afterward, the posters of Rosie were a source of national pride and emblematic of the sacrifices of thousands of women factory workers. Rosie and her fellow workers manufactured munitions, warships, aircraft and even robotic drones. Two other famous American icons, Marilyn Monroe and Ronald Reagan, were part of a remarkable story that also began in a WW2 drone factory.

According to a fascinating story posted by Forbes Media, GuardBot and Aquiline Drones will partner on a variety of air, land and maritime applications ranging from firefighting and lake surveillance to property perimeter control. Barry Alexander, Aquiline’s CEO, was quoted by Forbes: “This futuristic solution, with unique edge characteristics, will enable new business models based on cooperation between different classes of autonomous machines.”