A cockroach-inspired microbot, a manned vs. unmanned fighter fly off, autonomous deliveries from CVS, a Predator over Minneapolis protests, a police helicopter collides with a police drone, piloting a UAS from an airborne C-130J Hercules, and library books delivered by Wing.
Researchers at Harvard created the tiny, cockroach-inspired Harvard Ambulatory Microrobot, or HAMR. The HAMR-JR is a ½ scale microbot allowing researchers to test scaled robot performance. It can trot, jump, pronk, and bound gait.
Video: HAMR-Jr: small and dextrous. Presented at ICRA 2020
A July 2021 fly-off is planned between an AI-controlled drone and a human pilot. The “Big Moonshot” was conceived by the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center.
Autonomous vehicle maker Nuro is partnering with CVS Pharmacy to deliver prescriptions and essentials to three Houston zip codes. Nuro says “We see this moment as an important stepping stone toward delivering all kinds of goods, beyond food and groceries.” Initial deliveries will be made by autonomous Prius vehicles. In the future, Nuro’s custom-built R2 delivery bot will be used to make deliveries.
A Predator drone from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) was flown over recent protests in Minneapolis. Now a U.S. House of Representatives committee wants to know why. The DroneLife Op-Ed says the use of Predator drones over a city will not help ease the way for commercial drones. The CBP says that the drone was not used for surveillance purposes.
A Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) AS350 B3 helicopter and an RCMP Aeryon SkyRanger R60 surveillance quadcopter collided during a joint mission in British Columbia. Canada’s Transportation Safety Board rated it a five on a seriousness scale of one to six. It was classified as a “mid-air collision” that resulted in a “forced landing.” The helicopter and drone met at about 300 feet AGL. The drone was destroyed and the helicopter made a precautionary landing on a road.
A trial at RAAF Edinburgh was performed to test the feasibility of operating a UAS through the aircraft’s onboard Satellite Communications (SATCOM) link. The test demonstrated operating a UAS from anywhere in the world and uploading live imagery from offboard sensor systems.
