Get ready for drone soccer! Also, a heavy lift unmanned rotorcraft, David get’s to say “attritable” again, making a drone invisible, a drone ground station for the military, the sound of the Mars helicopter, drones and avigation easements, flinging drones off an aircraft carrier, and Chicago’s secret drone program.
In this educational “e-sport” from United States Drone Soccer, participants learn to build, program, fly, and repair drones. The racing drones are surrounded by plastic exoskeletons and the game is played in a netted arena. Each team tries to fly their drones into the opponent’s hoop. They keep the other team from doing the same by blocking and bumping the drones. In March 2021, the Academy of Model Aeronautics recognized U.S. Drone Soccer as an authorized STE(A)M program.
First flight of the heavy-lift K-MAX Titan unmanned rotorcraft was conducted by Kaman Air Vehicles. Two Marine Corps K-MAX aircraft are being upgraded with the K-MAX Titan unmanned system and the sensor-based autonomy suite from Near Earth Autonomy.
In a 2h 10min test flight April 29, 2021, the US Air Force’s Skyborg autonomy core system flew aboard a Kratos UTAP-22 Mako tactical UAV at Tyndall AFB in Florida. This was the first time the autonomy core has flown Kratos Mako UAV. This represented “Milestone 1” of the ongoing “Autonomous Attritable Aircraft Experimentation” campaign.
Current 360-degree cameras use two lenses to capture the entire world view but put one on a drone and you get the drone in the video. Now NewBeeDrone uses the Insta360 ONE R camera in its Invisi360 drone. You provide the camera and mate it with the Invisi360 and you’ve got 360-degree video without the drone.
Video: Introducing Invisi360
The Easy Aerial Easy Guard ground station was certified to MIL-STD 810G. The station looks like the familiar Pelican case and allows a drone system to take off, land, and charge in the field. The system is mobile...