Sacramento Police Train Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Helpers

The Sacramento, California police department is developing a specialized Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, UAV, as a low cost alternative to helicopter cops.

They currently have two helicopters that can stream live video to remote terminals in police cars or command centers.

Their UAV's are 5 feet long, weigh 12 pounds and hand launched. They can keep their multiple video cameras aloft for 45 minutes. They are almost autonomous and have the capability to track subjects with their camera eyes.

The police are looking forward to reduced costs and better availability of the flying robots compared to expensive helicopter teams.

They also like the silent operation of the spy planes.

"Police Chief Albert Najera, who said the department gets many complaints about the noise of the helicopters. "The noise factor is huge. This is almost silent, you can't hear it," he said. "Not many police departments can afford a helicopter, but most will be able to afford this.""

The aircraft still need to get FAA clearance before they are put on duty.

Sacramento Police Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Program Gaining Altitude - Government Technology

Hummingbird Unmanned Helicopter

Boeing announced that they have successfully completed first flight tests on its unmanned helicopter the A160T Hummingbird.
The A160T is the turbine-engine version of the A160 unmanned helicopter under development by Boeing since they purchased Frontier Systems in 2004.

The Hummingbird is an advanced design helicopter with performance advantages over a traditional manned craft. It can fly up to 2500 miles and stay aloft for 24 hours with a 300 pound payload. It is expected to be able to fly at up to 140 knots forward speed at altitudes up to 30,000 feet.
It has variable speed rotors so that it can hover longer, fly quieter and use fuel more efficiently than a regular chopper.
The Hummingbird is 35 feet long with 36 feet diameter rotors.


Boeing: Boeing Completes First Flight of A160T Hummingbird Unmanned Helicopter

UK Coppers Test Sky Spy

Police in Merseyside,UK are testing an unmanned flying robot to help control the population. The BBC reports that the machine will be used "mainly for tackling anti-social behaviour and public disorder."

The unit is a small 2 pound vertical takeoff helicopter with four blades. It can have visible and infrared cameras. It can be programmed to follow a course using GPS or controlled remotely by a police officer on the ground.


The ground person watches the action from the sky high robot's point of view through video glasses display.

The robot is very quiet so you may not even know you are being watched. But it only flies for 20 minutes.

There is no word on when it will be fitted with weapons.


BBC NEWS | England | Merseyside | Pilotless police drone takes off

Abu Dhabi UAV Investment Company Launched

The government of Abu Dhabi announced last week the creation of the Abu Dhabi UAV Investment Company, AD UAV.
The company will design, develop, manufacture and integrate unmanned aerial vehicles for both civilian and military customers.
They will have fixed wing and vertical take off type vehicles.

AD UAV is an offshoot from the UAE military's UAV Research and Technology Center based in Abu Dhabi.
The largest client for AD UAV is expected to be UAE's military forces.

UAE has had an active interest in producing domestic UAV technology for a few years. The US declined to sell them Predator UAV's in 2002.

They currently operate two models of VTOL aircraft for patrolling their borders. The APID 55 was built in partnership wiuth Swedish company CybAero. The Al-Sber was made with Austrian company Schielbel. The ground control systems for both aircraft were developed cooperatively with the Korean company Ucon System. Locally, Gulf Aircraft Maintenence Company, GAMCO, provides ground support.

Abu Dhabi UAV Investment will help to kick-start the local manufacture of UAV's by providing an incubator for new UAV businesses as well as a matchmaker for international cooperative efforts. They hope to grow a worldwide client base with a globally recognized brand.

albawaba.com middle east news information::The Abu Dhabi Government launches Abu Dhabi Uav INVESTMENT Company IN Abu Dhabi: "Abu Dhabi Uav INVESTMENT Company"

Australian UAV Challenge

The Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation, ARCAA, has launched a competition for students and hobbyists. The UAV Challenge - Ouback Rescue will be held in Queensland, Australia in September 2007.

The contest will have prize money up to $40,000 (US $30000) in categories of airborne delivery and search and rescue. There will also be a category for the best documentary film on how the participating team created their contest entry.

The judging for the contest will be based on the performance of the unmanned flyer through a course as well as a report and presentation of the design.

The vehicles will be limited in size to weigh no more than 100 kg (rotary) or 150kg (fixed wing) in the competition configuration.

The contest is open to high school students only from the state of Queensland but to university students or hobbyists worldwide.

more info...
ARCAA | UAV Outback Challenge 2007

UAV Deployed for Naxalite Control

Just posting this because when I first read it I didn't know if it was from planet Earth or Stargate SG1.

word for word:

UAV to hover over eastern Maha skies to counter Naxalism

Nagpur, Feb 20: Unmanned Ariel Vehicle (UAV) is all set to be deployed in eastern Maharashtra to trace the movements of Naxals, a senior police official of Anti-Naxalite Operation (ANO) said today.

The UAV over Naxal-infested Gadchiroli district is likely to be operational sometime next week, said inspector general of police, anti-Naxal operations, Pankaj Gupta.

Gupta told reporters that UAV's operation in Chhattisgarh was quite successful and the authorities have received photo and video images both from cameras fitted in the flying machine.

It has traced movement of Naxalites near the hilly terrain of Abuzmadd in Bastar district which is a virtual den of the outlawed extremists.

The images of Naxal training camps, organised in thick and dense forests in Abuzmadd area of Bastar region of Chhattisgarh are very clear and reveal a lot of things which the official declined to mention.

Bureau Report

Zee News - UAV to hover over eastern Maha skies to counter Naxalism

Human Immobilizer Light on UAV

US Army researchers are working on fitting a high powered human-immobilizing spotlight onto an autonomous flying robot.

The light is a modified Maxa Beam light from Peak Beam Systems Inc. The high intensity xenon light is already available in a handheld and remote perimeter security models.
The powerful light can shine up to 7,500,000 candlepower and switch from spotlight, floodlight or stobe mode. By varying the frequency of the strobe the light can be used to disable and disorient enemies.

The army plans to use the unmanned autonomous non-lethal weapon as a "immobilization / deterrent device."

It could also be used to goof on people into thinking they were abducted by a UFO. That would be fun.

PRESOL | A | Design and fabricate a light-based immobilization / deterrent device and integrate it with an UAS. | 11-Feb-07 - FBO#1903

Unmanned Aerial Cargo Delivery

Ottawa, Canada company Mist Mobility Integrated Systems Technology Inc. (MMIST) and Technology Partnerships Canada, TCP, have announced that TCP will be making a $30 million investment in development of MMIST's unmanned cargo delivery aircraft.

The improved designed will be based on MMIST's SnowGoose UAV to improve range and payload capacity.

The SnowGoose is a parafoil winged UAV that can be launched from the ground or dropped out an airplane.

It has a cargo capacity of up to 600 pounds and an endurance range of up to 20 hours, depending on the cargo. The guidance system is based on MMIST's GPS guided SHERPA system.

Currently, the largest customer for the unmanned fliers is the US military. The TCP
announcement says the delivery robots also "can be used to deliver
medical assistance and emergency food aid to remote communities."

MMIST Inc.

UAV For Forest Fire Monitor

Spanish company Aerovision demonstrated their Fulmar unmanned flyer for use as a forest fire monitor.

The Fulmar aircraft is 3 meters wide and weighs about 20 kg (under 50 pounds)fully loaded. It is launched with a sling-shot and can stay aloft for up to 8 hours.
The Fulmar can carry both video and infrared cameras and transmit back from up to 50 km away to a base station in a laptop pc.

The flight plan, including take-off and landing, can be pre-programmed in the base station or the unit can be flown by joystick control.

The Fulmar system was designed as a low cost system for civilian applications.

AEROVISION

Phantom Sentinel Invisible Flier

Minnesota company VeraTech Aero Corporation makes the Phantom Sentinel, a powered unmanned flying vehicle for surveillance that is invisible in flight.
"Invisible," you say?

The UAV is sort of like a powered boomerrang. The whole aircraft spins so fast that it simply disappears from sight. It relies on human 'persistence of vision'.
Watch the videos here!
The Phantom can fly by GPS or remote control and can hover in place. They can be any size from 2 to 10 feet across and are foldable for storage.
It runs off batteries - the specs do not say how long it can stay aloft.

VeraTech Aero Single Rotor Phantom Sentinel

US Patents: 7104862, 7101246, 7059931

Predator MQ-9 Dubbed "Reaper"

The US Air force chief of Staff, Gen. T. Michael Moseley, announced that the UAV Predator MQ-9 has been named the "Reaper"

Says the general, "It's fitting as it captures the lethal nature of this new weapon system."

The Predator MQ-1 was originally designed for unmanned aerial surveillance but was modified to carry hellfire missiles.
The Predator B MQ-9 version from General Atomics is much larger and was created as a weapons system. The Reaper has a 64 foot wingspan and is powered with 900 hp turboprop engine. The reaper can carry up to 14 hellfire missiles or 500 lb (227kg) JDAM 'smart' bombs.

General Mosely says the Reaper has, "a true hunter-killer role." The most important advantage of the Reaper, the general says, is the "persistence and precision." It can stay aloft for over 14 hours with a full payload.

I would really not like to have one of these things after me.

'Reaper' moniker given to MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle

UAV Development Draws Protests

Aberporth, Wales.
"Non-violent direct action" are planned for the site of a UK national UAV center.
The West Wales UAV Centre is a partnership of West Wales Airport and defense corporation QinetiQ for testing and coordinating unmanned and autonomous flying machines. The center is part of the national ASTRAEA (Autonomous Systems Technology Related Airborne Evaluation and Assessment) program with the goal of getting UAV's to routinely fly unrestricted in UK airspace. The Welsh Assembly Government has given its full backing to the programme and is providing approximately £3M (US$5.6M) over 3 years to help industry open up UK airspace for routine operation of UAVs.

The protests were called for at the monthly meeting of activist group Bro Emlyn for Peace and Justice. The reason for the demonstrations are to raise awareness of the nature of the work being done at parc Aberporth.

Harry Rogers of BEPJ is reported as saying, "This project is extremely worrying for we ordinary mortals living in west Wales as most of us only get to hear about the... trumpetings of new jobs and economic development opportunities, but nothing about what is actually being planned at Parc Aberporth.
To put it simply, what kind of jobs are they going to be and what will the products arising out of this industrial development be used for?"

This shows that not everyone is impressed by the recent innovations in unmanned warfare. To many, flying robots are just another weapon.

Peace Demo For Uav Sites (from Tivyside Advertiser)

Flying Robots Behaving Badly

In just a few years incidents involving UAV's will be so commonplace that they will not make the news. But for now robots are still pioneering into new territory...

UAV escapes from captivity in western New York state...
FORT DRUM – Shortly before 1 p.m. today, Air Force Research Laboratory, Rome Research Site personnel lost contact with an unmanned aerial vehicle being tested here.

In the unlikely event the aircraft has left Fort Drum, information about the vehicle's location can be provided to Fort Drum Range Control.

Maybe it took off to Canada.
Fort Drum News Release / Media Advisory


Israeli UAV fires on its own forces...
The IAF revealed on Tuesday that it had prevented a severe disaster on the previous day when it had halted the fire that a UAV was shooting at Israeli troops.

A senior Air Force officer said that the UAV opened fire on ground troops operating in Bint Jbeil after receiving the coordinates from the Golani Brigade. The fire was stopped when the IAF realized the mistake.

No one was wounded in the incident.

Oops.


Israel.jpost.com

North Dakota Is UAV Country

If there is ever a war between the Dakota's then you would want to be on the side of the North. They will not even need an army because they will be ready with fleets of unmanned flying warriors.

The population of Unmanned Arial Vehicles in North Dakota has been gaining momentum lately and the UAV future looks bright.

Some of the recent headlines:
Grand Forks Herald: UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLES : 'Victory for North Dakota'
"The vice chiefs of staff of the Air Force and the Army signed the agreement June 20. The agreement is a significant step in ratifying the Air Force's plan to place a "family of UAVs" in Grand Forks and is good news for Fargo, said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D.
Conrad has said that Grand Forks could become a hub for new UAV technology being tested and developed, such as the next generation of unmanned bombers."

The University of North Dakota UAV Radar System
The University of North Dakota is working on a project to install a system of ground-based radars to help general aviation aircraft detect unmanned aerial vehicles.
The radar system would create ground-based systems to monitor all of the air traffic above North Dakota and steer commercial aircraft away from UAV's. This would allow UAV testing and training without worry about sharing the sky.

UND gets grant for unmanned aerial vehicle research
Richard R. Schultz, Associate Professor & Chair of Electrical Engineering at the University of North Dakota, was recently awarded $457,985 from the U.S. Army Research Office for a three-year project to develop higher resolution techniques that sharpen video captured by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and to help with automatic target recognition and tracking.

Lockheed Martin to Provide UND with UAV
Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems and Sensors (LMMS2) has agreed to provide the University of North Dakota (UND) with access to an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) as part of $1M of in-kind support for UAV studies.

Governor Hoeven to Award UND Aerospace With $1M Check
Governor Hoeven will present a $1 Million Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Center of Excellence award check. Through the Centers of Excellence program, the state is funding the UAS Center of Excellence at University of North Dakota Aerospace

UND Aerospace

Flying Robots Should Take Care of Themselves

At an International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Exploratory Meeting on Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) in Montreal recently, the International Council of Aircraft Owner and Pilot Associations (IAOPA) called for measures to make UAVs compatible with existing air traffic, ensuring equivalent or higher levels of safety.

Major concerns raised at the meeting included the following:

* UAV certification standards must equal or exceed conventional aircraft standards;
* The need for UAVs to reliably "see"-and-avoid manned aircraft -- especially for the smaller, hard-to-see UAVs (like those already in use in several municipalities);
* Airspace access must not be restricted to accommodate UAV operations;
* Existing manned aircraft should not be required to add equipment to assist with UAV compatibility -- especially as more than 100,000 aircraft have no electrical system that would support such a requirement.

The bottom line is that the pilots are worried that the rapid growth in UAV's will force human pilots out of the sky.

This may become a more significant issue as police forces, farmers, forestry services, and environmental monitoring begin to launch low-cost autonomous drones to improve their operations.

For many of the lightweight and hand-launch UAV models it is not possible to add the sensors and control equipment necessary to allow them to avoid obstacles, like small aircraft, autonomously.

Who will decide who has the rights to the sky?

:: Aero-News Network: The Aviation and Aerospace World's Daily/Real-Time News and Information Service

Nigeria Buying Robot Navy to Protect Coast

Nigeria is developing a national coastal defence based mainly on unmanned platforms.

Under a US $260 million contract signed in March, Israeli Aeronautics Defense Systems will design and build the naval array, providing manned and unmanned naval and aerial systems, coastal radars and command-and-control centres.
This structure will cover all of Nigeria's 853 km coastline and will be designed to protect its territorial waters and the offshore oil platforms in the Niger River delta.

The array will be based on Aeronautics' Aerostar tactical unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and the Seastar unmanned surface vehicle (USV). Three Aerostar systems will be provided, each including three to six platforms, and three Seastar systems, including several USVs.

Both systems are controlled through Aeronautics' Unmanned Multi-Application System terminal and software.

The 11 m-long Seastar USV provides a mission range of 350 n miles and can carry payloads up to 2,500 kg. It could be equipped with day/night sensors, electronic surveillance measures, electronic intelligence/communications sensors, sonar and a stabilised gun system.


For Aeronautics, the new contract marks substantial growth. "It is one of the largest projects in the world in the area of unmanned systems," a spokesperson for Aeronautics told Jane's.

Aeronautics Press Releases

Experts Fear Flying Terrorist Robots

Interesting summary in DefenseTech.org, Terrorists' Unmanned Air Force

We are all at risk of attack from terroists by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV's). The technology is becoming cheap and availble to anyone.
The availability of remote control or remote targeting make them well suited for a surprise attack.
They can be made small and fly close to the ground so that they are not detected by radar.

From the article:

Eugene Miasnikov of the Center for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies at MIPT, calls the UAV a suicide bomber on steroids, basically. Unlike a suicide bomber, a drone can easily penetrate security and threaten otherwise safe areas (eg the Green Zone) or reach crowded public places like sports stadiums. Dense crowds would lead to large numbers of casualties from fragmentation bombs, and an attack by multiple UAVs could cause panic and further injuries in the crowd. And don't even get us started about chemical, biological or ‘dirty bomb’ radioactive payloads.

Defense Tech: Terrorists' Unmanned Air Force

SkyTote Vertical Take-off UAV

Engineers at the US Air Force Research Lab and AeroVironment Inc are working on the SkyTote unmanned aircraft.

The SkyTote takes off vertically like a helicopter then flies like an airplane at up to 200km/hr (125 mi/hr).


The SkyTote is 8 feet tall, weighs just over 200 pounds and has a 52 horsepower engine. It can carry a 50 pound payload up to 150 miles to land and take-off vertically.

The unit operates autonomously but a pilot can take control if it runs into trouble.


UVonline.com

Military Killer Bee UAV

SAN DIEGO, March 14, 2006 -- Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has demonstrated its KillerBee low-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for the U.S. Air Force, highlighting its ability to provide real-time streaming video and precision targeting information to warfighters.

Designed by Northrop Grumman and Swift Engineering, the version demonstrated for the Air Force has a 9-foot wingspan and carries electro-optical and infrared sensors.

Bill Walker, Northrop Grumman's director of business development for the KillerBee program said, "We demonstrated our ability to launch and recover the aircraft without a runway, provided real-time video, displayed low-altitude flight and the potential for autonomous long-endurance operations."

This concept will provide unprecedented situational awareness as multiple KillerBees work together to form a robust, tactical UAV system.

Northrop Grumman Corporation

Running UAV's From Helicopters

L-3 Communications (NYSE:LLL) announced that a Tactical Common Data Link (TCDL) developed by its Communication Systems-West (CS-West) division was used to remotely command and control a Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from an Apache helicopter as part of the Hunter Standoff Killer Team (HSKT) Advanced Concept Technology Development (ACTD).

This demostration shows that unmanned robot aircraft can be controlled by and fly missions with manned aircraft.
This synergy of this new ability could allow radical changes in the way air forces are deployed.

The capabilities of manned aircraft can be extended through the use of remote flying escorts.
And, the range and capabilities of the unmanned flyers could be enhanced with nearby manned aircraft ready to move in.

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