When you're building a jet that exponentially accelerates past Mach 6 -- as one does -- you need to come up with a way to get it off the ground. Scramjets, or Constant Volume Combustion (CVC) engines, use compressed air and a reduced nozzle to accelerate planes, and they're a hot technology in aviation. Problem is, you have to get them to Mach 4 before the magic happens. Traditionally, scramjet tests have involved strapping the craft to supersonic jets to get the jet up to speed -- not a very cost-effective solution. DARPA has come up with a hybrid engine design called Vulcan that can power a craft like the Falcon HTV-3X to the magical point with a turbo jet and then switch to the CVC to get the craft to the promised land. They expect to have a working prototype by 2012. Check the concept video after the break.

Hide your kids, iRobot just got that ChemBot contract DARPA was shopping around last year, which means that before we know it, sentient bots will be oozing through keyholes and making really bad movies without regard for human life or decency. Probably. The project is a "multi-year, multi-million" R&D effort to build robots that are soft and flexible, and can squeeze through openings smaller than their actual "structural" dimensions. And of course the bots can't be stupid piles of ooze, either, they'll need to identify obstacles and report back findings. iRobot is teaming up with Harvard and MIT for the project, and expects to be working in research from fields as diverse as chemistry and "actuator technologies" to build the bots.

One of the problems -- outside of the obvious -- with a significantly damaged aircraft is that pilots often overreact and add to the situation. In other words, when a plane gets nailed by something like a missile, the person at the wheel panics. DARPA and Athena's Damage Tolerance and Autonomous Landing Solution adds a full flight automation and backup system that uses a plane's internal inertial navigation system and GPS systems to land safely by automatically adjusting to the new configuration -- a physics computation that a human is in no condition to deal with during such a crisis. In a recent unmanned flight test, Rockwell Collins showed off the tech with a scaled-model F-18 in which nearly half a wing is blown off and then landing the plane safely. Hit the read link to watch the strangely calming video.

[Thanks, jr]

For sale:

One brand new autonomous Ford Escape Hybrid. Low miles, driven only to the showroom. Prototype version created by Virginia Tech researchers finished in third place at the DARPA Urban Grand Challenge. Utilizes Torc's ByWire XGV drive-by-wire system; to be made available as a research platform in the field of robotic vehicles. Let it drive you off the lot today, $89,000 OBO.

[Image courtesy of CNET]

It's not like DARPA hasn't been trying to miniaturize unmanned aerial vehicles already, but its Nano Air Vehicle program is yet another attempt to find tiny, ultra-lightweight devices that could theoretically "perform indoor and outdoor military missions." More specifically, it's looking for something less than 7.5-centimeters and under 10-grams, and the overriding goal is to "explore novel, bio-inspired, conventional and unconventional configurations to provide the warfighter with unprecedented capability for urban mission operations." Reportedly, AeroVironment already has an idea in mind for such a drone (pictured), but as these type things always go, we've no idea how soon we'll see critters like these take to the skies with a thumb-sized American flag plastered on the side.

[Via BoingBoing]

Considering that mechanical beings will be fighting our real wars here in just a few years, it's no shock to see more focus placed on the areas where actual humans will still be the ones waging. DARPA is looking to create what it calls a National Cyber Range, which would essentially act as a training ground for cyber warriors. The setup would enable defense gurus to simulate battle against attacks our on nation's most highly prized data, and of course, give victors over virtual phishing scams immense bragging rights. Come to think of it, Estonia could have totally benefited from something like this last year.

[Via Information Week, image courtesy of Sandia]

Arthur C. Clarke's ideas have had a tendency of becoming a reality in the past, and it looks like that's now happening yet again, in this case with a little help from the folks at DARPA. As New Scientist reports, the prolific agency is currently working on a new weapon system that bears a striking resembles to the Stiletto weapon in Clarke's 1955 novel Earthlight. That science fiction version was described as "a solid bar of light" that can pierce a spacecraft "as an entomologist pierces a butterfly with a pin." Or, more specifically, "a jet of molten metal, hurled through space at several hundred kilometers per second by the most powerful electro-magnets ever built." DARPA's MAHEM weapon (or Magneto Hydrodynamic Explosive Munition), on the other hand, is described by New Scientist as using magnetic fields to "propel either a narrow jet of molten metal or a chunk of molten metal that morphs into an aerodynamic slug during flight." There is a slight difference, however, in that MAHEM's electromagnetic field will be generated by an explosion, and not a giant electro-magnet. It's also not clear if MAHEM will be used to defend a fortress on the moon, although that's not exactly as far fetched as it once seemed either.

Your favorite driverless vehicles from the DARPA Urban Challenge are getting set to tackle yet another task -- speed racing. Yep, Junior, Boss (pictured) and Ben will all be greasing their gears in an attempt to outrun the others around one lap of the 1.97-mile, 11-turn circuit, all without smashing into walls or hailing a motorist to take over. Unfortunately, all three won't be on the track at the same time -- which ensures that no green / red shell ejections will have an effect on the outcome -- but those interested in seeing this in person can head on down to Long Beach on April 20th.

[Via CNET, image courtesy of PaulStamatiou]

Remember those cyborg insects that seemed so much like a pipe dream just two short years ago? Yeah, those frackin' things have somehow survived into adulthood, and are closing in on being ready to infiltrate enemy camps and extract vital information. According to a recent update on the DARPA project, the insects -- which have "modified body structures and micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) embedded" within -- have lasted into adulthood, and now those behind the endeavor are hoping to enable remote control of the bugs via "mechano-sensor activation" or something similar. Additionally, scientists are hoping to harness the energy emitted during locomotion to actually power the internal MEMS. Sure, as long as these critters can be swatted down with a newspaper, we're solid, but we aren't too sure we dig where this could be headed.

[Via Wired]

These chips won't be blazing through Crysis any time soon, but there's certainly room in the world for mechanical nanocomputers, and thanks to DARPA we might seem them in the real world sooner rather than later. The chips harken back Babbage's 13 ton difference engine, but with a whole lot more nano. They're also more robust, generate less heat and consume less power than their solid-state counterparts. DARPA has plenty of uses for them on the battlefield (like counting bullets, oddly enough), and consumers might seem them showing up car engines and children's toys.

[Via Crave]

Get ready, battlefields, as yet another iRobot is gearing up to take you all by storm. Announced today, the aforementioned outfit has received an award under DARPA's LANdroids program which will enable it to "develop a new portable communications relay robot that is small, inexpensive, intelligent and robust." The resulting creature will reportedly be used in "dense urban environments to rapidly deploy and maintain a vital communications infrastructure," and better still, they'll be tough enough to be thrown into position and intelligent enough to "autonomously detect and avoid obstacles while navigating." Unfortunately, it seems the conclusion of said project is still a few years out, but we can already envision soldiers getting antsy to never be forced to utter "can you hear me now?" again.

[Via InformationWeek]