Those pesky spyplanes, always catching you in the act. Denel Dynamics built these two GPS-guided robot snoopers for the military, but it turns out they're well-suited to the world of rural medicine. They're being prepped for use by clinics in South Africa as carrier pigeons of sorts, taking medical samples from remote areas to labs for testing, or ferrying antivenom to snake bite victims. The mini-UAVs can carry a 500-gram payload through a stiff wind, and can land at a predetermined spot on auto-pilot or manually. We want one. You know... for, um, to do other good things for humanity. Video is after the break.

[Via Gearlog]

Sports photogs aren't compensating for something by swinging gigantic, monopod-mounted lenses; they need the focal length. Focusing and zooming on outfielders usually means glass far from the camera body, but not so when using so-called "origami optics," flat lenses being researched at UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering that use internal reflection to achieve long focal lengths. Only the outer ring actually captures the image, while the others bounce it around before depositing light onto the film or sensor. The military is sponsoring this research, wanting better eyes on its UAVs, and we're hoping for improved optics in our gadgets -- though we were equally jazzed about liquid lenses, and those haven't exactly revolutionized mobile photography yet. A snooze-inducing Engineering TV clip after the break explains it all in more detail, so don't click on until you've had your morning cuppa -- or two.

QinetiQ just (unofficially) smashed the record for an unmanned flight by a solar airplane, sending its Zephyr craft into the air for a staggering 83 hours and 37 minutes, more than double the official record by "Global Hawk" in 2001, and a good margin more than its last flight. The plane was guided by autopilot and satellites to a height of 60,000 feet, and powers off the sun during the day, prepping its rechargeable lithium-sulphur batteries for the night. Zephyr is being built for reconnaissance, communications and unofficially setting really bad-ass flight records.

[Via USA TODAY]

We're not sure what's going on here, but we're not going to complain: Blimps are making a comeback. There are powerful hauling blimps, sure, but BAE is hopping on the autonomous systems bandwagon with its nimble GA22. The 22-meter (72 feet) dirigible is meant to carry high-tech surveillance equipment weighing up to 330 pounds at an altitude around 6,500 feet. The unmanned craft could also be used for sporting events, floods, and forest fires, says BAE. Right now the vehicle is radio-controlled but the ultimate release will be completely autonomous. Unfortunately, this means we can't take a ride, but, as we said, it's still a blimp, and blimps are just straight-up cool.

[Via Danger Room]

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]

Watch out, battery-powered MAVs -- your viability could be seriously in danger. Based on a patent application from University of Florida aerospace engineer Subrata Roy, he's reckoning that a micro air vehicle could be propelled by plasma. Scientists have known that passing a current or magnetic field through a conducting fluid generates a force, but exploiting it for use in moving an aircraft has proven futile thus far. The phenomenon, simply known as magnetohydrodynamics, has typically been tested on larger crafts, but Mr. Roy's invention would boast a wingspan of less than 15-centimeters and resemble a flying saucer more so than a 747. Of course, this fantastic idea has yet to become much more than just that, but for armed forces and entities obsessed with surveillance, this could undoubtedly be big.

From what we've seen, the British military is pretty savvy on its robotics. Apparently mechanical beings aren't integrated enough, however, as the British Ministry of Defense has launched its first ever Grand Challenge, which "encourages participants to turn their ideas into prototypes for machines the army can use in urban environments." The six finalists that were chosen each received around $600,000 in order to construct their contraptions, and this August, we'll see an unmanned buggy that can analyze a gunman's movements, a self-propelled, remote-controlled camera and minuscule helicopters used for reconnaissance missions. Best of all, these creations won't just be propped up on some shiny display -- oh no, they'll be taking part in a mock battle in Copehill Down, with even more loot and an enviable trophy on the line.

We didn't even flinch when we heard that hovering drones employed by Big Brother were going to work in the UK, but somehow those buggers have managed to wander over to America's east coast. Granted, the pilotless drones -- crafted with good intentions by Honeywell -- that are slated to report in to the Miami-Dade police department aren't exactly the same, but they are expected to be used for similar duties. More specifically, they'll be loosed in order to oversee "urban areas with an eye toward full-fledged employment in crime fighting." According to a department spokesman, the fuzz are only looking to use it in "tactical situations as an extra set of eyes," but don't be shocked to see flashing lights from a vehicle without wheels next time you're rolling (a little too) quick down South Beach.

If a wave of déjà vu just hit you like a ton of bricks, fret not, as this most certainly isn't the first (or second) time we've heard of researchers looking to the seas to create more intelligent / nimble submersibles. Apparently, a few more folks have gotten involved, as gurus from Drexel, MIT, Harvard and George Washington are now collaborating to develop a "fish-like fin to make autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) more agile." Apparently, the current iteration has improved on prior versions by eliminating drag during part of the "cut and sweep" motion. The general idea is to combine several of the fins in order to "allow robotic submarines to hover and turn on a dime as natural swimmers can," but it'll still be quite some time before devices such as this one can overcome ocean currents and ill-willed sea creatures.

A fancy new miniaturized plasma propulsion system being developed at Oklahoma State University promises some exciting new Unmanned Ariel Vehicle spy plane designs for the folks at DARPA. The engine is about the size of a cigarette, contains no moving parts, and will be build into planes as small as 6-inches long, which soldiers can carry in packs of six or so and deploy as a swarm of inquisitive Daniel Craigs. The planes should be able to manage indoors and urban areas. No word on when these will be spying on a homeland security threat near you, but the project is still in the early stages.

[Via Crave]

We've seen some interesting solutions to keeping UAVs powered for extended missions, but none so diabolical as actually landing on the enemy's power lines and using their juice to power up. That's the plan behind the Power Line Urban Sentry (PLUS) project currently being run by the Air Force Research Laboratory and private firm Defense Research Associates, and it's already yielded UAVs that can land on power lines and charge in three hours. The project started with attempts to charge by simply flying near power lines, but when that method yielded only micro-watts of juice, focus shifted to actually landing on the lines. The team is planning all sorts of other capabilities for the tech, including navigation systems -- "Power lines are like highways in the sky," says one of the researchers -- and auxiliary surveillance systems that power up when jacked in. On top of all that awesomeness, the team is also working with an outfit called the Center for Morphing Control to disguise the UAVs when they sit on the lines -- so far, they say, they've made a small UAV "look like a Coke can." Test flights are scheduled for 2008, and there's still work to be done on the power line latching mechanism, but whatever -- we want one.

[Thanks, Stuart T., original photo by Bob Fornal]

Researchers at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology recently demonstrated a fuel cell system that can power an RC plane for up to 5 hours on just 500 grams (17 ounces) of liquid hydrogen, and is expected to power a UAV variant of the plane for up to 10 hours when the autonomous pilot system in completed. KAIST hopes to use the tech in a future Korean military UAV, and, pending funding, expects to have a complete production-ready drone within two years. Sadly, there's no word on when Korean kids will be able to hold all-night drone-flying stamina contests, but we're waiting for that YouTube video pretty eagerly.

[Via AutoBlog Green]

While both the Navy and Air Force have recently warmed up to a new robotic friend, a number of military bots-to-be showed their stuff at DARPATech 2007. Among the standouts were a camera-guided Little Dog, the resilient Big Dog, a backpack-portable, fully autonomous Micro Air Vehicle, and a beefed-up version of the MAV (dubbed the Organic Air Vehicle) that can reportedly hover around for two hours. The latter creation was designed to "designate ground targets from the sky and paint targets up to 15-kilometers away with its laser designator," while the MAV can monitor a 10-kilometer radius "with infrared or visible cameras in hover-and-stare mode." The aforementioned canines seem to be terrain navigators, which could potentially be studied to improve the locomotion of walking machines in general. Go on, click through for a few glimpses of these friendly fellows -- they aren't armed, yet.

Shortly after the Navy announced its intentions to utilize unmanned combat aircrafts, the US Air Force is making sure it doesn't get left behind by taking delivery of "its initial BATMAV micro unmanned aircraft systems (UAS)." Among the diminutive crafts is a legion of Wasp IIIs, which have a wingspan of 29-inches, weigh in at just one-pound apiece, and carry integrated forward and side looking electro-optical color / infrared cameras. The backpackable devices are meant to be hand-launched and aim to provide "real-time video imagery to a handheld controller used by tactical units" in reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition missions. Now, if only these things had an ultra-lightweight chaingun strapped under each wing and were available at the local BX, we'd be sold.

[Via The Raw Feed]