Lifeboat Foundation

As first responders continue to embrace drones for emergency missions across the globe, a new map dashboard hopes to facilitate communication, coordination, and collaboration between various public safety agencies. This free, interactive global map and directory of emergency services drone programs is now home to over 900 agencies from more than 20 countries – and the numbers are rising steadily.

Not only is the initiative being welcomed by the community but it has also started showing results, too. As Charles Werner, director of DRONERESPONDERS, explains:

Can this be true?

An unmanned aircraft was brought down by a powerful electromagnetic pulse in what could be the first reported test of an advanced new weapon in China.

A paper published in the Chinese journal Electronic Information Warfare Technology did not give details of the timing and location of the experiment, which are classified but it may be the country’s first openly reported field test of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapon.

Continue reading “Did Chinese scientists just bring down an unmanned plane with an electromagnetic pulse weapon?” »

Oh, the ways armed forces around the world are working to blast uncrewed aerial vehicles they don’t like. Now the US Army is at that again, putting the finishing touches on a laser weapon that can not only destroy the innards of drones as they fly, but also drop incoming artillery as well.

The Army says it will be mounting the first four field versions of the DE M-SHORAD system on armored vehicles sometime next year, and has added the program to its expanding range of weapons against uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) being developed.

Alphabet’s Wing drone company allows users to order items such as food through a mobile app and is fast approaching 100,000 deliveries since its launch.

Alphabet’s drone company Wing delivered 10,000 cups of coffee, 1,700 snack packs and 1,200 roast chickens to customers in Logan, Australia, over the last year, the company said Wednesday in a blog post outlining its progress.

Wing was initially launched in 2019 in Australia, following a series of drone tests that began in 2014. The service, which was initially part of Alphabet’s experimental research division, allows users to order items such as food through a mobile app and is fast approaching 100,000 deliveries since its launch.

Continue reading “Alphabet’s drones delivered 10,000 cups of coffee and 1,200 roast chickens in the last year” »

It seems we have another accident involving a drone.

An Envoy Air passenger plane reported striking a drone while departing Chicago’s O’Hare Airport on Sunday, in what is the just most recent incident of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV) endangering commercial craft in restricted airspaces around the globe.

Continue reading “Envoy Air passenger plane hits drone after Chicago takeoff” »

Drone accidentally hits plane causing major damage.

I wonder if we’re going to see more of these incidents in the future.

Continue reading “Canada: Police drone hits plane approaching runway; ‘major damage’ reported” »

Aerospace giant Honeywell is teaming up with anti-jamming expert InfiniDome to develop a new drone sensor capable of enhancing GPS resiliency when signals are weak or experiencing blockages. The new tech, which is being designed for defense and commercial users alike, is expected to hit markets during the first semester of next year.

Drones being flown for all sorts of purposes rely on GPS signals for situational referencing and carrying out tasks assigned to particular locations. The importance of maintaining those feeds, therefore, has become critical to even the most ordinary operation. That dependability of GPS connectivity, however, can be compromised by surrounding structure density – like clusters of high rises, or flights below bridges – or complicated by the ever-proliferating number of craft in the skies at any given time.

Qualcomm has unveiled the world’s first drone platform and reference design that will tap in both 5G and AI technologies. The chipmaker’s Flight RB5 5G Platform condenses multiple complex technologies into one tightly integrated drone system to support a variety of use cases, including film and entertainment, security and emergency response, delivery, defense, inspection, and mapping.

The Flight RB5 5G Platform is powered by the chipmaker’s QRB5165 processor and builds upon the company’s latest IoT offerings to offer high-performance and heterogeneous computing at ultra-low power consumption.

By Susan Ip-Jewell## **Space Medicine, Health and MedTech Innovations, a lecture by Susan Ip-Jewell**

In the frame of the new Space Renaissance Academy Webinar Series programme, chaired by the optimum Sabine Heinz, a quite interesting and rich lecture was given yesterday by Dr. Susan Ip Jewell.

Continue reading “Space Medicine, Health and MedTech Innovations, a lecture” »