XAG, one of China’s largest makers of agricultural drones, expects increased automation for planting rice in the country’s farmlands as a way to raise efficiency, while mitigating labour shortage and the threat of Covid-19.
The DroneGun Tactical by Australian-based company DroneShield is like something out of a video game. The rifle-shaped, high-powered antenna “blasts” drones out of the sky with frequency waves.
DroneShield designed the technology to thwart unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) with explosives or weapons strapped to them. It works by blocking video transmission and GPS information, making it nearly impossible for its pilot to regain control.
“Most modern drones are equipped with a protocol that they come back to their operator when the radio frequency signal is jammed and land when radio frequency and GPS are both jammed,” company spokesman Oleg Vornik told the Daily Mail.
Circa 2017
Arizona State University engineer Panagiotis Artemiadis is developing technology that allows a pilot to control multiple drones using just their thoughts.
One of China’s largest agricultural drone companies is helping to overhaul the rice-farming industry.
XAG recently launched a rice-seeding demonstration of seeding via drone at Happy Farms, an agricultural park in Guangdong province.
There’s currently a race to create the first air taxi service using electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) and a new serious player has entered the race: Archer.
Following the rise of consumer drones and improved battery capacity, electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) with the capacity for passengers has become possible.
Continue reading “A new eVTOL player enters the race with 60-mile range electric air taxi” »
Sneaky Cybertruck
According to the video, the vehicle could be especially well suited for recon or scouting missions, thanks to its quiet electric drivetrain. A surveillance drone could be launched from the truck bed as well.
China’s space program will launch a Mars mission in July, according to its current plans. This will include deploying an orbital probe to study the red planet, and a robotic, remotely-controlled rover for surface exploration. The U.S. has also been planning another robotic rover mission for Mars, and it’s set to take off this summer, too – peak time for an optimal transit from Earth to Mars thanks to their relative orbits around the Sun.
This will be the first rover mission to Mars for China’s space program, and is one of the many ways that it’s aiming to better compete with NASA’s space exploration efforts. NASA has flown four previous Mars rover missions, and its fifth, with an updated rover called ‘Perseverance,’ is set to take place this years with a goal of making a rendezvous with Mars sometime in February 2021.
NASA’s mission also includes an ambitious rock sample return plan, which will include the first powered spacecraft launch from the red planet to bring that back. The U.S. space agency is also sending the first atmospheric aerial vehicle to Mars on this mission, a helicopter drone that will be used for short flights to collect additional data from above the planet’s surface.
Pew pew :3.
The successful test of the powerful laser is a major step forward for the Navy’s directed energy weapons ambitions.
