Lockheed Martin has successfully launched Vector Hawk, a small, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), on command from the Marlin MK2 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) during a cross-domain command and control event hosted by the U.S. Navy.
In addition to Marlin and Vector Hawk, the Submaran, an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) developed by Ocean Aero, provided surface reconnaissance and surveillance.
“This effort marks a milestone in showing that an unmanned aircraft, surface vessel and undersea vehicle can communicate and complete a mission cooperatively and completely autonomously,” said Kevin Schlosser, chief architect, unmanned systems technology, Lockheed Martin.
During the Annual Navy Technology Exercise (ANTX) activities in August, the Submaran relayed instructions to Marlin from a ground control station via underwater acoustic communications. Following these instructions, the Marlin launched the Vector Hawk using a specially-designed canister from the surface of the Narragansett Bay. Following launch, Vector Hawk successfully assumed a mission flight track. All three autonomous vehicles—Marlin, Submaran and Vector Hawk—communicated operational status to the ground control station to maintain situational awareness and provide a means to command and control all assets.
“Lockheed Martin has heard loud and clear the U.S. Navy’s call to get faster, be more agile, and to be continually creative,” said Frank Drennan, director, mission and unmanned systems business development. “We have clearly illustrated that we have the necessary agility and quickness combined with innovative technology to increase the range, reach, and effectiveness of undersea forces.”
Lockheed Martin’s Vector Hawk is designed for canister or hand-launch in all-weather, maritime environments to provide customers with an organic, tailored intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capability at the moment they need it.
“This signifies the versatility of Lockheed Martin’s unmanned systems to communicate seamlessly across domains to conduct a diverse set of missions in all environments. The capability is quickly reconfigured in the field,” said Schlosser. “In a short time, we enabled these systems to work together by rapidly changing sensor packages.”
In addition to its configuration versatility, Vector Hawk is capable of fully autonomous flight and landing, which enables operators’ to shift their focus from flying the aircraft to managing the mission.
The four-pound Vector Hawk can fly for 70-plus minutes, at line-of-sight ranges up to 15 kilometers. Operators can recover and re-launch the Vector Hawk in a matter of minutes (including changing the system’s battery). Vector Hawk is built on an open architecture to enable rapid technology insertion and payload integration.
Marlin MK2 is a battery powered, fully autonomous underwater vehicle that is 10 feet long with a 250 pound payload capacity, 18-24 hour endurance, depth rating of 1000 feet and weighs approximately 2,000 pounds. Its open architecture design and modularity allow new mission packages to be quickly integrated into Marlin to meet emerging customer needs.
Also during the three-day event, Marlin surveyed a sunken barge with its 3D imaging sonar. Teams on the ground used that data to create a 3-D printed model of the barge. Marlin can quickly generate accurate, hi-resolution, 3-D, geo-referenced models, giving users a clear view of subsea structures.
Lockheed Martin has five decades of experience in unmanned and robotic systems for air, land and sea. From the depths of the ocean to the rarified air of the stratosphere, Lockheed Martin’s unmanned systems help our military, civil and commercial customers accomplish their most difficult challenges.
General Star Management Company has announced the availability of CGL coverage specifically designed to protect the manufacturers, distributors and operators of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), more commonly known as “drones.” In addition, contingent coverage for unmanned aircraft systems operations conducted on behalf of the insured is available.
Protection afforded by the Casualty Division is targeted to manufacturers, distributors and operators of hobby and commercial unmanned aircraft weighing up to 55 lbs. Operators must operate the devices within applicable FAA regulations and guidelines. “Start-up” as well as established entities are eligible for the new offering.
General Star will entertain UAS operators including but not limited to:
Use of unmanned aircraft for research, governmental or commercial purposes
Real estate surveyors using unmanned aircraft for aerial surveying
Professional photographers using unmanned aircraft for commercial purposes
Primary limits of $1M/$2M/$2M/$1M are available for manufacturers, distributors and operators. Excess limits of $2M in addition to the Primary limits are also offered. Contingent liability coverage for UAS operations conducted on behalf of the insured offers primary limits of up to $2M/$4M/$4M/$2M and $10M excess of underlying primary limits.
Coverage for aircraft collision and for privacy violations arising out of UAS operation is included for manufacturers, distributors and operators. Written on an occurrence basis, the new protection contains no or nominal deductibles.
“We are pleased to provide our wholesale clients with a policy designed to address the unique hazards and exposures associated with one of today’s top emerging trends – drones,” said Liana Tufariello, Underwriter and Project Leader for General Star. “The popularity and usage of drones for commercial purposes has exploded, and this is just the type of E&S products liability opportunity we are eager to tackle.”
Cole Palmer, Vice President and Casualty Division Manager, added, “Responding to emerging trends, and creating new offerings for our wholesale clients to sell, are examples of how we help our clients grow their business. Innovative offerings on new technology devices, or taking a second look for creative alternatives on traditional exposures, will contribute to the growth goals of both our clients and General Star. Being a ”good steward” of an existing book is no longer a sustainable model in today’s competitive environment.”
Coverage is provided on a non-admitted basis by General Star Indemnity Company which is rated A++ (Superior) by A.M. Best Company and carries an AA+ Insurance Financial Strength Rating from Standard & Poor’s Corporation. General Star Indemnity Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of General Reinsurance Corporation, is a member of the Berkshire Hathaway family of companies.
Israeli company ApolloShield has developed a new counter-unmanned aerial vehicle (C-UAV) system designed to detect, identify, and defeat illicit UAVs.
Formerly known as AirFence, the eponymously named ApolloShield system detects UAVs using acoustic, optical, and/or radio sensors, before commanding unauthorised intruders to land using their in-built ‘go home’ facility.
The ApolloShield is made up of two subsystems: the ‘plug-and-play’ Apollo CyberBox and the tablet-based Apollo Command Center. The former does the work of detecting and taking control of the UAV, while the latter enables the operator to control the functionality of the Apollo CyberBox.
Add-ons include the ability to integrate into other UAV detection devices, a signal blocker to jam UAVs, and the use of nets to physically capture UAVs instead. The system is already being used operationally in the United States by an undisclosed law enforcement agency.
DJI has introduced the Mavic Pro – a portable, powerful and easy-to-use drone featuring DJI’s most innovative flight technology in a sleek, foldable package that enables creative fun wherever you go.
Mavic Pro is DJI’s first personal drone designed to be taken just about anywhere. Small enough to toss in a bag and easy enough to launch quickly whenever the time and place are right, its unique folding design compresses the entire drone to practically the size of a water bottle.
The compact body of Mavic Pro holds a drone built for uncompromising performance. Equipped with a stabilized 4K camera and a visual navigation system, with a 4.3 mile (7 km) range and 27 minute flight time, Mavic Pro sets the new standard for compact drones.
“DJI has spent a decade making it easier for anyone to fly, and by rethinking everything about how a drones look, we have created an entirely new type of aerial platform for anyone to explore their creativity,” said Frank Wang, DJI’s CEO and founder.
“Mavic Pro is a technological triumph filled with features that once again show how DJI leads the industry. Most importantly, Mavic Pro allows you to reach the skies easily, see the world with new eyes and tell your stories like never before.”
Mavic Pro is designed to be ultra portable and quick to launch so it can take to the skies as soon as you need it. With four folding arms and propellers that tuck neatly away against its streamlined body, it can be easily carried in a purse or backpack, saving you the trouble of mounting propellers before a flight. It can be operated by the powerful long range remote controller, or simply by your smartphone at shorter range. When controlled by a smartphone, the whole system can be set up and airborne in less than a minute to capture every key moment.
Unparalleled Flight Experience
DJI’s commitment to unparalleled stability, maneuverability and safety is clear in Mavic Pro’s new FlightAutonomy system. FlightAutonomy is Mavic Pro’s brain and nervous system, a complex network of hardware and software consisting of five cameras, GPS and GLONASS navigation systems, a pair of ultrasonic range finders, redundant sensors and 24 powerful computing cores.
FlightAutonomy can position, navigate and plan routes for Mavic Pro, enabling it to avoid obstacles in various environments, with or without the help of satellite signals. FlightAutonomy provides a significant boost in working range and can cope with complex 3D environments. For navigation and obstacle avoidance, FlightAutonomy provides a superb speed-range envelope to make Mavic Pro self-navigational in various intelligent flight modes, and will avoid most obstacles at speeds up to 22 mph (36 kph).
An ultra light and aerodynamic airframe, together with DJI’s state-of-the-art propulsion and battery system, enables Mavic Pro to fly for up to 27 minutes. To experience the pure joy of flying, Mavic Pro can be switched to Sport Mode, which allows speeds of up to 40 mph (64.8 kph), increasing the drone’s agility and responsiveness. Mavic Pro flies smoothly and will remain stable in winds of up to 24 mph (38.5 kph), and uses DJI’s GEO geofencing system to help identify restricted areas, preventing flight in locations that might raise safety or security concerns automatically, and helping pilots make smarter decisions about when and where to fly.
As with all DJI drones, Mavic Pro is set to automatically return to its launch location if it ever loses contact with the controller or reaches critically low battery levels. The new Precision Landing feature records a burst of video with two stereo cameras every time Mavic Pro launches, then uses both video and satellite information when it returns to land within an inch of where it took off. If a pilot lets go of the controls, the drone will simply hover in place.
Advanced Stabilized Camera System
Mavic Pro’s small size is packed with powerful features. DJI’s advanced technology now includes our smallest-ever three-axis gimbal for shake-free photos and video. The autofocus camera features a minimum focusing distance of just 19 in (0.5 m) and can be flipped 90 degrees to portrait mode for vertical selfies and video. Mavic Pro records 4K video at 30fps and full 1080p HD at 96fps. Its 12-megapixel camera with Adobe DNG RAW support has been expertly tuned for aerial images. With the help of the high-precision gimbal, you can confidently shoot 2-second-long exposures in the air to get the most jaw-dropping aerial images.
New Remote and Live View Performance
A revolutionary new compact remote controller has been designed to provide a fully ergonomic experience with optimum comfort, and can accommodate a smartphone or control Mavic Pro on its own. Its built-in LCD screen displays essential telemetry data, while dedicated buttons for functions such as Return-to-Home and pausing during Intelligent Flight modes ensure a confident flight every single time. The video link system, OcuSync, represents new heights in DJI’s communication technology. It supports a range up to 4.3 miles (7 km) and live view resolutions up to 1080p.
The new band management algorithm makes OcuSync more robust in environments with many frequencies in operation. Mavic Pro is equipped with dual-band WiFi as a secondary link, allowing easy control via your smartphone for close range operation or for quick downloading of content from Mavic Pro straight to your device.
Most Intelligent Drone Ever
The powerful systems inside Mavic Pro are easy to use, even for beginners. Using just your phone’s touchscreen, you can use TapFly to direct Mavic Pro to go wherever you want, avoiding obstacles along the way. When you want to take a hands-free selfie, FlightAutonomy makes it possible to control the drone completely with just your gestures.
In Gesture mode, you can use gestures to have Mavic Pro locate you, center you in the frame and take the perfect shot as Mavic Pro’s flashing lights count down to the photo. Sharing your best aerial moments has never been easier with live streaming to Facebook Live, Periscope and YouTube through the DJI GO app.
An updated version of DJI’s ActiveTrack recognizes common subjects such as people, bicyclists, cars, boats and animals, which then sends Mavic Pro to follow behind, lead in front, circle above or track alongside the subject, keeping the camera focused on the subject while you concentrate on flight maneuvers. The new Terrain Follow mode means that you can race up a slope behind a subject while remaining at a constant height between 1 ft (0.3 m) and 33 ft (10 m).
At the other extreme, the new Tripod Mode is designed for indoor use, slowing and fine-tuning Mavic Pro’s position and angle based on controller movement inputs to allowing for precision framing and safe indoor flight.
Immerse Yourself
Mavic Pro also pairs with DJI’s new immersive DJI Goggles, displaying an 85-degree view from the drone in full 1080p for a true bird’s-eye view of the world below. With built-in OcuSync, the goggles receive video directly from Mavic Pro in the air and not through the controller, reducing lag to a minimum – and allowing you to share the in-flight view with a friend.
Specially designed for aerial first-person view (FPV) applications, DJI Goggles allows you to flick between third person view and FPV in under a second. You can comfortably wear your glasses while wearing the goggles and quit FPV mode instantly by flipping the mask up.
Price and Availability
Mavic Pro’s U.S. retail price will be $999 with the remote controller included, and $749 without the remote controller. Additional Mavic Pro Intelligent Flight Batteries will cost $89. A Mavic Pro Fly More Combo, which includes a Mavic Pro, two extra Intelligent Flight Batteries, extra propellers, a charging hub, an adapter, a car charger and a shoulder bag, will be available for $1,299.
Mavic Pro is immediately available for pre-order at dji.com/mavic and will begin shipping October 15. It will also be available in mid-October at DJI’s three flagship stores in Shenzhen, Seoul and Hong Kong. Mavic Pro can also be ordered on Apple.com and will be available in Apple Stores in early November.
DJI Care Refresh
A new optional protection plan, DJI Care Refresh, is available in select countries and provides peace of mind for Mavic Pro owners. DJI Care Refresh covers accidental damage to the Mavic Pro aircraft, gimbal or camera during normal use for up to 12 months, and for an additional charge will offer up to two full replacements that are new or equivalent to new. DJI Care Refresh is available for $99 before a new Mavic Pro is activated, or within the first 48 hours after activation.
A new robotics startup has launched a sprightly little quadruped robot that is able to scale fences, manipulate door handles, turn back flips, climb stairs and jump up and down while keeping its balance, almost like a robot version of Jiminy Cricket.
The Minitaur is a four-legged robot measuring 15.6in by 10.8in that weighs just over 5kg and can carry a payload of over 3kg.
The robot features patent-pending gear-less direct drive motors that behave like springs and a specialized leg design with sensors that work together to provide precise force feedback, so that the robot can balance and reorient itself from a fall while running and jumping over difficult terrain.
Powered by a 72MHz Arduino-compatible robot micro-controller, the robot features high speed and high resolution encoders that enable the robot to sense the ground and process the feedback from the sensors and adapt to situations in real time to keep itself from over-balancing.
A robot that understands how to open a door by itself
Minitaur currently retails for $10,000 (£7,670) and has a maximum running speed of 2m/s and a turning speed of 1 rad/s. Users can program the legs to work with a variety of gaits including trotting, walking, bounding and walking, which have been inspired by different animals and how their gaits change when they approach a range of obstacles.
The robot is the brainchild of Ghost Robotics, a startup spun off from Professor Daniel Koditschek’s robotics laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania in the US by two of Koditschek’s PhD students Gavin Kenneally and Avik De.
At the moment, the majority of robots are wheeled or tracked, because it is very difficult and expensive to get legs to animate properly – a key example is the humanoid robot Atlas created by US robotics firm Boston Dynamics, which is being sold by Google because it failed to ever deliver a product that could be commercialized.
By using a legged robot with motors in the legs that are able to simulate springs and software that can make intelligent decisions instantaneously about gaits, force and speeds, the robot is able to right itself, prevent falls and balance itself while completing a complex task, such as trying to scale a chain link fence.
The most impressive feature of the Minitaur robot is that it is able to autonomously decide to jump up into a handstand on its front two legs, perceive where a handle is on a door, take another jump up to the door and prepare to retract one of its legs at just the right moment in order to manipulate the handle to open.
Making legged robots successful means they must be reliable
Watch any robotics competition and you’ll see a plethora of robots falling over and failing to complete the tasks requested of them without a great deal of human input. In order for robots to really take over our jobs or be able to help us with complex tasks, we will need to reach a point in robotics whereby the robot is affordable, easy enough to mass produce and reliable enough to guarantee a consistent performance.
Kenneally and De foresee their robot being used for a huge variety of purposes – Minitaur could carry payloads to monitor public safety; it could be used to survey terrain for mining, exploration or field survey; it could be used by the military during delicate operations; or to provide support in medical emergencies and to help monitor crops for farmers.
“What we’re finding out, interestingly enough, is that there’s an opportunity for these low cost legged robots out in the field as a 24/7 mobile sensor platform. We’re thinking about anything where you could use mobile sensors. Search and rescue. Military applications. Space exploration. There are scenarios where lightweight, low cost, very few moving parts, could be fairly compelling,” Ghost Robotics’ CEO Jiren Parikh told IEEE Spectrum.
“These are standard parts, off the shelf. If it can get up into a commercial environment with a prototype fairly quickly, manufacturing costs on this in volume could get to $1,500 a device. And probably less than that. That’s us just doing a rough estimate right now. What Ghost has done that’s unique is the fact that Minitaur is direct-drive, and these machines can be ultralight and can be deployed at a very cost-effective, scalable model.”
Thursday, September 29, 2016 at 12:17PM 
Lockheed Martin has successfully launched Vector Hawk, a small, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), on command from the Marlin MK2 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) during a cross-domain command and control event hosted by the U.S. Navy.
The compact body of Mavic Pro holds a drone built for uncompromising performance. Equipped with a stabilized 4K camera and a visual navigation system, with a 4.3 mile (7 km) range and 27 minute flight time, Mavic Pro sets the new standard for compact drones.
Advanced Stabilized Camera System
