Weekend Roundup

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This Week in the Unmanned Systems and Robotics World

After testing what is believed to be the fastest racing drone, the Drone Racing League (DRL) says that it has set the Guinness World Records title for the “fastest ground speed by a battery-powered remote-controlled quadcopter.” In order to set the record, the UAS, known as the DRL RacerX, had to “fly back and forth across a measurement course of 100 m (328 ft.).” The official record set is “the average of the top speed achieved on each of those flights,” so the official speed measured for this Guinness World Records title was 163.5 miles per hour. As impressive as that is, DRL says that the UAS can actually reach a top speed of 179.6 miles per hour. (PR Newswire)

In Ohio, the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office is now one of four law enforcement agencies in the United States that is using a Lockheed Martin-built UAS as a part of the Project Lifesaver program. The UAS has a directional antenna attached to its underside that allows the sheriff’s office to quickly locate people with Alzheimer’s, dementia, down syndrome or autism, who have gone missing. Currently, 42 people in the county wear a beacon wristband, which is worn at all times and constantly transmits on a dedicated frequency. The UAS and the beacon can be used in most weather conditions. (NBC4i.com)

The National Council on Public Safety UAS has been formed to advance UAS use in missions regarding public safety. The council will focus on “awareness, education, training, collaboration, best practices, FAA rulemaking, defining public safety requirements and general engagement,” while staying “abreast of threats from nefarious uses of UAS and help facilitate the information and implementation of effective counter measures.” Chair Charles L. Werner of the National Information Sharing Consortiums is the head of the group. (Unmanned Aerial)

Tallinn, which is the capital of Estonia, has welcomed driverless shuttle buses to its roads, with plans for the buses to start operating on a short route in the near future. Each shuttle has a presenter onboard to explain the technology to passengers, as well as a designated person onboard who can take over controls of the vehicle if necessary. The shuttle buses, which hold eight passengers at a time each, will be operated by a home-grown developer of unmanned tracked vehicles called Milrem. (Estonia World)

In an effort to “create more accurate and detailed data products than ever before,” 3D Robotics has integrated its Site Scan processing with Pix4D, which is a leading photogrammetry engine. Being that Site Scan is already integrated with the Autodesk ReCap processing engine, with the addition of Pix4D, 3DR is offering what it calls an industry first: “multi-engine photogrammetry processing” for data products of customers.” (3DR)

Oklahoma State University’s (OSU) College of Engineering, Architecture, and Technology (CEAT) hosted a UAS camp during the last week of June, which was attended by five high school students. The science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) themed camp focused on the basics of flight and flight control systems. During the camp, students learned about flight control systems, they built a plane, and in April 2018, they will return to race their planes at OSU’s SpeedFest, which is a “high-speed aircraft design competition with several flight classes” where teams can enter at different levels of difficulty and interest. (The Miami News-Record)