Weekend Roundup: June 26, 2020

June 26, 2020 | AUVSI News

This Week in the Unmanned Systems and Robotics World

The Royal Navy has launched its first crewless boat for general duties. The autonomous Pacific 24 is ready for testing to see how it and similar vehicles might fit into the ‘fleet of tomorrow.’ (The Royal Navy)

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) have developed a new method to improve the training of tracking systems in self-driving cars. Himangi Mittal, a research intern working with David Held, assistant professor in CMU’s Robotics Institute, says that CMU’s method is “much more robust than previous methods because we can train on much larger datasets.” (Carnegie Mellon University)

In an effort to help prevent the spread of wildfires, a company called SkySkopes is conducting UAS inspections on behalf of Southern California Edison (SCE) to help check equipment in high-fire risk areas. Drones are being used to inspect the grid, as well as the power pole itself. (Spectrum News)

Belmar, New Jersey’s Bureau of Fire Protection and Prevention recently received a specialized UAS that it will use to enhance on-the-ground efforts by firefighters, first-responders and other public safety officials. In addition to the drone, Belmar also received a one-year subscription at no charge of Skybrowse, a technology software to better assist in mapping, tracking and obtaining measurements. (TAPinto Belmar and Lake Como)

In California, an autonomous farm robot called Burro is being used to ferry grapes from pickers in the field to packers putting grapes into clamshells or bags before the fruit gets loaded up and shipped to grocery stores. Burro’s robots are being created specifically for industries reliant on human labor to pick produce. (VentureBeat)

A Birmingham, Alabama-based company called Security Engineers is marketing a semi-autonomous robot that can reduce security costs by more than 30 percent, the company says. The Security Engineers Semi-Autonomous Robot (SESAR) works best with another security officer who can directly respond to any incident, but it can also patrol, identify potential threats or situations, and be used as a vehicle for communication. (AL.com)