Drone on the wall: Insect-sized robots use static electricity to perch on objects, save energy
Here’s some drone news worth buzzing about. Researchers have developed insect-sized flying robots that have the ability to perch on objects using static electricity in order to conserve...
How Washington state became the ‘Wild West’ for drone use by law enforcement
Last year, the FBI flew a fleet of drones (a.k.a “unmanned aerial vehicles”) over Seattle and other cities. They were equipped with cameras capable of snapping thousands of high-resolution photographs, and may have carried...
Flirtey makes first urban drone delivery in FAA test, beating Amazon to the punch
A startup named Flirtey says it’s executed the first FAA-approved urban drone delivery in the United States, in a test that could blaze a trail...
Helen Mirren, Alan Rickman enter the drone warfare genre with Eye in the Sky
(credit: Bleecker Street)
While there have been no shortage of lackluster dramas featuring drones, there has yet to be a definitive Saving Private Ryan or Apocalypse Now-type war epic that really brings drama and pathos to drone warfare. Eye in the Sky, opening March 11 in the US, aims to be that movie. And it does a remarkably...
How Amazon inspired a drone delivery system for birth control in Ghana
When U.N. health experts were trying to come up with a way to deliver contraceptives to women in hard-to-reach areas of Ghana, they took a page from Amazon’s drone delivery playbook. Their pilot project, known as Dr. One, was reportedly inspired in late 2014 by the Seattle-based online retailer’s...
Iranian drone flies straight over US carrier in Persian Gulf and takes pics
Smile for your close-up, F/A-18s. (credit: IRNA)
Today, Iran's IRNA news agency broadcast video apparently taken from an Iranian Revolutionary Guard unmanned aircraft as it flew directly over an American aircraft carrier operating in the Persian Gulf. The US Navy has confirmed that an Iranian drone flew "directly over" the USS Harry S. Truman and near...
Amazon Prime Air’s drone plan still leaves key questions unanswered
How much will it cost to get a 30-minute drone delivery from Amazon Prime Air? A newly published interview with Amazon executive Paul Misener suggests that the pricing question and other key issues have yet to be figured out. In the...
Ex-con convicted in scheme to smuggle drugs into prison via drone
Drone-delivery defendant Thaddeus Shortz. (credit: Allegany County Sheriff's Office )
Thaddeus Shortz, 25, of Knoxville, was arrested in August outside the Western Correctional Institution in Maryland, where he was released in April. The...
