This Week in the Unmanned Systems and Robotics World

Virginia Tech has opened what it claims is the tallest drone park in the United States. The netted, football-field-sized park stands 85 feet above ground, and offers three million cubic feet of “unobstructed flight space” for student research, education, and recreation, the university says. (The Roanoke Times)

The Italian Parliament has given the go-ahead to road tests of driverless cars in the country. The decree gives the Italian transport ministry the ability to authorize tests of driverless cars on the roads of Italy, opening up the potential for various entities such as universities, research institutions and vehicle manufacturers to test this technology. (The Local Italy)

In the United Kingdom, the Lake District National Park is participating in a feasibility study with Westfield Technology Group to look into the benefits of self-driving vehicles. Through the feasibility study, new technologies that allow people to access the park will be explored, and automated ‘pods’ are considered an option. (The Westmorland Gazette)

Voyage has launched the first version of the Open Autonomous Safety (OAS) initiative. OAS is a fully open-source library of Voyage’s internal safety procedures, materials and test code designed to supplement existing safety programs at autonomous vehicle startups worldwide. (Voyage)

In an effort to forecast extreme weather and understand the world's changing weather patterns, oceanic researchers are utilizing USVs from a company called Saildrone. Each USV can be equipped with a variety of sensors that it uses to collect and transmit real-time measurements on metrics including temperature, wind and weather patterns, just to name a few. (CNBC)

Built Robotics recently demonstrated its autonomous construction equipment on a construction site in Billings, Montana. During the demonstration, a self-driving skidsteer named Mary Anne removed top soil from the future home of The Den Bar and Casino. (Billings Gazette)

HMI Technologies founder Mohammed Hikmet has signed an agreement to supply Southwest Coast Enterprise City Development Co, known as SolaSeaDo, with 150 autonomous shuttles. The shuttles will be provided by Ohmio Automation, a subsidiary of HMI Technologies. (Stuff.co.nz)