News
Weekend Roundup
The Heathrow airport in London recently demonstrated the Navya ARMA driverless shuttle bus. In its first demonstration in the United Kingdom, the bus drove itself along a pre-planned route in a busy car park, covering a total distance of about 600 meters. Video footage of the bus in operation can be seen here. (International Business Times)
Students from Newburyport High School in Newburyport, Massachusetts placed second in the Massachusetts Real World Design Challenge, which was a competition aimed at giving students the chance to design a UAS that could be used for enhancing farm productivity and efficiency. To help with the design, students sought advice from local farms and businesses, and designed their UAS to perform certain tasks including surveying land, testing soil, marking animals and determining how to disburse pesticides. The design proposals were submitted to the state Department of Transportation and Aeronautics, and were judged by a faculty panel from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. (Newburyport News)
The New York Power Authority (NYPA) and Canadian utility Ontario Power Generation (OPG) recently used a UAS to inspect an ice boom between Niagara River and Lake Erie. OPG launched an Aeryon SkyRanger UAS from Fort Erie, Ontario, and over the course of about 20 minutes, the UAS was used to record video of a section of the ice boom that appeared to be damaged. The video footage allowed the UAS operator to make the determination that a span cable had broken between two pontoons, and needed splicing repairs. (UAS Weekly)
Broken Bay water police used a UAS to locate two tourists that got lost while walking in the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park in New South Wales, Australia. The UAS was used after paramedics and police on the ground struggled to pinpoint the exact location of the tourist, after they had called 000, which is the primary national emergency number in Australia. Once the UAS, a Phantom 3 Pro, was launched, the lost man and woman flashed their mobile phone torch towards the UAS, allowing authorities to locate them. It was the first time that the water police have used UAS for a search mission. (Daily Telegraph)
Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) and Dubai Properties have announced their intentions to extend a trial run of the autonomous vehicle currently being used in the city. During the trial, which has been extended until February 22, the 10-person vehicle has operated over a 600-metre-long track in Business Bay, a residential district in Dubai. (Arabian Business)
A Kickstarter campaign known as ‘Selfly: a “Smart Autonomous Flying Phone-Case’ has people so excited about its concept, that it has already raised well over $150,000. The concept is a lightweight pocket selfie drone, which is capable of being launched from the palm of someone’s hand to take aerial videos or photos. Once it is done, it can easily snap back onto a person’s universal phone case. The concept was created by an orthodontist from Israeli named Hagay Klein. Video footage of the drone in action can be seen here. (PetaPixel)
Metrino PRT, skyTran and ULTra Global PRT have all received permission from the National Institution for Transforming India to test Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) systems, which feature driverless pods. The PRT is an autonomous public transportation system that features compact vehicles, and the vehicles carry a few passengers, typically transporting them directly to their destinations without any intermediate stops. Each company that has been granted permission to test the PRT systems has created some type of pod that is operational in different countries around the world. (Railly News)
