Gizmag | New and Emerging Technology News

World record quadrocopter swarm puts on impressive light show

World record quadrocopter swarm puts on impressive light show Many see small quadrocopters as the future of surveillance, aerial photography, warfare and even construction, but a new demonstration involving a world record-setting swarm of 50 quadrocopters has shown the aircraft can also pull off some pretty impressive dance moves.

World record quadrocopter swarm puts on impressive light show

World record quadrocopter swarm puts on impressive light show

World record quadrocopter swarm puts on impressive light show

The Hummingbird quadrocopters had LEDs fitted for the aerial light show (Photo: LIVA, And...
    Ascending Technology's Hummingbird quadrocopter used in the aerial display (Photo: Michael...
    The quadrocopters form the shape of an eye (Photo: Reinhard Winkler)
    The quadrocopters put on an aerial display as part of the annual Klangwolke (Photo: rubra)
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Outdoing the efforts of the University of Pennsylvania's GRASP Lab, the quadrocopter swarm put on a choreographed air show over the river Danube in Linz, Austria, as part of the annual Klangwolke (Cloud of Sound) open-air multimedia musical event that kicked off on September 1st.

The aerial display was put together by a team from Austria’s Ars Electronica Futurelab and Germany’s Ascending Technologies GmbH. The Ars Electronica team was responsible for creating the computerized choreography and equipping the standard model Hummingbird quadrocopters supplied by Ascending Technologies with special radio receivers and modified firmware. The vehicles were also equipped with LEDs to put on an eye-catching nighttime display.
The quadrocopters form the shape of an eye (Photo: Reinhard Winkler)

With the theme of this year’s Klangwolke being how the world has become interconnected, from the discovery of electricity, to telecommunications, through to the invention of the internet, the quadrocopter swarm was intended to symbolize the virtual network and digital communities of our time.

Whatever the intent, the end result is pretty impressive. Check it out in the video below.

Source: Ars Electronica Futurelab

Upgraded Predator B UAV completes development and testing

Upgraded Predator B UAV completes development and testing Having racked up more than 420,000 flight hours, the venerable Block 1 Predator B (aka the MQ-9 Reaper) UAV that General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) has been producing since 2003 has received an upgrade. The revamped Predator B gets a bump in electrical power, more secure communications, auto land capabilities, streamlined payload integration capabilities and an increase in Gross Takeoff Weight (GTOW) to handle heavier payloads or additional fuel.

Upgraded Predator B UAV completes development and testing

The Predator B’s increased electrical power capacity comes courtesy of a new high-capacity starter generator, with the upgraded electrical system also including a backup generator that can power all the UAV’s flight critical systems, and three independent power sources to improve the aircraft’s reliability. The aircraft will also be able to carry heavier payloads or additional fuel thanks to its new trailing arm main landing gear.

Communications upgrades for the remotely piloted aircraft include dual ARC-210 VHF/UHF radios with wingtip antennas that allows for simultaneous communications between multiple air-to-air and air-to-ground parties, secure data links, and an increase in data transmission capacity.

The successful first flight test of the MQ-9 Block 1-plus took place on May 24 at GA-ASI’s Gray Butte Flight Operations Facility in Palmdale, California. With the completion of development and testing, General Atomics expects a Milestone C decision, which gives approval for the aircraft to enter into the Production and Deployment (P&D) phase, in the coming months. Follow-on aircraft to the MQ-9 Block 1-plus configuration will be designated “MG-9 Block 5.”

Source: General Atomics

A new sport evolves as the World Wingsuit League begins

A new sport evolves as the World Wingsuit League begins Sport is not new to mankind, but the evolution of new sports has been largely dependent on the evolution of new technology. From javelin (spear) throwing, archery and chariot racing in ancient times, through bicycle, motorcycle and automobile racing in recent times, as new forms of human endeavor develop around a new technology, there's always a competition to be found. Wingsuit flying is little more than a decade old, but the spectacular nature of the endeavour has been brought together in a new competitive sport which will have its first outing with the formation of the World Wingsuit League, which will hold its first Grand Prix on October 13-14 in Hunan Province, China when the 16 best wingsuit pilots in the world will race against the clock.

A new sport evolves as the World Wingsuit League begins

A new sport evolves as the World Wingsuit League begins

A new sport evolves as the World Wingsuit League begins

Jeb Corliss Picture courtesy of World Wingsuit League
    Picture courtesy of World Wingsuit League
    Picture courtesy of World Wingsuit League
    Picture courtesy of World Wingsuit League
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The Tianmen Mountain Grand Prix Wingsuit Race will be held at the site of last year’s spectacular wingsuit flying exhibition, the Tianmen Mountain Flythrough, which featured Jeb Corliss flying through Tianmen Cave.
Picture courtesy of World Wingsuit League

Picture courtesy of World Wingsuit League

The race course will see the wingsuited pilots drop around 2,600-foot over the 1.2 kilometer course after launching from a clifftop platform. The course will then run around a sweeping turn marked by an anchored Red Bull hot-air balloon, then fly in a straight line down the mountain and under a finish line designated by cable car lines.
The 16 athletes who will compete in the first Wingsuit Grand Prix - this WILL be BIG! Pic...

The 16 contestants for the first Grand Prix have already been chosen and include the world's best known wingsuit pilot, Jeb Corliss, and two females.

There will be two rounds of two flights each – one elimination round and one final round that will be televised to millions of people throughout the world. Scoring is based on the time of each pilot’s fastest flight per round.
Picture courtesy of World Wingsuit League

All 16 pilots will participate in Round 1 with the fastest eight pilots going on to the final round. Gold, silver and bronze medals will be awarded to the top three finishers in the Grand Prix, with the winner taking home US$20,000, the runner-up US$10,000, and third-place US$5,000. A trophy will also be awarded for the fastest single-run time.

Airbus unveils its "Smarter Skies" vision for the future of sustainable aviation

Airbus unveils its "Smarter Skies" vision for the future of sustainable aviation A new report drafted by Airbus as part of its “Smarter Skies” initiative sees the aircraft manufacturing company looking toward 2050 and beyond, in order to consider what can be done to meet the expected growth in future air travel sustainably. The ambitious plans put forward include assisted take-off, free-glide landings, and aircraft flying in formation.

Airbus unveils its "Smarter Skies" vision for the future of sustainable aviatioN

Airbus unveils its "Smarter Skies" vision for the future of sustainable aviation

Airbus unveils its "Smarter Skies" vision for the future of sustainable aviation

Airbus unveils its "Smarter Skies" vision for the future of sustainable aviation

Airbus enthused the benefits of a free-glide approach to airports
    Express skyways would bring passenger planes to within 20 wingspans of each other
    The eco-climb concept would enable passenger planes to reach fuel-efficient cruising altit...
    The eco-climb concept appears to draw inspiration from the same catapult-assisted take-off...
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In the report, Airbus explains that the initial power required for a passenger plane to take-off is only needed for a brief part of the total flight. This therefore poses an opportunity for a ground-based device to provide the propulsion needed and free the plane of its additional burden. With this in mind, the engineers at Airbus came up with an idea dubbed "eco-climb" which appears to draw inspiration from the catapult-assisted take-off system utilized on aircraft carriers.

Airbus envisages the eco-climb system moving into position automatically and assisting passenger planes to take-off on shorter runways, with the benefit of a more rapid climb enabling aircraft to reach efficient cruising altitude quicker than before. A key concern in implementing such a design rests in keeping g-force within acceptable levels, and one can imagine such a system requiring ample stores of on-board sick bags.
The eco-climb concept would enable passenger planes to reach fuel-efficient cruising altit...

The eco-climb concept would enable passenger planes to reach fuel-efficient cruising altitudes more quickly

Perhaps more practical for the somewhat near future, are the company's thoughts on landing more economically. Airbus promoted the benefits of a free-glide approach to airports, which could reduce emissions during the overall descent and limit noise too, as there would be no need for engine thrust or air breaking. However, even this idea would face a challenge to surmount current safety regulations.

Another possibility put forward concerns flying multiple aircraft in "express skyways," with the use of highly sophisticated and automated aircraft navigation systems to bring passenger planes to within 20 wingspans of each other – much less than the four nautical miles which separates civil aircraft today, but still technically feasible. Just like migratory birds and military aircraft, commercial aircraft flying in a V formation would benefit from reduced drag due to the upwash from the wingtip vortices of the preceding aircraft, resulting in greater fuel efficiency.

Airbus also states that by further optimizing Air Traffic Management (ATM) systems and making better use of existing aircraft capabilities, changes in infrastructure and organization, could help reduce traffic congestion and delays, while more direct routes could cut travel times.

The company claims that flights in Europe and the U.S. could be around 13 minutes shorter on average, and flights in other parts of the world could be shorter too. Working on the assumption of approximately 30 million flights per year, the Airbus engineers worked out that such optimization could save around nine million tons of excess fuel annually, equating to over 28 million tons of avoidable CO2 emissions and a saving of five million hours of excess flight time.

While some of the plans cited in the Smarter Skies report will not be attainable for some time, if ever, optimization of existing technologies is something that could provide benefits to airlines and passengers in the near future.

Source: Airbus via The Register

Morphing leading edge reduces drag and noise in takeoff and landing

Morphing leading edge reduces drag and noise in takeoff and landing Passengers looking out the window of a passenger plane will likely have noticed slats on the leading edge of the wing, along with the flaps on the trailing edge of the wing, being extended during takeoff and landing. These leading edge slats provide the lift necessary at low speeds, with the gap between the wing and the slats directing air from the underside of the wing to the top. Unfortunately, this gap also generates a lot of noise. A team of researchers has now developed a morphing leading edge that eliminates the gap and reduces noise and drag during landing.

Morphing leading edge reduces drag and noise in takeoff and landing

Morphing leading edge reduces drag and noise in takeoff and landing

Morphing leading edge reduces drag and noise in takeoff and landing

The morphing leading edge can be lowered by up to 20 degrees with virtually no loss of lif...
The morphing leading edge is made from glass-fiber reinforced material
The morphing leading edge being tested at a wind tunnel in Moscow

The “smart droop nose” developed by researchers at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) working with partners Airbus, EADS Innovation Works and Cassidian Air Systems, literally morphs into a different shape during takeoff and landing so that no separate slats – and no gap – is necessary.

In developing the new leading edge, the researchers faced a number of challenges. "On the one hand, the structure needs to be very elastic, to enable it to morph to the required shapes, but on the other it has to be very rigid,” said DLR Department Head Hans-Peter Monner. Ultimately, the leading edge must bear around one third of the weight of the aircraft during landing."

The material also had to produce wing surfaces that are as flat as possible to achieve laminar airflow. Concentrating on the glass- and carbon-fiber reinforced composites typically used by the aviation industry, they found that glass-fiber reinforced material best fit the bill.
The morphing leading edge can be lowered by up to 20 degrees with virtually no loss of lif...

The droop nose design concept also sees the skin on the front edge of the wing curved, rather than stretched to minimize the stress placed on the material. Individual layers are then placed on top of each other so that the skin creates a structure with a customized rigidity distribution. The leading edge them morphs into the desired shape using actuators and support elements integrated along the wingspan.

The researchers have tested the system’s operation and performance in in one of Europe's largest wind tunnels at the Russian Central Aerohydrodynamics Institute’s (TsAGI) Zhukovsky research facility south of Moscow and found that the morphing leading edge can be lowered by up to 20 degrees with virtually no loss of lift.

The team plans to continue development of the concept to meet industrial requirements, such as lightning protection, de-icing and the ability to withstand bird strikes.

Source: DLR

NASA proposes Water Walls to replace mechanical life support systems

NASA proposes Water Walls to replace mechanical life support systems When they’re living aboard spacecraft, astronauts presently rely on mechanically-driven life support systems. Not only is there a danger of these systems breaking down, but maintenance can be challenging, as they’re always in use. While redundant duplicate systems could take over in such situations, they add to the expense and weight of a spacecraft, and also take up valuable space. Instead, NASA is exploring another possibility – the passive “Water Walls” system, which would use the principle of forward osmosis to perform tasks such as water filtration, air filtration, and even food growth.

NASA proposes Water Walls to replace mechanical life support systems

NASA proposes Water Walls to replace mechanical life support systems

As its name implies, Water Walls would be incorporated into the “structural matrix” of the spacecraft – its inner walls, in other words – and would consist of modules of linked and layered cells. These cells would take the form of bags or tanks, made from semi-permeable polyethylene membranes that would draw in water, while filtering out unwanted substances. Some mechanization would still be required, but only to pump waste water to the modules.
Each Water Walls module would consist of four types of cells (Image: NASA)

There would actually be four types of cells within each module, each one chemically and biologically unique, and each performing different functions. These would include filtering the urine and other contaminants from gray water; filtering solid waste from “black water”; removing carbon dioxide and revitalizing oxygen content in the air; and, growing green algae for food. All four types of cells would also shield the crew from radiation emanating from outside the spacecraft, and help maintain the interior temperature and humidity.

Prior to lift-off, each cell would be primed with water and starter ion solutions. When the waste water then reached the modules, it would pass through each cell in sequence, via a series of valves between them. Once a cell was “exhausted,” it could be easily replaced with a spare, by crew members.

NASA has already experimented with some aspects of the Water Walls system aboard the International Space Station, using a device known as the Forward Osmosis Bag to convert astronaut's urine into a sports drink.

Source: NASA via Dvice

Global Hawk UAVs enlisted to study hurricanes

Global Hawk UAVs enlisted to study hurricanes There’s only so much that we can learn about hurricanes by looking at them from the ground, or by observing them using distant satellites. Aircraft, on the other hand, give researchers an aerial view of the weather systems, while also allowing for direct measurements of variables such as temperature and humidity – the one catch is, would you want to be in a plane that was circling over a hurricane? Probably not. That’s one of the reasons why NASA is using Global Hawk UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) to study hurricanes off the east coast of the U.S.

Global Hawk UAVs enlisted to study hurricanes

Global Hawk UAVs enlisted to study hurricanes

Global Hawk UAVs enlisted to study hurricanes

The flight path taken by the first of the UAVs, last Thursday/Friday (Image: NASA)
    A satellite image of Hurricane Leslie (Photo: NASA Goddard/MODIS Rapid Response Team)
    A satellite image of Tropical Storm Nadine (Photo: NASA's GOES Project)
    The flight path taken by the first of the UAVs, when it observed Tropical Storm Nadine ear...
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The agency’s month-long Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) mission, which started last week and lasts into early October, will incorporate two Global Hawks. The first one has already flown from its home base at Edwards Air Force Base, California to its mission base at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Virginia, landing there last Friday. On the way, however, it spent ten hours over the Atlantic Ocean, gathering data on Hurricane Leslie.

That first UAV is equipped with three instruments, for the sampling the environment surrounding hurricanes. These instruments include the laser-based Cloud Physics Lidar (CPL) system, which measures cloud structure and aerosols such as dust, sea salt and smoke particles; the Scanning High-resolution Interferometer Sounder (S-HIS), which remotely measures the temperature and water vapor vertical profile, plus the sea surface temperature; and the Advanced Vertical Atmospheric Profiling System (AVAPS), which measures winds, temperature and humidity by dropping small parachute-equipped sensors into the storm.
The flight path taken by the first of the UAVs, last Thursday/Friday (Image: NASA)

The flight path taken by the first of the UAVs, last Thursday/Friday (Image: NASA)

The second aircraft, which is due to arrive in two weeks, will have a different set of instruments, designed for studying the interiors of hurricanes and developing storms. These will include Doppler radar, along with microwave sensors such as the High-altitude Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler (HIWRAP), which allows for a 3D view of cloud structure and wind conditions; the High-Altitude MMIC Sounding Radiometer (HAMSR), which utilizes microwave wavelengths to measure temperature, water vapor, and precipitation from the top level of the hurricane to the surface of the ocean; and the Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD), which is used to measure rain rates and wind speeds.

Both Global Hawks are remotely controlled by ground-based pilots, can reach altitudes of over 60,000 feet (18,288 meters), and are capable of staying aloft for up to 28 hours.

“The mission targets the processes that underlie hurricane formation and intensity change,” NASA stated in a press release. “The aircraft help scientists decipher the relative roles of the large-scale environment and internal storm processes that shape these systems.”

Following its study of Hurricane Leslie last week, the first UAV proceeded to observe the “birth” of Tropical Storm Nadine this Tuesday and Wednesday.

Source: NASA

Gizmag | New and Emerging Technology News

World record quadrocopter swarm puts on impressive light show

World record quadrocopter swarm puts on impressive light show

Upgraded Predator B UAV completes development and testing

Upgraded Predator B UAV completes development and testing

A new sport evolves as the World Wingsuit League begins

A new sport evolves as the World Wingsuit League begins

Airbus unveils its "Smarter Skies" vision for the future of sustainable aviation

Airbus unveils its "Smarter Skies" vision for the future of sustainable aviatioN

Morphing leading edge reduces drag and noise in takeoff and landing

Morphing leading edge reduces drag and noise in takeoff and landing

NASA proposes Water Walls to replace mechanical life support systems

NASA proposes Water Walls to replace mechanical life support systems

Global Hawk UAVs enlisted to study hurricanes

Global Hawk UAVs enlisted to study hurricanes

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