DJI has just shown off one of the most spectacular drone videos we've ever seen of an erupting volcano, so close it resulted in a melted a GoPro camera.
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![]() DJI has just shown off one of the most spectacular drone videos we've ever seen of an erupting volcano, so close it resulted in a melted a GoPro camera. No comment yet.
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![]() #TheRidge is the brand new film from Danny Macaskill... For the first time in one of his films Danny climbs aboard a mountain bike and returns to his native ...
PIRatE Labs insight:
While there is no shortage of extreme sports documentaries out there, here is one example that I think well illustrates the power of new video imaging capabilities.
Setting aside the wisdom of riding on the knife-edge trails, riding bikes over fences, etc. this is clearly a powerful visual tour de force. UAVs clearly made this possible. They also made it possible to do this with less environmental impact (again setting aside the impacts associated with riding a bike in some of these sensitive communities) than would have happened with a helicopter: less sound, less fossil fuel consumptions, less disturbance to birds, etc.
![]() NOAA researchers set out this week on a two-week mission to fly over the Arctic to measure how much the ice has melted over the summer and gauge the speed of this fall’s refreezing of sea ice. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, 2014's minimum sea ice extent was 1.94 million square miles, the 6th smallest on record. Aboard a NOAA Lockheed WP-3D Orion aircraft, a highly specialized four-engine turboprop known for its work as a hurricane hunter, researchers will use... Via Marian Locksley, PIRatE Lab
PIRatE Labs insight:
This seems to be a great category of monitoring wherein AUVs could provide a great service, with potentially more accuracy for much reduced costs. Clearly, this is in the realm of more military-style platforms designed for longer endurance with greater thrust and movement capability. But a remotely piloted system here could be a significant advantage over satellites in that we could zoom in on biological interactions (marine mammal populations for example) or algal blooms at the ice edge. Even with all the substantial costs of such systems, there would still be a hug he cost savings relative to the more traditional plane-based monitoring.
PIRatE Lab's curator insight,
October 4, 2014 2:51 PM
This seems to be a potentially great use for larger, endurance drones; effectively doing continuous monitoring of ice edge extent.
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PIRatE Labs insight:
Welcome to our curation page for PIRatE Lab's "AARR" work to better integrate cheap robotic technology into coastal monitoring and resource management. Our consortium of faculty, professionals, and students are developing new tools to assess the health of our ecosystems and effectiveness of our management efforts in the coastal zone. In addition of developing these instruments themselves, we are focused on developing and training the next generation of coastal scientists who will be professional, responsible and adept users of these technologies.
Herein we collect a range of stories about:
- design, construction & operation of aerial & aquatic robots - the future of unmanned & autonomous platforms - examples of the application of these robots - open source technologies - the burgeoning maker space movement (a key tech driver) - organizations supporting or promoting use of UAVs & ROVs - efforts to professionalize Remotely Piloted Systems - legal issues surrounding UAVs (aka drones) - the wider impacts of UAV and ROV systems on our society
A few quick acronyms we often slip into:
AUV: Autonomous Underwater Vehicle ROV: Remotely Operated Vehicle RPS: Remotely Piloted Systems UAS: Unmanned Aerial System UAV: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (aka "drones")
ESRM: Environmental Science and Resource Management CSUCI: California State Univeristy Channel Islands
![]() Starting to build the ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle).
PIRatE Labs insight:
Ahhh...reminds me our our early days. |
![]() A swarm of autonomous boats could escort larger ships in the future
Jason Millers insight:
In 2000, the USS Cole was refueling in a Yemeni port when it was attacked by a group of small, fast speedboats believed to be of Iranian origin. The Iranians chose these vehicles because they'd inferred that Navy ship's defenses were weak against agile, fast attackers. They were right, and 17 US sailors were killed. Every since that attack, the US Navy has been cautious about getting into situations where they were vulnerable to such attacks, and they've been working on ways to help big ships defense against small, fast threats.
This test of swarming speedboats may be their answer. It may also be a tool that can be deployed when policing against pirates.
From the article, and from the authors use of the word 'swarm' (which implies a group of individuals acting without a maestro coordinating their actions from afar), it appears that the extremely high tech used in this application allows each boat to operate autonomously. There is some communication between all boats (and, presumably, a central host) to allow for coordination and situational awareness.
The technology that allows this application is a spinoff of NASA technology. This means that civilian applications might not be far behind. Think UAS/RPVs monitoring a search-and-rescue situation, or a group of UAS monitoring a dynamic wildfire situation and adjusting their patrol routes according to the situation.
Cool stuff.
![]() The entrance to GitHub is the most Instagram-able lobby in tech. It's a recreation of the Oval Office, and the mimicry is spot-on---except for the rug. Instead of the arrow-clutching American eagle that graces Obama's office rug, it shows the code-sharing site's Octocat mascot gazing into the digital future, just above the motto: "In Collaboration We Trust." Via Luísa Lima
PIRatE Labs insight:
This is a serious issue for us here in ESRM and for our efforts to push these new tools into more and more hands. You do need to have at least some basic coding skills and experience to work with these non-standard technologies.
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PIRatE Labs insight:
I just heard someone yesterday talking about how he just sits around in the cabin of his combine and it does all the work.
This is clear implications for what it means to get a farmer.
Catherine Kargas's curator insight,
October 4, 2014 12:58 PM
another off-road application that may benefit from driverless technology before driverless vehicles go mainstream
![]() Most evenings I ride my bike home from work past the public library here in Cambridge, Mass. Often I see parents with their children, enjoying themselves on the playground in front of the library. I also see people quietly reading inside the building, as the evening lights around them turn on.
In the same way that playgrounds are public spaces for play, I think of libraries as public spaces for learning. I have been interested in another type of public space, the concept of a digital commons, for a long time. And today I am fascinated by the connection between these public spheres, between the physical space of the library, and the digital virtual space of information and communication. Leveraging their strengths, and tinkering with ways that they can complement each other, is one way to reimagine what the library of the future could look like. Via Chuck Sherwood, Senior Associate, TeleDimensions, Inc
PIRatE Labs insight:
This is clearly the new trend in libraries. |
From the what-you-can-do-with-it department: Researchers fly drone into Dante's inferno, and its 'return home' autonomous function save its bacon.
I'm sharing this for its coolness factor. I'm also sharing it as a concrete example of how drone allow researchers to extend their reach a little more. Sure, these operators appear not to be researchers. They're more like videographers. But the story is still suggestive.
Think of what could be done with a unit that's hardened against heat and that has additional sensors. Also think about how those crashing waves of lava make planning the unit's semi-autonomous flight an important and serious issues. Fly too low over the caldera, and any flier would get brought down.
(I wonder if there are EM dynamics over the caldera that would disrupt spectrum, making it difficult or impossible to remotely control the RPV...)