Unmanned Systems

Stories

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Briefs: Software
Autonomous Planning and Replanning for Mine-Sweeping Unmanned Underwater Vehicles
This software generates high-quality plans for carrying out mine-sweeping activities under resource constraints. The autonomous planning and replanning system for unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) takes as input a set of prioritized mine-sweep regions, and a...
Briefs: Physical Sciences
An ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC), now undergoing development, is a less-massive, more-efficient means of exploiting the same basic principle as that of the proposed system described in...
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Blog: Electronics & Computers
NASA Briefs
A chip has been designed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to increase the usefulness of monolithic millimeter-wave integrated circuit (MMIC) components at submillimeter-wave frequencies. The chip incorporates two integrated, radial E-plane probes with an MMIC amplifier in between, thus creating a fully integrated waveguide module....
Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
A proposed system for exploiting the ocean thermal gradient to generate power would be based on the thawing-expansion/ freezing-contraction behavior of a wax or perhaps another suitable phase-change...
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Briefs: Unmanned Systems
A proposed system would exploit the ocean thermal gradient for recharging the batteries in a battery-powered unmanned underwater vehicle [UUV (essentially, a small exploratory submarine...
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Articles: Unmanned Systems
The Mobile & Marine Robotics Research Centre (MMRRC) at the University of Limerick in Ireland created a generic solution for underwater development. During research...
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Blog: Unmanned Systems
NASA News
Following severe heat and drought in the West and Southeast this summer, NASA and the U.S. Forest Service are testing technologies developed by NASA and the military to improve wildfire imaging and mapping capabilities. Through September, NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center is conducting flights of a remotely piloted unmanned aircraft...
Who's Who: Nanotechnology
NASA recently tested the Nano ChemSensor, the first nanotechnology- based electronic device to fly in space. The test showed that the sensor could monitor trace gases inside a...
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Blog: Sensors/Data Acquisition
Fish Sensor
A research team led by Chang Liu at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, Champaign, IL) has built a sensor for underwater vehicles equivalent to a sensory organ found on fish called the lateral line. In fish, the lateral line provides guidance for synchronized swimming, obstacle avoidance, and prey/predator detection...
Who's Who: Software
While a single, peer-to-peer rover can cover a large territory and gather a wealth of information, an entire fleet of rovers could cover even more ground. However,...
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Briefs: Information Technology
Flight-control and navigation systems inspired by the structure and function of the visual system and brain of insects have been proposed for a class of developmental miniature robotic...
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Briefs: Mechanical & Fluid Systems
The miniature autonomous submersible explorer (MASE) has been proposed as a means of scientific exploration—especially, looking for signs of life—in harsh, relatively inaccessible...
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Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
Concepts are being investigated for exploratory missions to Mars based on "Bioinspired Engineering of Exploration Systems" (BEES), which is a guiding principle of this...
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Briefs: Unmanned Systems
In the summer of 2001, the Helios prototype solar-powered uninhabited aerial vehicle (UAV) [a lightweight, remotely piloted airplane] was deployed to the Pacific Missile Range Facility...
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Briefs: Energy
In support of NASA’s Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program, flight tests of the Pathfinder solar-electric-powered, remotely...
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Briefs: Test & Measurement
The Dryden Flight Research Center (DFRC) has been a partner in many uninhabited-aerial-vehicle (UAV) test programs. Our participation has largely been in the areas of...
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Briefs: Aerospace
The recent summit meeting held in Kyoto, Japan, has brought world-wide attention to the issue of global climate change. For the past 5 years, the Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation...
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Briefs: Unmanned Systems
Solar-Powered Aerobots With Power-Surge Capabilities
Advanced aerobots that would be powered by solar photovoltaic batteries and that would be capable of storing energy for occasional operation during short intervals at power levels far beyond those of the photovoltaic batteries have been proposed. Aerobots are robotic balloon-buoyed airborne...
Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control
A prototype manipulator system that includes two different arms has been tentatively selected for use on a semiautonomous robotic vehicle called Rocky 7 (see figure). [A previous version of this vehicle...
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