Be grateful you’re not on a dragonfly’s diet. You might be a fruit fly or maybe a mosquito, but it really wouldn’t matter the moment you look back and see four powerful wings pounding through the air after you. You fly for your life, weaving evasively, but the dragonfly somehow tracks you with seemingly instant reflexes. For a moment, you think you’ve gotten away, just as it closes in swiftly from below for the kill. Then, as the dinosaur-era predator claws into you with its spiny legs and drags you into its jaws midair, you might wonder to yourself, “How did it catch me with such a tiny brain and no depth perception?”

When a cyber-warrior defends a complex computer network, or a pilot commands a team of unmanned vehicles, or a submarine officer interacts with intricate sensor systems, they are often limited by conventional interfaces: their fingers, eyes and ears. And while commercial technology has opened new possibilities for controlling complex systems — touch screens, mixed reality and voice control — taking full advantage of these increasingly fast, smart and sophisticated systems will require direct interface with the brain.

For more than 30 years, Aitech has worked with its customer to develop high reliability embedded systems for rugged commercial, military, defense and space applications. Recent company initiatives have focused on the integration of Intel-based rugged PCs and GPGPUs into small form factors, meeting the growing need for inherent security features within hardware platforms and advancements in power, processing and communications in mission-critical systems. Here we talk with Doug Patterson, VP of Global Marketing for Aitech to look at how shrinking system size, coupled with increasing computing density, is impacting embedded computing design principles.

UAVOS, the European company best known for its ApusDuo high-altitude, solar-powered, pseudo-satellite – not to mention its cutting-edge autopilot technology – introduced three new unmanned helicopters at AUVSI’s XPONENTIAL show in Chicago.

herone GmbH, (Dresden, Germany) recently won the prestigious 2019 JEC Innovation Awards, in the Aerospace application category. The winning application was the company's all-thermoplastic drive-shaft system overmolded with an integral gear, designed for use in aerospace applications.

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Northrop Grumman Corporation a $59 million contract for the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase of the Embedded Global Positioning System (GPS) /Inertial Navigation System (INS)-Modernization, or EGI-M, technology.

An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) emitted by a nuclear weapon exploded high above the United States could disable the electronic circuits of many devices vital to military defense and modern living. These could include complicated weapon systems as well as phones, laptops, credit cards and car computers. Also in trouble might be home appliances, gas station pumps and bank accounts.

One of the most dangerous environments in the U.S. Navy is the deck of an aircraft carrier. Catapult systems that can remove limbs, furious engines, whipping propellers, and high winds create a hectic environment. The driving force behind all of these activities is helping a pilot land an aircraft on a short slab of pitching steel in the middle of the ocean. Although pilots are the stars of the show, they could not accomplish their missions without the support of flight deck crews, who are responsible for safely launching and recovering aircraft.

DETECTING PLASTIC LANDMINES

Hidden PFM-1 anti-personnel landmines are unexploded ordnance (UXO) devices that pose a difficult challenge to conventional landmine detection methods like metal detecting because the mines are primarily composed of plastic and only weigh 75 g. As a remnant of the Soviet-Afghan War, there are an estimated 10 million such devices scattered throughout Afghanistan. These mines remain in isolated locations, frequently out of reach of de-mining nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and act to thwart local economic and social development. The PFM-1s are infamously referred to as “toy mines,” as children often mistake the mines for toys and set off the 525 kg of cumulative pressure it takes to detonate them.

Developed in 1981, VME has served as a reliable, extensible platform for deployable embedded computing applications. The electro-mechanical standard typically includes components like processors, IO boards, enclosures, backplanes, and power supplies.