Robotics, Automation & Control

Two-Dimensional Distributed Velocity Collision Avoidance

As the number of autonomous vehicles continues to increase for both commercial and military applications, collision avoidance algorithms are of the utmost importance to successfully...

Undersea Communications Between Submarines and Unmanned Undersea Vehicles in a Command and Control Denied Environment

Nuclear powered submarines can stay submerged for days at a time and only have to come to periscope depth (PD) for...

UAV Can Launch Aerial Missions from Underwater

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, have developed an innovative unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that can stay on station beneath the water...

Soldiers Field-Test Robotics Technology

Picture a hot summer day in Afghanistan, and a company of 25th Infantry Division soldiers preparing to move to a new area of operation. Instead of using their legs and backs, these soldiers are...

Army’s “Robo-Raven” UAV Flies with Flapping Wings

In the future, it's possible that some unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) might sport wings that flap like a bird or a butterfly. The Army Research Lab has been testing such a UAV, known...

Explosive Destruction System Begins Eliminating Chemical Weapons

The Explosive Destruction System (EDS), designed by Sandia National Laboratories for the U.S. Army, has begun safely destroying stockpile chemical munitions.

Dual-Node, Short-Depth 4U Chassis

Advantech (Irvine, CA) has launched the 4U, dual-node, short-depth (350mm), industrial chassis ACP-4D00 designed for machine automation applications that require two computers in one piece of equipment. The...

Killer Robots - Army Studies Challenges of Remote Lethality

The military has used and experimented with robots that perform functions such as scouting and surveillance, carrying supplies and detecting and disposing of improvised homemade...

DARPA Teams With Industry to Create Spaceplane

DARPA has created an Experimental Spaceplane (XS-1) to create a new paradigm for more routine, responsive, and affordable space operations. In an important step toward that goal, DARPA has...

Hurricane-Tracking Unmanned Systems Win NASA Challenge

NASA has selected three winning designs solicited to address the technological limitations of the uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) currently used to track and collect data on hurricanes....

Synthetic Aperture Sonar Can Help Navy Hunt Sea Mines

Since World War II, sea mines have damaged or sunk four times more U.S. Navy ships than all other means of attack combined, according to a Navy report on mine warfare. New sonar research...

Mobile Robots Help Technicians Manufacture Airplanes

A new mobile assistant is being developed to support technicians in the airplane manufacturing industry when applying sealant, measuring, and testing — without putting them at risk. In...

Simulating Lightweight Vehicles Operating on Discrete Terrain

Engineers increasingly rely on simulation to augment and, in some cases, replace costly and time consuming experimental work. However, current simulation capabilities are...