UAV ACTUAL

viernes, 5 de enero de 2018

General Atomics to upgrade USAF's Reaper UAV fleet

General Atomics has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Air Force for Block 5 kits for the MQ-9 Reaper, just as the U.S. military begins to phase out the MQ-1 Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV).

The contract was announced Wednesday 3 by the U.S. Department of Defense, tapping General Atomics for Block 5 kits, in addition to other services worth more than $14.1 million under a cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price undefinitized contract action, which is a modification on a previously awarded contract.

The UAVs are considered one of the primary weapons in U.S. counter terrorism strategy as both the Predator and the Reaper have strike capabilities, usually carrying a payload of AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-ground missiles. The MQ-9 Reaper is a significantly upgraded version of the MQ-1 Predator UAV, which is primarily used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions (ISR).

The U.S. military has long planned the retirement of the MQ-1 Predator in favor of an all-MQ-9 Reaper fleet. The Air Force explained their reasoning to retire the Predator in February 2017, noting that the more modern MQ-9 Reaper has been better equipped with superior features and operational capabilities. Work on Block 5 kits for the contract will occur in Poway, California, and is expected to be completed by February 2021.

Aeronautics Ltd. wins $13m UAV deal

Aeronautics Ltd. (Yavne, Israel) develops and manufactures UAVs, observation balloons, bomb fuses, and advanced navigational systems.

The company is controlled by the KCPS, Viola, and Bereshit funds. Aeronautics' CEO is Amos Mathan, and its chairperson is Major General (res.) Eytan Ben Eliyahu.

The company reported that it would supply to a classified customer with UAVs for $13 million, with delivery spread over an 18-month period and payment taking place accordingly.

miércoles, 3 de enero de 2018

Somalia: UAV airstrikes against al-Shabaab

A United States airstrike targeting al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab in Somalia killed four people and destroyed a car bomb near Mogadishu on Wednesday, December 27, the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) said in a statement: “In coordination with the Federal Government of Somalia, U.S. forces conducted an airstrike against al-Shabaab militants in the early evening hours of Dec. 27, 2017, approximately 25 kilometers west of the capital [Mogadishu], killing four (4) terrorists and destroying one vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, preventing it from being used against the people in Mogadishu,” Africom said in a Thursday statement.

On December 24, an airstrike targeting al-Shabaab in southern Somalia killed 13 people. On December 15, an airstrike 30 miles northwest of Kismayo killed eight people. Three days earlier, on December 12, a U.S. airstrike targeted an al-Shabaab car bomb near Mubarak, 65 kilometers (40 miles) from Mogadishu. On November 27, Africom targeted Abnaa ul-Calipha in northeastern Somalia. A week earlier, the command said an airstrike killed more than 100 al-Shabaab militants 125 miles northwest of Mogadishu. On November 15, Africom said a drone strike about 60 miles north Mogadishu killed “several” al-Shabaab militants. Four days earlier, Africom said it struck al-Shabaab in the Bay region, about 100 miles west of Mogadishu.

The strike is the latest in an increasing number of U.S. airstrikes against al-Shabaab and Abnaa ul-Calipha, Islamic State’s affiliate in Somalia.

China: ¿Smart killer robots?

A recent report by Accenture Technologies suggests that by 2035 Artificial Intelligence (AI) might add as much as 1.6 percentage points to China’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The researchers at Accenture argue that to yield maximum economic benefits from AI, China needs to use it as an additional factor of production, relying on AI for intelligent automation, labor and capital augmentation and innovation diffusion.

Analysts from other institutions also support such claim: PricewaterhouseCoopers projected that by 2030 global GDP could increase by $15.7 trillion, with almost half of these gains coming from China. PwC estimates that AI will account for a 26 percent GDP boost, or $7 trillion, in China in the next 13 years.

However optimistic these economic projections sound, rapid development of AI in the PRC might also bring about significant challenges to freedom and security, both in China and beyond: Chinese companies are barely constrained by legal issues over data collection and users’ privacy. They can freely use the data of China’s 750 million internet users, match photos and personal IDs and then train facial recognition algorithms and other types of neural networks on large datasets.

Currently the Chinese government not only does not restrict the uses of personal data by domestic tech giants such as Tencent, Baidu and Alibaba, but actively uses their resources to surveil Chinese citizens: Beijing has successfully used advanced facial recognition systems to analyze data from millions of cameras to track down law violators. On the one hand, this might help police to catch criminals faster. But on the other hand, and bearing in mind that China is more rapidly than any other country moving towards becoming a surveillance state where no one can hide from the government, the AI can also be used to censor online environments and identify people who spread “sensitive” information online. Through the use of the AI, any news considered "not good enough" for the government could be censored automatically as it gains steam, and then relaxed after the storm has passed. And there would be almost no trace that it had ever happened. Applying these techniques to the internal affairs, the possibility of implanting an Smart Dictatorship could be enormous.

Regarding military uses of AI, the U.S. is already alarmed about China potentially using AI for that purposes: In February, Elsa B. Kania, an analyst with The Long Term Strategy Group at the Aspen Institute, testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army has reportedly begun incorporating AI into unmanned weapon systems, including UAVs and UUVs: “The Chinese defense industry has likewise made significant progress in its research and development of a range of cutting-edge unmanned systems, including those with supersonic, stealth, and swarming capabilities, but appears to face continued challenges in UAV engines, data links, and sensors,” she said. Of course, U.S. still has an advantage in terms of AI development, but China is catching up fast: Given the amount of resources available in China for the AI development, chances are Beijing will be able to fulfill its goal of becoming the industry leader by 2030.

How to capture in 3D without scanning… or lenses

According to a recent publication in Optica, researchers working under Laura Waller at UC Berkeley have developed an “easy-to-build camera that produces 3D images from a single 2D image without any lenses.” The “DiffuserCam” can capture high-definition 3D information in large volume without the use of a scanning mechanism or difficult-to-manufacture micro-circuitry.

But, you ask, How does it work? The magic lies in Waller’s use of “computational imaging,” which is “an approach that examines how hardware and software can be used together to design imaging systems.” In other words, the hardware and software are thought of as two smaller, complementary parts of a holistic imaging system. Despite the DIY approach, the DiffuserCam is no joke, as the camera can reconstruct 100 million voxels (points in 3D space) from an 1.3-megapixel image. As a comparison, the article mentions that the new iPhone X captures 12-megapixel photos. It means that you could use that image sensor to build a a DiffuserCam that captures more than a billion points.

The camera hardware is “essentially a bumpy piece of plastic” that is “placed on top of an image sensor,” a summary article explains. This simplicity makes it versatile and easy to construct. Researchers in Waller’s lab say they can build it using any image sensor, and practically any bumpy piece of plastic, including privacy glass stickers, Scotch tape, and conference pass holders.

The lensless DiffuserCam consists of a diffuser placed in front of a sensor. The system turns a 3D scene into a 2D image on the sensor. After a one-time calibration, an algorithm is used to reconstruct 3D images computationally. The result is a 3D image reconstructed from a single 2D measurement.

This approach enables the researchers to unload the complexity off of the hardware and into the processing algorithms. This proves the old adage that “software eats hardware,” and brings with it one of the classic benefits of code: You only have to make the complex software once, because after that it can be easily copied and distributed.

Waller says her team’s work proves out the usefulness of computational imaging, showing that this holistic approach enables breakthroughs in performance and price that were not possible before. Still, she warns, “this is a very powerful direction for imaging, but requires designers with optical and physics expertise as well as computational knowledge.”

martes, 2 de enero de 2018

HMS Mersey Tests A 3D-Printed UAV at Sea

Kevin Franks, deputy maritime account manager at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, said the MoD has a number of “lines of interest” in 3D Printing. He said: “The ability to use additive manufacture to make a task-specific tool, component, device or even a vehicle out in the field or in a space-constrained moving ship, could have significant impact on the armed forces’ shape and capability.”

So now we know why the Royal Navy ship HMS Mersey has launched something unusual from her gun deck off England’s southern coast: a cheap UAV made using a 3D Printer. The 1.5m wingspan, propeller-driven UAV, known as 'Sulsa', was printed on shore and then assembled on the ship. The test was meant to demonstrate how more-or-less disposable UAVs that could, in a pinch, be printed on board might cut costs and let a crew adapt quickly to a new mission, for example, after a natural disaster.

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers explained that "Within five years, ships could be equipped with multi-material 3D printers able to produce entire unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), tailored to specific missions." ¿Really? Yes: The Sulsa can be printed and fly for only 40 minutes. ¿Not much? Yes, but that could be enough for missions such as responding to reports of piracy, where being able to easily check out a vessel from a distance of 10 miles or so is valuable. If they shoot at it, who cares? You send another one up.

Photogrammetry Software

Some of the most interesting uses of UAVs deployment in science and conservation are terrain mapping and vegetation analysis.

Data capture for mapping or vegetation analysis can be done by multirotor or fixed-wing methods, with the former a good choice for smaller areas that can be covered in less than 20 minutes and the latter better for bigger landscapes that may require up to an hour of flight time (or more).

The photogrammetry software to perform this work is rapidly evolving but at this time the best options carry a rather stunning range of pricing. Tools include both desktop processing and server-farm processing approaches. You have to explore the options to see what matches your end use. Here is a list of processing software for your exploration: