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Submission + - Lost your drone, there's an App for that (suasnews.com)

Submitted by garymortimer
garymortimer writes: Your pride and joy flying off into the distance on a mission of its own is an all too common problem for amateur drone makers. Many things can cause it, lost radio link, failed control surface or servo. An iOS answer is now on the cards.

FIND MY DRONE is a FREE App developed by Communis Tech that connects your iPhone to your personal UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) using the popular MAVLink protocol.

If you were forced to land your drone some distance away, this convenient App will determine the latitude and longitude of the drones’ location and its’ distance from you. The inbuilt compass can then direct you to the drone, saving you a haphazard and time consuming search.

Submission + - Latest Navy Drone to upgrade from XP to Windows 7 (suasnews.com) 1

Submitted by garymortimer
garymortimer writes: Officials of the Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md., on 22 May awarded a $15.3 million contract modification to the Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems sector in Bethpage, N.Y., to upgrade the Triton’s software from Windows XP to Windows 7.

The contract modification concerns the MQ-4C Triton Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) systems development and demonstration phase.

Also on 22 May Northrop Grumman experts completed the first flight of the Triton BAMS high-altitude UAV at the Northrop Grumman manufacturing facility in Palmdale, Calif.

Triton is designed to fly maritime surveillance missions for as long as 24 hours at altitudes of more than 10 miles to enable coverage out to 2,000 nautical miles, Northrop Grumman officials say. The UAV’s suite of sensors can detect and classify different types of ships automatically.

Submission + - German railways to test anti-graffiti drones (suasnews.com) 1

Submitted by garymortimer
garymortimer writes: Germany's national railway company, Deutsche Bahn, plans to test small drones to try to reduce the amount of graffiti being sprayed on its property.

The idea is to use airborne infra-red cameras to collect evidence, which could then be used to prosecute vandals who deface property at night.

A company spokesman said drones would be tested at rail depots soon.

Submission + - Google acquires kite-power generator (suasnews.com)

Submitted by garymortimer
garymortimer writes: Google has acquired a US company that generates power using turbines mounted on tethered kites or wings.

Makani Power will become part of Google X – the secretive research and development arm of the search giant.

The deal comes as Makani carries out the first fully autonomous flights of robot kites bearing its power-generating propellers.

Google has not said how much it paid to acquire Makani, but it has invested $15m (£9.9m) in the company before now.

Submission + - Russia to test drones to monitor wildlife and track poachers (suasnews.com)

Submitted by garymortimer
garymortimer writes: VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, Officials say they’ll test unmanned aerial vehicles at a nature reserve on Russia’s Pacific coast this summer to monitor wildlife and crack down on poachers.

“UAVs are silent and can fly at a very low altitude to produce high-resolution imagery and detect poachers, their boats and vehicles,” Alexandra Filatkina, deputy director for development at the Kronotsky nature reserve on the Kamchatka Peninsula, told RIA Novosti Friday.

Submission + - First drone touch and go at sea (video) (suasnews.com)

Submitted by garymortimer
garymortimer writes: An X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System (UCAS) demonstrator conducts a touch and go landing on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77), marking the first time any unmanned aircraft has completed a touch and go landing at sea. George H.W. Bush is conducting training operations in the Atlantic Ocean.

Submission + - Geologists in Norway are using drones with cameras to hunt for oil (suasnews.com) 1

Submitted by garymortimer
garymortimer writes: Geologists have long used seismology on the bottom of the ocean or have been throwing dynamite from snowmobiles when they look for oil. But now researchers at Centre for integrated petroleum research (CIPR), a joint venture between the University of Bergen (UiB) and Uni Research, have found a new preferred method – using drones to map new oil reserves from the air.

Submission + - Control multiple drones via the web :-DroneDeploy (suasnews.com) 1

Submitted by garymortimer
garymortimer writes: DroneDeploy announced today that it is launching a web-based drone control platform. Available at www.dronedeploy.com, the site enables users to operate multiple drones at the same time, on any web-enabled device.

Mike Winn, said “We built DroneDeploy to help people get stuff done with drones – we want to make it easier, safer and help people stay within the laws.”

Safety and legal is at the heart of DroneDeploy’s platform: “On the surface, we prevent collisions between vehicles on the platform, avoid tall structures, and ensure localised legal compliance,” said Jono Millin, “but we go much deeper than that. We monitor vibrations and inputs vs responses to detect early signs of wear and tear, and can take weather conditions, engine capabilities and fuel into account so your drone never flies out of range.”

Submission + - Canadian Police drone finds missing man (suasnews.com)

Submitted by garymortimer
garymortimer writes: A Saskatchewan man, lost and alone, was found by an RCMP remote controlled helicopter that spotted him from the sky.

The 25-year-old had wandered away from where his car rolled on Highway 5 near St. Denis, about 40 kilometres east of Saskatoon, early Thursday morning.

RCMP arrived at the accident scene after midnight, but couldn’t find the driver.

“He had suffered a head injury in the crash and became disorientated and wandered off,” said RCMP corporal Doug Green.

Submission + - Stop Motion Effects Master Ray Harryhausen, Dead At 92 (wsj.com)

Submitted by Dave Knott
Dave Knott writes: Ray Harryhausen, the stop-motion animation pioneer behind the special effects in such movies as “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad” (1958), “Jason and the Argonauts” (1963), and “Clash of the Titans” (1981) has died in London. This note was posted on the Facebook page of The Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation: “The Harryhausen family regret to announce the death of Ray Harryhausen, Visual Effects pioneer and stop-motion model animator. He was a multi-award winner which includes a special Oscar and BAFTA. Ray’s influence on today’s film makers was enormous, with luminaries; Steven Spielberg, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, George Lucas, John Landis and the UK’s own Nick Park have cited Harryhausen as being the man whose work inspired their own creations.”

Submission + - BitTorrent Bundle puts a music store inside torrents (geek.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: BitTorrent has come up with a new way to sell music, and it’s sure to ruffle executive feathers at stodgy record labels. It’s called BitTorrent Bundle, and it puts the music store right inside the torrent. Yes, a legitimate music store embedded in a torrent. At last, someone has come up with a way to turn all us entitled, lawless downloaders into paying customers!

BitTorrent thinks of BitTorrent Bundle as a sort of 21st century band flyer. It’s a digital grassroots way to reach out to fans, but it also enables them to show their support and easily purchase additional content. Post a torrent with a handful of live tracks from your latest tour, Bundle it with a store that lets your groupies buy the full album. Simple.

Submission + - Weird Geological Features Spied on Mars (discovery.com)

Submitted by astroengine
astroengine writes: The High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera carried by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has spotted a strange geological feature that, for now, defies an obvious explanation. Found at the southern edge of Acidalia Planitia, small pits with raised edges appear to hug a long ridge. So far, mission scientists have ruled out impact craters and wind as formation processes, but have pegged the most likely cause to be glacial in nature.

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