Drone research

Researchers at Virginia Tech’s impact lab flew a DJI Mavic 2 Pro into the windshield of a car at 62.5 mph to see what damage would be caused. The test was in partnership with Virginia Tech Mid-Atlantic Aviation Partnership, the College of Engineering, and State Farm to evaluate drone collision risks with a moving car.

Researchers from Croatia have stepped up landmine locating by complimenting bees with drones to make the job safer and much easier to do. The drones are used to track the bees and later locate the landmines’ location, keeping humans out of danger.

Researchers from the University of Cincinnati are turning to drones to deliver the required devices to make telehealth appointments possible. The group is looking for ways to allow families without smart devices or a decent internet connection to access telehealth.

Researchers from the Agile Robotics and Perception Lab (ARPL) at New York University (NYU) have developed a way for drones to control swinging loads. The system essentially works by estimating the payload location and adjusting accordingly to stop the swinging motion.

Researchers from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) in Australia have successfully trialed new, quieter drone propellers. The team working on the project managed to produce a propeller that produces around 15dB less noise than the current market.

A cress grower from the Netherlands has turned to drones to protect crops from the moths and caterpillars that munch away at them. The greenhouse grower has enlisted PATS Indoor Drone Solutions’ help to get the high-tech security team in the air.

Researchers from MIT and other universities have managed to create a drone that can stay in the sky after being struck, much like insects can. The drone uses a tiny rubber actuator to flap the wings rather than a motor used by most consumer and commercial drones.

New research shows that dragonflies – even dead ones – perform a somersault maneuver if they are upside down in the air. And that could have implications for the design of some drones.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is gearing up to test its high-altitude greenhouse gas sampling drone. The drone will allow the agency to improve its testing and complete testing in more remote locations.

Researchers from the Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo, have improved drone landings with a camera mounted on a servo-controlled platform. The system uses image recognition to detect a landing location from a preset landing symbol.

Researchers from the Westphalian University of Applied Sciences and TU Delft have developed optical-flow-based control for drones by looking at how flying insects solve complex problems such as landing and avoiding obstacles.

Researchers have managed to use drones to transmit light particles across large distances to transmit information. A team from the Nanjing University in China has transmitted data using drones over a one-kilometer (0.62 miles) distance.

Researchers at the University of Zurich and the Delft University of Technology have been able to keep a drone flying after a motor fails. The researchers have managed to use onboard cameras to keep the test drones in the air and flying safely.

Researchers from Putra University in Malaysia have developed a method to turn pineapple leaves into drone frames. The researchers have been trying to find a sustainable way to use pineapple waste created by the farmers in Hulu Langat just outside of Kuala Lumpur.

A team of researchers has taken a swarm of drones into a forest to test and see if they would stay in formation and avoid the obstacles. The drones have been adapted to use a special obstacle avoidance technique to map the environment as they fly along.

Engineers at Colorado State University have equipped a tiny drone with a mechanical gripper that allows it to hold onto objects. We’ve all seen the movies with the tiny drones flying in and latching onto an enemy building to hear inside. Now it’s a reality.

Researchers with the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command center want to speed up VTOL drones when transitioning from vertical flight to horizontal flight. Most drones nowadays slowly transition between the two to prevent a stall from occurring and the drone from falling to the ground.

Researchers from the University of Washington have created a drone that accurately detects smells using a live moth antenna. The antenna has two tiny wires coming out of it that allow it to be connected to a circuit, allowing the drone to essentially smell.

An experimental drone has managed to stay in the air for an impressive 3.5 hours thanks to a hydrogen fuel cell developed by a team at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands. The verticle take-off and landing (VTOL) drone uses a total of 12 motors.

A recent study performed by The ResponDrone Project found that most people are unaware that first responders are using drones. The group held focus groups in six European countries, with people sharing that they believed drones are mostly used by the military, content creators, and sold as toys.

Researchers at the James Cook University in Cairns, Australia, have turned to drones to spot deadly box jellyfish in a world-first study. The drones are being tested to see if they could be used as an early warning system rather than the current nets in place today.