Honeywell pushes development of alternatives to GPS

On the same subject

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  June 11, 2018 | International, Aerospace

  LOCKHEED MARTIN ANNOUNCES $100 MILLION VENTURE FUND INCREASE

  BETHESDA, Md., June 7, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) announced the doubling of its venture capital fund to $200 million and recent investments in early-stage companies focused in the areas of autonomy and advanced manufacturing. "Our focus is on finding and investing in companies developing cutting-edge technologies that will grow our business and disrupt our industry," said Chris Moran, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Ventures. "We're developing long-term strategic partnerships with companies and helping them navigate through the early stages of product development while leveraging our decades of experience working with government customers." Enabled by tax reform legislation, Lockheed Martin Ventures is focusing the additional $100 million on early-stage companies in the areas of sensor technologies, autonomy, artificial intelligence and cyber. With the fund's latest investment, Lockheed Martin expanded its relationship with nTopology, creator of ELEMENT, an emerging software technology in the high-growth additive and advanced manufacturing sectors. "Our investment in nTopology will bring strategic advantages in Lockheed Martin's computational design processes and help shorten the periods between the design and manufacturing phase," said Moran. The increase in the venture fund is part of $460 million that Lockheed Martin is investing as a direct result of tax reform savings. The tax reform legislation enables Lockheed Martin to make investments that improve its global competitiveness, including investing in transformative technologies that will bring lasting benefits to customers, employees and communities. The company is making additional investments enabled by tax reform savings, including: $200 million additional investments in capital expenditures and research and development in 2018 $100 million in employee training and educational opportunities over the next five years $50 million investment in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education enrichment, including the establishment of a new Lockheed Martin STEM Scholarship Fund $10 million for the launch of the Lockheed Martin Innovation Prize competition More details of Lockheed Martin's investments enabled by tax reform legislation can be found here. About Lockheed Martin Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 100,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. SOURCE Lockheed Martin https://news.lockheedmartin.com/2018-06-07-Lockheed-Martin-Announces-100-Million-Venture-Fund-Increase

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  August 27, 2020 | International, Aerospace

  Army Researchers Develop Breakthrough Sensors For Small Drones

  Imagine asmall aerial drone navigating a field with electrical power lines. How will it see them? More importantly how will it avoid this significant obstacle in its flight path? At the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory, researchers developed a novel sensor and software application to detect and avoid energized power lines in the vicinity of unmanned aerial system, or UAS. The goal is to provide autonomous systems sufficient time and distance to react, avoid wires and navigate follow-on maneuvers. Army researcher David Hull developed the innovative approach using a unique configuration of field and 3-D sensors, in conjunction with low-power processing methods. This resulted in detecting power lines and informing the device's autopilot to prevent collision with the wires. This method allows UAS equipped with these to use smaller, lower power and lower cost sensors to detect the location and Poynting vector (i.e. the directional energy flux density) of nearby power lines. This allows the UAS to autonomously avoid or navigate alongside the detected power lines. While existing wire-detection and wire-avoidance technologies that use radar and/or optical sensors have had commercial success, they are known to be expensive, bulky, and power-intensive with technical limitations. The detection algorithm developed at the lab will result in size, weight, power and cost reduction. By combining both sensing modalities in one sensor, Army researchers estimated the direction of power flow, something no traditional sensor can do, Hull said. The lab recently announced a patent license agreement with Manifold Robotics, a startup company based in New York, who will produce the new technology for drone-based commercial applications. Engineers and drone experts at Manifold Robotics said they intend to create a drone-based system that will detect power lines at a distance and determine their precise location to enable safe navigation. They said this will overcome the factors that limit the efficacy of drones in the vicinity of power lines and unleash their full potential for autonomous power line inspection as well as other Beyond Visual Line of Sight operations. From a military perspective, UASs are increasingly used by Soldiers for a variety of missions. In many cases, these drones must successfully operate in urban environments with a high number of power lines in and around the area. The development goal is to see significant improvement in the safe usage of aerial drones in close proximity to power lines and power grids. Researchers said they believe the licensed Army technologies will enable commercial and military drones to detect power lines at a greater distance. Additionally, the technology is expected to accelerate the development of drone applications such as power line inspection systems and freight delivery drones. https://uasweekly.com/2020/08/25/army-researchers-develop-breakthrough-sensors-for-small-drones/

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  January 5, 2023 | International, Aerospace, C4ISR

  U.S. FCC proposes additional spectrum for drone communications

  The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Wednesday proposed new rules to make licensed radio spectrum in the 5 GHz band for the rising number of unmanned aircraft systems, or drones, in use.