This work focuses on using advanced techniques for structural health monitoring (SHM) for bridges with Traffic. We propose an approach using deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based control for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Our approach conducts a concrete bridge deck survey while traffic is ongoing and detects cracks. The UAV performs the crack detection, and the location of cracks is initially unknown. We use two edge detection techniques. First, we use canny edge detection for crack detection. We also use a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) for crack detection and compare it with canny edge detection. Transfer learning is applied using CNN with pre-trained weights obtained from a crack image dataset. This enables the model to adapt and improve its performance in identifying and localizing cracks. Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) is applied for UAV control and bridge surveys. The experimentation across various scenarios is performed to evaluate the performance of the proposed methodology. Key metrics such as task completion time and reward convergence are observed to gauge the effectiveness of the approach. We observe that the Canny edge detector offers up to 40\% lower task completion time, while the CNN excels in up to 12\% better damage detection and 1.8 times better rewards.

As the space domain becomes increasingly congested, autonomy is proposed as one approach to enable small numbers of human ground operators to manage large constellations of satellites and tackle more complex missions such as on-orbit or in-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing. One of the biggest challenges in developing novel spacecraft autonomy is mechanisms to test and evaluate their performance. Testing spacecraft autonomy on-orbit can be high risk and prohibitively expensive. An alternative method is to test autonomy terrestrially using satellite surrogates such as attitude test beds on air bearings or drones for translational motion visualization. Against this background, this work develops an approach to evaluate autonomous spacecraft behavior using a surrogate platform, namely a micro-quadcopter drone developed by the Bitcraze team, the Crazyflie 2.1. The Crazyflie drones are increasingly becoming ubiquitous in flight testing labs because they are affordable, open source, readily available, and include expansion decks which allow for features such as positioning systems, distance and/or motion sensors, wireless charging, and AI capabilities. In this paper, models of Crazyflie drones are used to simulate the relative motion dynamics of spacecraft under linearized Clohessy-Wiltshire dynamics in elliptical natural motion trajectories, in pre-generated docking trajectories, and via trajectories output by neural network control systems.

Ukraine has been fighting Russia for two years to liberate its lands and drive Russia back – but supply, tactics and the flat terrain have meant that the much-vaunted Ukrainian counteroffensive of last year has produced few tangible results. In the wide-open agricultural land of southern Ukraine, there is not much in the way of cover for an attacking force. Russia had months to prepare its defences, and built them in depth. Row after row of trenches, anti-tank obstacles, ditches and reinforced bunkers have formed a barrier, often kilometres deep, effectively containing Ukrainian forces as they have repeatedly tried to break through into the open country beyond, with little success. The counteroffensive has bogged down into slow, attritional warfare, as Russia's strategy of making Ukraine pay for every metre it tries to take is showing signs of succeeding.

Yemen's Houthi rebels say they have targeted what they claim to be an Israeli cargo ship, the MSC Silver, in the Gulf of Aden near the entrance to the Red Sea with a number of missiles. Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sarea did not elaborate, but in a statement on Tuesday said the group had also used drones to target a number of United States warships in the Red Sea and Arabian Sea as well as sites in the southern Israeli resort town of Eilat. However, the British maritime security firm Ambrey said the container ship targeted by the Houthis on Tuesday was Liberia-flagged and headed for Somalia. The operator was publicly listed as [in] cooperation with ZIM and regularly called [at] Israeli ports," the Ambrey advisory note said. Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd, commonly known as ZIM, is a publicly held Israeli international cargo shipping company based in Israel.

Former Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller joined'Fox & Friends' to discuss the latest on the escalation in the Middle East as the U.S. continues to strike Iranian proxies. Despite a month of U.S.-led airstrikes, Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi rebels remain capable of launching significant attacks -- just this week, they seriously damaged a ship in a crucial strait and apparently downed an American drone worth tens of millions of dollars. The continued assaults by the Houthis on shipping through the crucial Red Sea corridor -- the Bab el-Mandeb Strait -- against the backdrop of Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip underscore the challenges in trying to stop the guerrilla-style attacks that have seen them hold onto Yemen's capital and much of the war-ravaged country's north since 2014. Meanwhile, the campaign has boosted the rebels' standing in the Arab world, despite their own human rights abuses in a yearslong stalemated war with several of America's allies in the region. And the longer their attacks go on, analysts warn the greater the risk that disruptions to international shipping will begin to weigh down on the global economy.

If the Houthis' claims are confirmed, this will have been the second time the group has shot down an American drone since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, and Israel's response, plunged the region into crisis. The downing of a Reaper drone, the mainstay of the American military's aerial surveillance fleet, is another escalation of violence between the United States and Iran-backed groups in Yemen, Iraq and Syria. The episodes have intensified over the past two months, underscoring the risk that the conflict between Israel and Hamas could spiral into a wider war. The United States struck five Houthi military targets, including an undersea drone, in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen on Saturday, according to a statement from the military's Central Command. The use of the underwater drone is believed to have been the first time that the Houthis have employed such a weapon since they began their campaign against ships in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden on Oct. 23, the statement said.

Problem statement During recent years, Reality Modeling (RM) technologies including cutting-edge sensor technologies like Terrestrial and Aerial (using drones) Laser Scanning, have found a wide and prominent purpose in the field of Cultural Heritage (CH) modeling, recording and management. However, RM of CH is a constant challenge for surveyors, since it is a manual-driven, laborious and time-consuming process. The scanning path and sensor's positioning are mostly depended on the surveyor's experience, intuition and perception, since an automatic and systematic procedure does not exist. Taking into consideration the natural environment that surrounds CH sites, the challenges become even more complex. Specifically, for the acquisition of a complete 3D Reality model of a large-scale cultural space, multiple manual terrestrial laser scans (TLS) and aerial scans with UAVs (drones) must be performed. In this manual procedure, the scanning path/strategy and the identification of the scanner position, or Next Best View task as presented in the literature, is mostly depended on the operator's experience and perception. As a result, an optimization of the NBV problem to capture efficiently a large-scale complex sites or monuments in dynamic environments (e.g., due to growing or changing vegetation) is quite important to minimize the surveying time and scanning cost. Although the NBV problem is crucial, efficiency and optimality have not been considered qualitatively and explicitly so far in the literature, and thus, in some cases, the surveying process takes usually longer than necessary, since some regions are overlapped unnecessary and extra positionings are planned just to be on the safe side.

The number of people living unsheltered in Oregon has risen steeply in recent years. Eleven suspects, including a juvenile, have been arrested for allegedly using drones to deliver illegal drugs into a federal prison in West Virginia. The investigation began last November when officials at the medium-security Federal Correctional Institution in Welch contacted the office of McDowell County Sheriff James Muncy. The facility asked the sheriff's office for help with increased drone use in the area and in December, the sheriff's office started receiving multiple tips about drone deliveries. Sheriff's deputies arrested suspects from mid-December through early February.

Fox News senior strategic analyst Gen. Jack Keane joins'Fox Report' to discuss strikes in Yemen, Iraq and Syria by the U.S. and U.K forces. Two U.S. officials have confirmed to Fox News that an Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone crashed near Yemen after Houthi rebels claimed to have shot down an American aircraft. "We can confirm that a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 crashed off the coast of Hodeidah, Yemen, and are investigating the cause," a U.S. official told Fox News. The officials stressed that it was unclear if the Houthis were involved. If they are, it would be the second time since November 2023 that the Iranian-backed militant group has taken out a Reaper drone, which has a wingspan of 66 feet and costs about 32 million.

Two years into Russia's invasion, advances in drone warfare have been hailed as a way for Ukraine to partly neutralize Russia's military advantage. The relatively inexpensive drones have allowed Kyiv's forces to strike back, including within Russia -- UAVs, or unmanned aerial vehicles, have reached targets hundreds of miles from the border -- although officials at the annual Munich Security Conference said the advances also come with risks. In particular, officials at the event, a gathering of world leaders, military personnel and international security advisers, warned it would become harder for NATO powers to establish control over airspace in conflict zones because of the technology. The prevalence of the technology means a greater need for European nations to bolster their air defense, two people warned on the sidelines of the conference.