The Ukrainian army continues to defend its land against the invading Russians and has recently destroyed a Russian tank and killed more than a dozen soldiers as the war enters its sixth month, a new recording revealed. The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) on Sunday released new audio of an intercepted phone call where a Russian soldier, whose identity was not revealed, recounted the attack to his mother. "Mom, we had such a'circus' today! At two o'clock in the morning – fifteen '200' [killed]. Because they all were watching a movie in the tank. They threw it [a projectile] into the turret from a drone! They just approached us, dropped the ammo, and it blew up," the soldier said.

This paper presents a system for hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) simulation of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) control algorithms implemented on a heterogeneous SoC FPGA computing platforms. The AirSim simulator running on a PC and an Arty Z7 development board with a Zynq SoC chip from AMD Xilinx were used. Communication was carried out via a serial USB link. An application for autonomous landing on a specially marked landing strip was selected as a case study. A landing site detection algorithm was implemented on the Zynq SoC platform. This allowed processing a 1280 x 720 @ 60 fps video stream in real time. Performed tests showed that the system works correctly and there are no delays that could negatively affect the stability of the control. The proposed concept is characterised by relative simplicity and low implementation cost. At the same time, it can be applied to test various types of high-level perception and control algorithms for UAV implemented on embedded platforms. We provide the code developed on GitHub, which includes both Python scripts running on the PC and C code running on Arty Z7.

"Russian forces can bring their guns to bear on the enemy within only three to five minutes of an Orlan-10 drone spotting a target," says Dr Watling. Without them, an attack could take 20 to 30 minutes to carry out, he says.

In the domain of unmanned vehicles, autonomous robotic swarms promise to deliver increased efficiency and collective autonomy. How these swarms will operate in the future, and what communication requirements and operational boundaries will arise are yet to be sufficiently defined. A workshop was conducted with 11 professional unmanned-vehicle operators and designers with the objective of identifying use-cases for developing and testing robotic swarms. Three scenarios were defined by experts and were then compiled to produce a single use case outlining the scenario, objectives, agents, communication requirements and stages of operation when collaborating with highly autonomous swarms. Our compiled use case is intended for researchers, designers, and manufacturers alike to test and tailor their design pipeline to accommodate for some of the key issues in human-swarm ininteraction. Examples of application include informing simulation development, forming the basis of further design workshops, and identifying trust issues that may arise between human operators and the swarm.

A hidden 17th Century garden that emerged during a heatwave has been shown in new drone footage. The European-style formal garden at the Chatsworth Estate in Derbyshire was designed in 1699 for the 1st Duke of Devonshire. It was grassed over 30 years later but substantial remains lie buried under just a thin layer of soil and grass, which has since been parched by the recent dry weather. While the historic design will not be fully restored any time soon, Steve Porter - head of gardens and landscape at Chatsworth - said he hoped the old garden, known as the Great Parterre, could be recreated with gravel once the grass had recovered. "Every time you look you almost see more of the detail, more of the scrolls of the beds and more of the paths and it sort of brings it all back to life and you realise just how intricate and just how amazing it would have been," he added. Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

Agricultural drones, self-driving tractors and seed-planting robots are among the innovations that could be key to future food supplies, as autonomous farming promises to produce more crops with less effort and less impact on the environment. Global farming shortages are affecting food chains globally. Last year the National Farmers' Union (NFU) in the UK wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson asking for the implementation of a'Covid Recovery Visa' to alleviate labour shortages across the supply chain. Seasonal worker visa scheme has been extended until end of 2024. The extension of the scheme was a key lobbying ask by the NFU There will be 30,000 visas available this year with potential to increase by 10,000 if necessary Find out more https://t.co/gsBU8Nca6W

Reuben Wu, a British photographer and visual artist based in Chicago, was first introduced to National Geographic as most people are: When he was a child, he enjoyed looking at the magazines his father subscribed to for decades. He dreamed of seeing his photographs in the same magazine--and even on the cover. So when National Geographic asked him to photograph an iconic monument he knows well, he was ready to work. Last summer, Wu experienced a stark contrast of modern and prehistoric, as he used drones and artificial light to photograph Stonehenge, one of the best-known prehistoric monuments, while hearing honking cars passing by. The site in Wiltshire, England, is bisected by the A303--a major road that may soon be in a tunnel should a 2020 proposal become reality--which means motorists may have seen Wu's photo shoot and lit-up drones.

Maverick's next wingman could be a drone. In the movies, fighter pilots are depicted as highly trained military aviators with the skills and experience to defeat adversaries in thrilling aerial dogfights. New technologies, though, are set to redefine what it means to be a "Top Gun," as algorithms, data and machines take on a bigger role in the cockpit -- changes hinted at in "Top Gun: Maverick." "A lot of people talk about, you know, the way of the future, possibly taking the pilot out of the aircraft," said 1st Lt. Walker Gall, an F-35 pilot with the U.S. 48th Fighter Wing based at RAF Lakenheath in England. "That's definitely not something that any of us look forward to." "I'd like to keep my job as long as possible, but I mean, it's hard to argue with newer and newer technology," he said.

DroneShield has announced it has signed a collaboration agreement with The Australian Missile Corporation (AMC), as the $1bn Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance (GWEO) enterprise enters the next phase. The AMC was one of the Australian-based GWEO enterprise panel partners invited by the Commonwealth Government in April to work with global missile manufacturing giants Lockheed Martin and Raytheon in establishing a local industry. Considered areas of cooperation between AMC and DroneShield include counterdrone security, prevalent in current battlefield as seen with the Ukraine war, as well as Electronic Warfare and associated Artificial Intelligence work. AMC's CEO, commented "We are pleased to cooperate with DroneShield, with its Australian sovereign capability, as we progress our GWEO program. Its world-leading technologies combined with its expertise in engineering and physics would be critical to the development of guided weapons in Australia."

Amphibious ground-aerial vehicles fuse flying and driving modes to enable more flexible air-land mobility and have received growing attention recently. By analyzing the existing amphibious vehicles, we highlight the autonomous fly-driving functionality for the effective uses of amphibious vehicles in complex three-dimensional urban transportation systems. We review and summarize the key enabling technologies for intelligent flying-driving in existing amphibious vehicle designs, identify major technological barriers and propose potential solutions for future research and innovation. This paper aims to serve as a guide for research and development of intelligent amphibious vehicles for urban transportation toward the future.