New drones equipped with a deep learning application that improves the images they collect during search and rescue missions can better distinguish people from their surroundings. Researchers from Austria's Johannes Kepler University have developed drones equipped with a deep learning application that improves the images they collect during search and rescue missions to better distinguish people from their surroundings. The team noted, "automated person detection under occlusion conditions can be notably improved by combining multi-perspective images before classification." The researchers achieved 96% precision and 93% recall rates with image integration using airborne optical sectioning, a synthetic aperture imaging technique that captures unstructured thermal light fields using camera drones, compared to 25% achieved by traditional thermal imaging. The researchers say the drones are ready for use.

A fleet of 30 Starship autonomous delivery robots has been deployed at the University of Houston, home to over 53,000 students, faculty and staff. In partnership with Chartwells Higher Education, UH is the first institution of higher education in the state of Texas to offer robotic food deliveries on campus. The recipient can even track the delivery -- made to a building's nearest outdoor entrance -- in real time. "This revolutionary delivery method will make it more convenient for the campus community to take advantage of our diverse dining program from anywhere on campus while expanding the hours of operation," said Emily Messa, UH associate vice president for administration. "By opening our campus to this innovative service, which is paid for by the customers, the university didn't have to spend any money purchasing the technology, yet we're enhancing our food delivery capabilities."

So far, the members of Joe Biden's foreign policy team are all veterans of Barack Obama's administration. They've pledged to revive Obama-era initiatives like the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement that Donald Trump tried to undo, as well as recommit to long-term U.S. alliances. Some U.S. foreign policy critics from the left and the libertarian right are less than fully enthusiastic about this team. They don't particularly relish a return to the approach that led to the intervention in Libya, a ramped-up drone war, and a troop surge in Afghanistan, and are concerned that all the talk of "America is back" broadly suggests an embrace of the interventionist worldview that predated Trump. Progressive concerns about the more hawkish views of Michèle Flournoy (Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna is one representative example), who was thought to be a shoo-in for secretary of defense, are reportedly one reason why that position has not yet been announced.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's supreme leader on Saturday demanded the "definitive punishment" of those behind the killing of a scientist who led Tehran's disbanded military nuclear program, as the Islamic Republic blamed Israel for a slaying that has raised fears of reignited tensions across the Middle East. After years of being in the shadows, the image of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh suddenly was to be seen everywhere in Iranian media, as his widow spoke on state television and officials publicly demanded revenge on Israel for the scientist's slaying. Israel, long suspected of killing Iranian scientists a decade ago amid earlier tensions over Tehran's nuclear program, has yet to comment on Fakhrizadeh's killing Friday. However, the attack bore the hallmarks of a carefully planned, military-style ambush, the likes of which Israel has been accused of conducting before. The attack has renewed fears of Iran striking back against the U.S., Israel's closest ally in the region, as it did earlier this year when a U.S. drone strike killed a top Iranian general.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are capable of serving as flying base stations (BSs) for supporting data collection, artificial intelligence (AI) model training, and wireless communications. However, due to the privacy concerns of devices and limited computation or communication resource of UAVs, it is impractical to send raw data of devices to UAV servers for model training. Moreover, due to the dynamic channel condition and heterogeneous computing capacity of devices in UAV-enabled networks, the reliability and efficiency of data sharing require to be further improved. In this paper, we develop an asynchronous federated learning (AFL) framework for multi-UAV-enabled networks, which can provide asynchronous distributed computing by enabling model training locally without transmitting raw sensitive data to UAV servers. The device selection strategy is also introduced into the AFL framework to keep the low-quality devices from affecting the learning efficiency and accuracy. Moreover, we propose an asynchronous advantage actor-critic (A3C) based joint device selection, UAVs placement, and resource management algorithm to enhance the federated convergence speed and accuracy. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposed framework and algorithm achieve higher learning accuracy and faster federated execution time compared to other existing solutions.

An Iranian scientist named by the West as the leader of the Islamic Republic's disbanded military nuclear program was killed Friday in an ambush on the outskirts of Tehran, authorities said. Iran's foreign minister alleged the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh bore "serious indications" of an Israeli role, but did not elaborate. Israel, long suspected of killing several Iranian nuclear scientists a decade ago, declined to immediately comment. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once told the public to "remember that name" when talking about Fakhrizadeh. The killing risks further raising tensions across the Mideast, nearly a year after Iran and the U.S. stood on the brink of war when an American drone strike killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad.

The market research report compiles information from over 120 hardware and software companies to identify the key trends in the drone industry. The major players of the drone industry are compared within the areas of drone industry such as software, hardware, and analytics. This provides you with the knowledge to make informed decisions and understanding of this disruptive and fast-growing market area. These use cases include Search and Rescue, Agriculture, Delivery, Security, Mapping and Localisation.

The Azerbaijan defense ministry has released videos it claims to show drone attacks on the Armenian military in the Nagorno-Karabakh region earlier this month. The videos of the drone strikes have been posted on the Azerbaijan's defense ministry website and social media every day. Since September, Azerbaijan has deployed several different types of missile-firing drones in the conflict with Armenia. Missile-firing drones are now produced in many countries and have been used in battles including a U.S. drone strike that killed Iran's top general Qassem Soleimani at Baghdad airport last January. Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, unmanned combat weapons of various types have been increasingly used by the U.S. military in its war on terror.

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Department of Defense's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) to develop enhanced autonomous sensing capabilities for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The JAIC Smart Sensor project aims to advance drone-based AI technology by demonstrating object recognition algorithms and employing onboard AI to automatically control UAV sensors and direct autonomous flight. GA-ASI will deploy these new capabilities on a MQ-9 Reaper UAV equipped with a variety of sensors, including GA-ASI's Reaper Defense Electronic Support System (RDESS) and Lynx Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). GA-ASI's Metis Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) tasking and intelligence-sharing application, which enables operators to specify effects-based mission objectives and receive automatic notification of actionable intelligence, will be used to command the unmanned aircraft. J.R. Reid, GA-ASI Vice President of Strategic Development, commented: "GA-ASI is excited to leverage the considerable investment we have made to advance the JAIC's autonomous sensing objective. This will bring a tremendous increase in unmanned systems capabilities for applications across the full-range of military operations."

SpaceX has reused a Falcon 9 rocket for a record breaking seventh time during its most recent mission to put another 60 Starlink satellites into orbit. It comes as the Elon Musk-owned space launch firm is preparing for the first high altitude test flight of its mammoth Starship prototype spaceship - dubbed SN8. Launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida at 02:13 GMT this morning, the Falcon 9 flight was the seventh time that particular first stage booster had been used. This beat the previous record for a booster of six trips and helps Musk in his mission to bring down the cost of launching payloads from the Earth by reusing equipment. SpaceX was able to recover the booster from the Atlantic Ocean using a drone flight - which means it may be able to fly for an eighth time in the future.