A fleet of drones makes up MultiFlyer, a system that can be operated by one person and which could be used to survey crops or inspect buildings, or to help identify people during search rescue missions. The operator manages the fleet rather than individual drones, but can take over a single drone at will, using a tablet computer or even a smartphone. Several operators can share control, and the data gathered by the fleet is collated centrally.

Unmanned ariel vehicle (UAV) can provide superior flexibility and cost-efficiency for modern radar imaging systems, which is an ideal platform for advanced remote sensing applications using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology. In this paper, an energy-efficient passive UAV radar imaging system using illuminators of opportunity is first proposed and investigated. Equipped with a SAR receiver, the UAV platform passively reuses the backscattered signal of the target scene from an external illuminator, such as SAR satellite, GNSS or ground-based stationary commercial illuminators, and achieves bi-static SAR imaging and data communication. The system can provide instant accessibility to the radar image of the interested targets with enhanced platform concealment, which is an essential tool for stealth observation and scene monitoring. The mission concept and system block diagram are first presented with justifications on the advantages of the system. Then, the prospective imaging performance and system feasibility are analyzed for the typical illuminators based on signal and spatial resolution model. With different illuminators, the proposed system can achieve distinct imaging performance, which offers more alternatives for various mission requirements. A set of mission performance evaluators is established to quantitatively assess the capability of the system in a comprehensive manner, including UAV navigation, passive SAR imaging and communication. Finally, the validity of the proposed performance evaluators are verified by numerical simulations.

More than 3 million acres of California have burned this year, and 18,000 firefighters are still battling 27 major wildfires across the sooty state sometimes called golden. And every day, high above the smoke, a military drone with a wingspan roughly 10 times that of LeBron James feeds infrared video of the flames back to March Air Reserve Base, east of Los Angeles, to help map the destruction and assist firefighters. These MQ-9 "Reaper" drones don't usually fly domestic--they're on standby in case the Air Force needs them for overseas reconnaissance. But climate change has helped make crisscrossing California gathering video a new fall tradition for the 163rd Attack Wing. Its drones have helped map wildfires every year since 2017, thanks to special permission from the secretary of defense.

The Ministry of Defence has unveiled a drone armed with twin stabilised shotguns that uses AI to identify its targets. The drone has six rotor blades and is attached with a camera to provide a live-stream of indoor conflicts to a remote solider, who fires the device's weapons. A first prototype of the metre-long machine, which is designed only for indoor combat, has been called the i9. MoD has developed the flying'armed fighter' with an undisclosed British company to deploy specifically in urban situations, such as buildings barricaded by armed personnel. MoD told MailOnline it's unable to provide photos of the prototype, as this has been developed with a UK start-up that is in negotiations around Series A funding, and is therefore in'stealth mode' or without a public profile (stock image) 'UK Strategic Command has been developing a capability under Project i9 to develop an armed urban warfare unmanned aerial system (UAS),' MoD said in a statement to MailOnline.

Ring, the Amazon-owned home security business, introduced a flying camera on Thursday that may excite home-surveillance fans but is almost certain to rankle privacy advocates. The $250 drone, called Ring Always Home Cam, is among a slew of products unveiled during Amazon's invitation-only online hardware event. The drone is small and light, with a high-definition camera, and it can automatically fly on preset paths to specific spots in your home, streaming video to your smartphone of what it sees along the way. Users can set up paths for the drone via a smartphone app, or if the drone detects motion in a part of your home it can fly on its own to that spot and take video of what's going on. Set for release next year, the drone is meant for indoor use only, and it can be set to work with the Ring Alarm system so that it will fly a preset route if the alarm is triggered.

Kidneys were flown a record 10 miles across the Nevada desert by drone earlier this month, setting a record for unmanned aerial organ delivery. It comes after the first-ever successful drone delivery of an organ was completed last year, when a 44-year-old's new kidney over two miles in an unmanned drone from the Living Legacy Foundation organ distribution center to the University of Maryland Medical Center (both in Baltimore) on April 19. The latest drone organ delivery - completed by a MissionGo device - surpasses that historic flight by traveling five-times further. It was the second of two human tissue drone flights completed the same day, September 17. MissionGO and the Nevada Donor Network flew corneas two miles by drone, from one hospital to another, then flew research kidneys 10 miles from a remote airport to a town in the middle of the state's desert.

This one had me do a double take. If you really want to feel like your home is some sort of impenetrable fortress complete with roving security drones. Amazon's Ring has a new product for you. Ring latest home security camera is taking flight -- literally. The new Always Home Cam is an autonomous drone that can fly around inside your home to give you a perspective of any room you want when you're not home. Once it's done flying, the Always Home Cam returns to its dock to charge its battery.

The next year will be pivotal for the Air Force's effort to acquire a new class of autonomous drones, as industry teams compete for a chance to build a fleet of robotic wingmen that will soon undergo operational experimentation. The "Skyborg" program is one of the service's top science-and-technology priorities under the "Vanguard" initiative to deliver game-changing capabilities to its warfighters. The aim is to acquire relatively inexpensive, attritable unmanned aircraft that can leverage artificial intelligence and accompany manned fighter jets into battle. "I expect that we will do sorties where a set number are expected to fly with the manned systems, and we'll have crazy new [concepts of operation] for how they'll be used," Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics Will Roper said during an online event hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. The platforms might even be called upon to conduct kamikaze missions.

Ring's Always Home Cam is an indoor security camera drone. Ring on Thursday introduced a new product to its growing roster of smart home devices -- the Ring Always Home Cam. Unlike the Amazon company's other security cameras, the Always Home Cam is a flying camera drone that docks when it isn't in use. The Ring Always Home Cam will be available in 2021 for $250. Along with this hardware announcement, Ring says you'll be able to turn on end-to-end encryption in the Ring app's Control Center "later this year" in an effort to improve the security of its devices.

Amazon's naked ambition to become part of everyone's daily lives was on full display this week at its annual hardware event. It announced a slew of new Alexa-powered devices, including a home surveillance drone, a suite of Ring-branded car alarm systems, and miscellany like an adorable little kids' Echo device. But it's clear Amazon's strategy has shifted, even if only for a product cycle, from going wide to going deep. Last year, Amazon baked its virtual assistant into any household device that could accommodate a chip. Its list of new widgets with Alexa seemed a mile long and included a menagerie of home goods, like lamps and microwaves.