As unknown airborne craft traverse the night skies in parts of the United States, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called upon the Department of Homeland Security to deploy 360-degree radar systems capable of detecting drones. "Our local people who have questions about these drones should not have to shake an eight ball to get an answer," Schumer said, holding up a magic eight ball toy in one hand and an image of a drone in another. Schumer wants a 360-degree radar system produced by Dutch company Robin Radar Systems deployed to the New York and New Jersey region. NJ DRONE SIGHTINGS COULD BE A'CLASSIFIED EXERCISE': FORMER CIA OFFICER Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. speaks during a news conference following the weekly Senate Democratic policy luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 10, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images) The website of Robin Radar Systems notes, "Bird, bat, or drone, our 360 radar systems log thousands of observations, scanning every second to track and classify with precision." "They want real answers, and the Robin can supply those answers, and that's why we want them here," Schumer said.

A team of researchers at the University of South Australia has reverse engineered the visual systems of hoverflies to detect drones from nearly four kilometers away. The autonomous systems experts at the university worked alongside others at Flinders University and defense company Midspar Systems.

When the Tokyo Marathon was held on Feb. 26, major security firm Secom Co. lifted a balloon equipped with cameras from a building near the finish line in front of JR Tokyo Station and deployed vehicles equipped with a radar system that can detect drones. The building stands at 35 meters, and the balloon, connected with a wire from the roof, was equipped with two kinds of cameras, one with a zoom lens and another showing thermal images, according to Secom adviser Tsuneo Komatsuzaki. In addition, the firm deployed vehicles equipped with radars to detect drones, as well as cameras worn by security guards and stationary cameras to monitor the entire area. "We identify suspicious individuals and predict how the crowd moves next, helping us to prevent an accident," Komatsuzaki said. Public and private entities are beefing up surveillance to combat terrorism amid the ongoing debate in the Diet over a conspiracy bill to punish people for just planning to conduct serious crimes.

CloudMinds, a Chinese startup developing cloud-intelligence-based services for robotics and other application areas, raised $100 million in a Series A funding round. Although no funder information was provided, seed financing was provided by SoftBank, Foxconn, Walden International and Keytone Ventures. Desktop Metal, a 3D metal printing startup based in Burlington, Mass., is gearing up to take its first product into production and raised $45 million from GV, BMW I Ventures and Lowe's Ventures. The company has now raised a total of $97 million. Other investors include NEA, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Lux Capital, GE Ventures, Saudi Aramco, and Stratasys.