A cascaded online learning flight control system has been developed and enhanced with respect to action smoothness. In this paper, we investigate the convergence performance of the control system, characterized by the increment of a Lyapunov function candidate. The derivation of this metric accounts for discretization errors and state prediction errors introduced by the incremental model. Comparative results are presented through flight control simulations.

Drones with a control system from UAV Navigation are helping emergency services in Spain tackle major fires in the current heatwave. The Spanish Emergency Military Unit (UME) is a dedicated paramilitary force that was established for missions where intervention is required to preserve the safety of Spanish citizens in cases of natural disaster. The UME mainly focuses on supporting firefighters to tackle wildfire emergencies with over 4,000 staff and uses a wide variety of vehicles, tools, and equipment, including UAVs. Among these UAVs is the Spanish A-800 helicopter UAV, which uses the flight controller from Spanish developer UAV Navigation. This is providing timely information to commanders on the ground about the development of a wildfire while at the same time reducing the risk to people on the ground.

At around the age of 12, David Mayman tried to build a helicopter out of fence posts and an old lawn mower. Needless to say, it did not go well. His contraption didn't fly and he was made to fix the fence. "I was brought up in a way that I guess challenged me scientifically... I was always told that nothing's impossible," he says.

Alphabet's Loon, the team responsible for beaming internet down to Earth from stratospheric helium balloons, has achieved a new milestone: its navigation system is no longer run by human-designed software. Instead, the company's internet balloons are steered around the globe by an artificial intelligence -- in particular, a set of algorithms both written and executed by a deep reinforcement learning-based flight control system that is more efficient and adept than the older, human-made one. The system is now managing Loon's fleet of balloons over Kenya, where Loon launched its first commercial internet service in July after testing its fleet in a series of disaster relief initiatives and other test environments for much of the last decade. Similar to how researchers have achieved breakthrough AI advances in teaching computers to play sophisticated video games and helping software learn how to manipulate robotic hands in lifelike ways, reinforcement learning is a technique that allows software to teach itself skills through trial and error. Obviously, such repetition is not possible in the real world when dealing with high-altitude balloons that are costly to operate and even more costly to repair in the event they crash.

Jaynarayan H. Lala (jay.lala@rtx.com) is a Senior Principal Engineering Fellow at Raytheon Technologies, San Diego, CA, USA. Carl E. Landwehr (carl.landwehr@gmail.com) is a Research Scientist at George Washington University and a Visiting Professor at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. John F. Meyer (jfm@umich.edu) is a Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and Engineering at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA. This Viewpoint is derived from material produced as part of the Intelligent Vehicle Dependability and Security (IVDS) project of IFIP Working Group 10.4.

WASHINGTON - Embattled U.S. aviation giant Boeing on Thursday insisted on the "fundamental safety" of its 737 Max aircraft but pledged to take all necessary steps to ensure the jets' airworthiness. The statements came hours after Ethiopian officials said pilots of a doomed plane that crashed last month, leaving 157 people dead, had followed the company's recommendations. The preliminary findings released Thursday by transportation authorities in Addis Ababa put the American aircraft giant under even greater pressure to restore public trust amid mounting signs the company's onboard anti-stall systems were at fault in crashes involving its formerly top-selling 737 Max aircraft -- incidents that left nearly 350 people dead in less than five months. "We remain confident in the fundamental safety of the 737 Max," CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in a statement, adding that impending software fixes would make the aircraft "among the safest airplanes ever to fly." Muilenburg also acknowledged, however, that an "erroneous activation" of Boeing's Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System had occurred. The system is designed to prevent stalls but may have forced the Ethiopian and Indonesian jets into the ground.

SEATTLE/WASHINGTON - Boeing Co. on Wednesday took its most aggressive moves yet to defend its core 737 airliner franchise, saying it had developed software fixes to prevent failures of an automated flight control system that is being scrutinized after two deadly crashes in the past five months. Boeing, in the midst of one its worst crises in years, is under pressure from crash victims' families, airlines, lawmakers in Washington and regulators around the world to prove that the automated flight control systems aboard its 737 Max aircraft are safe, and that pilots have the training required to override the system in an emergency. A Boeing official in Seattle said on Wednesday the timing of the software upgrade was "100 percent independent of the timing of the Ethiopian accident," and the company was taking steps to make the anti-stall system "more robust." There was no need to overhaul Boeing's regulatory relationship with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) now, the company said. "We are going to do everything that we can do to ensure that accidents like these never happen again," Mike Sinnett, vice president for product strategy and future airplane development told reporters.

China is stepping-up its mass surveillance, with a flock of camera-equipped drones designed to look like doves. The surveillance drones are fitted with flapping wings, allowing them to swoop, dive and glide just like the real thing. The robotic spies are almost indistinguishable from real doves and have even been spotted flying in flocks of real birds – helping them to avoid detection from radar. The machines are fitted with all the technology of a top-end spy drone, including a high-definition camera for photographs and video clips, GPS antenna, flight control system, and satellite data link. More than 30 military and government agencies have already deployed the birdlike drones to spy on the population, sources claim.

A Chinese drone maker has revealed a giant quadcopter big enough to fit a passenger will be buzzing through the Dubai skyline in July. Dubbed EHang 184, the drone is described as the world's first'Autonomous Aerial Vehicle' for transporting people. The rider punches in a destination on a touch screen in front of the passenger seat, then the drone would fly there automatically. EHang is building the world's first'Autonomous Aerial Vehicle' for transporting people. The head of Dubai's Roads & Transportation Agency announced at the World Government Summit on Monday that the drone would be flying by July Mattar al-Tayer, the head of Dubai's Roads & Transportation Agency, made the announcement about it flight in Dubai today at the World Government Summit.

It took the technology world by storm when it was announced at CES in Las Vegas. Now a Chinese firm that has build a self flying'passenger drone' says it could soon begin testing in Nevada. The Nevada Institute for Autonomous Systems, a state nonprofit group sponsored by the Governor's Office of Economic Development, will work to help EHang test and develop its system, officials said Monday. EHang and Lung Biotechnology hope to use 1,000 drones to deliver artificial human organs to hospitals around the US. The all-electric vehicle has four arms with a total of eight propellers at the end.