WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Army's heavy common ground robot has reached full-rate production, less than a year after FLIR won the contract to deliver the system, FLIR's vice president in charge of unmanned ground systems told Defense News in an interview this month. "We've progressed with the U.S. Army through all the milestones on the program and are now at full-rate production on the program. We're building systems, we're delivering them, there are systems out at Fort Leonard Wood right now going through training with troops and there are more systems in the pipeline to be delivered all the way through next year and further," Tom Frost said. "I think what's remarkable is how quickly the Army was able to run a program to find a very capable, large [explosive ordnance disposal] robot and then get it out to troops as quickly as they did," he added. The service award FLIR an Other Transaction Authority type contract in November 2019 to provide its Kobra robot to serve as its Common Robotic System-Heavy -- or CRS-H.

For anyone questioning the strides being made in the world of autonomous vehicles, meet FLIR Systems. The California tech company has been developing its thermal sensor camera technology to enhance capabilities of self-driving cars. FLIR has been developing thermal sensor technology that could impact the future of self-driving vehicles. Ride actually had an opportunity to experience FLIR's thermal technology during a demo ride at the 2019 Los Angeles Auto Show. Widely known for its military applications, thermal sensors focus on heat emanating from objects, which makes the technology more efficient in detecting obstacles on the road across various depths of field.

SAN FRANCISCO – The world's largest drone maker has teamed up with the nation's largest thermal camera company to create ready-to-fly drones that can see in the dark. The drone maker is DJI, a China-based company that currently has about 70% of the world drone market. The camera is by FLIR Systems, a Wilsonville, Ore.-based thermal and infrared imaging company. The collaboration will produce drones that can be used in search-and-rescue, firefighting, security and surveillance. At a news conference Thursday, the companies showed video shot from one of the infrared-capable drones in which several people walking in a pitch black field at night looked like brightly lit light bulbs moving across the rough ground.

WILSONVILLE, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--FLIR Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: FLIR) today announced the FLIR Firefly camera family, the industry's first deep learning inference-enabled machine vision camera. The FLIR Firefly, which integrates the Intel Movidius Myriad 2 Vision Processing Unit (VPU), is designed for image analysis professionals using deep learning for more accurate decisions, and faster, easier system development. Traditional rules-based software is ideal for straightforward tasks such as barcode reading or checking a manufactured part against specifications. The FLIR Firefly combines a new, affordable machine vision platform with the power of deep learning to address complex and subjective problems such as recognizing faces or classifying the quality of a solar panel. The FLIR Firefly leverages the Intel Movidius Myriad 2 VPU's advanced capabilities in a compact and low-power camera, ideal for embedded and handheld systems.

After Uber's fatal self-driving crash last month in Tempe, Arizona, most observers had two basic question: Why did the car not see Elaine Herzberg crossing the street and stop before hitting her? And how can we stop this happening again, to someone else? The ride-hailing company has indefinitely suspended its testing program, and is cooperating with the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation of the crash. The NTSB hasn't revealed any findings yet, but the lidar--the laser-shooting sensor that should have spotted Herzberg, even in the dark--is an obvious focus. Maybe it had a blind spot, or lacked the resolution to identify Herzberg as a pedestrian.

Workhorse Group Inc. of Loveland, Ohio, received permission Wednesday from the Federal Aviation Administration to begin testing a delivery drone nicknamed HorseFly that is launched from atop the company's electric trucks. SAN FRANCISCO – The world's largest drone maker has teamed up with the nation's largest thermal camera company to create ready-to-fly drones that can see in the dark. The drone maker is DJI, a China-based company that currently has about 70% of the world drone market. The camera is by FLIR Systems, a Wilsonville, Ore.-based thermal and infrared imaging company. The collaboration will produce drones that can be used in search-and-rescue, firefighting, security and surveillance.

Wildlife poachers who stalk endangered animals in East and South Africa have long operated under the cover of night. But lately not even a moonless sky is safe cover for stalking impalas, elephants, and rhinos. Now, the power of increasingly inexpensive infrared cameras, artificial intelligence, and drones are being used to stop illegal poaching. Rangers are rounding up veteran poachers in the middle of the night, says Colby Loucks, World Wildlife Fund's senior director of wildlife crime technology, who ask, dumbfounded, "How are you finding me?'" This spring, the World Wildlife Fund began deploying thermal sensing infrared technology from the imaging company FLIR to combat poaching in Kenya's Maasai Mara Conservancy park--and at another secret location that's home to rhinos, one of the most imperiled creatures on Earth.

The relationship between the human mind and body is something that has occupied philosophers at least since the father of modern philosophy, René Descartes, bequeathed his notorious "dualism" to his successors. Low-power machine vision company Movidius has teamed up with thermal imaging company FLIR Systems, bringing Artificial Intelligence capabilities to Boson, FLIR's latest thermal-imaging camera core. FLIR will now integrate the Myriad 2 Vision Processing Unit into its thermal core to create the most intelligent thermal imaging solution to date. When artificial intelligence technology intersects with abundant oil and gas seismic data, the outcome could yield a more accurate depiction of what lies beneath the surface, enabling cash-strapped drillers to better target sweet spots and maximize returns.It's all based on algorithms that essentially teach computers how to solve complex problems-in this instance, how to quickly and accurately find subsurface faults that lead to lucrative hydrocarbon discoveries. In previous articles, we've talked about the merits of artificial intelligence and big data and how these technologies can enable a multitude of industries to begin learning how to do things more effectively.