By <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/katelinklassen/" target="_blank">Kate Klassen</a>, Training and Regulatory Specialist It’s not every day I get excited to see an email before 0600. But March 26, was one of those days! Unexpectedly, <a href="https://tc.canada.ca/en" target="_blank">Transport Canada</a> announced the publication of the highly anticipated <a href="https://gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/2025/2025-03-26/html/sor-dors70-eng.html" target="_blank">Canada Gazette II</a> which included new regulations for RPAS Operations Beyond Visual Line-of-Sight and Other Operations.  It’s a hefty publication with lots of cross-references and makes for a bit of a dense read. But after a day of reading, re-reading, digesting and consulting with other colleagues who share my nerdiness about this area, I’m pleased to provide this overview – which we’ll continue to update as new information becomes available.  All-in-all, it’s what we were expecting and hoping to see: Common-sense amendments to existing regulations, noticeable inclusions from feedback on the Canada Gazette I draft, and formalization of the next phase of routine RPAS operations in Canada.  If you were one of the many who took the time to provide comments to Transport Canada following CG1, well done. What we saw today is proof they listen and that those efforts matter. Thank you, TC! Some regulations come into effect on April 1 2025, with others commencing November 4, 2025. This phased approach enables the mechanisms for compliance to be in place prior to requiring compliance with them. In other words, it gives you time to get prepared before it’s required by law. So don’t panic. There are no major changes required before this flying season. You can’t even fly BVLOS under these rules until November.Now, let’s dive in. Below: Low-risk BVLOS flights will be permitted starting November 4, 2025. These operations will require a new Level 1 Complex RPAS Certificate<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1743191322516-Drones-with-hyperspectral-sensors-will-be-used-to-detect-vegetation-health-jpeg-2.webp" style="width:100%px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Large Drone" /> <h3 id="isPasted">Practically Speaking </h3>As mentioned, the <a href="https://gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/2025/2025-03-26/html/sor-dors70-eng.html" target="_blank">document published</a> is complex. Our goal here is explain what it actually means in the real world. So we’re going to break this down into implications for different scenarios. Here’s what the new rules mean for RPAS pilots with:  …A SUB-250 GRAM DRONE<ul><li>As of April 1 2025, flying your microdrone at an <a href="https://gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/2025/2025-03-26/html/sor-dors70-eng.html#:~:text=in%20alphabetical%20order%3A-,advertised%20event,-means%20an%20outdoor" target="_blank">advertised event</a> will require a <a href="https://tc.canada.ca/en/aviation/drone-safety/drone-pilot-licensing/get-permission-special-drone-operations/lower-risk-operations" target="_blank">Special Flight Operation Certificate</a>  </li><li>On April 1, there are more regulations than just the CAR 900.06 ‘don’t be an idiot’ rule that come into force. These specifically spell out steps to follow if you inadvertently enter restricted airspace (CAR 900.07) and include prohibitions around emergency security perimeters (CAR 900.08) </li></ul>…A BASIC RPAS CERTIFICATE<ul><li>Not many changes aside from general tidying of rules to ensure intent aligns with application </li><li>You can allow a non-certified individual to fly under your supervision (CAR 901.54) </li><li>You are qualified as a visual observer for BVLOS operations </li></ul>…AN ADVANCED RPAS CERTIFICATE<ul><li>You get new capabilities as of November 4th – and you don’t have to do any additional testing to take advantage of them! </li><li>You’ll be able to carry out <a href="https://gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/2025/2025-03-26/html/sor-dors70-eng.html#:~:text=de%20contingence)-,extended%20VLOS%20operation,-means%20an%20operation" target="_blank">EVLOS</a> – Extended Visual Line Of Sight operations. This allows you to fly up to 2NM from the pilot, control station and Visual Observer at any time during the flight, provided the pilot and control station are at the take-off and launch location (CAR 901.74) </li><li><a href="https://gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/2025/2025-03-26/html/sor-dors70-eng.html#:~:text=de%20SATP)-,sheltered%20operation,-means%20an%20operation" target="_blank">Sheltered</a> Operation – This allows the drone to be flown around a building or structure without the use of a visual observer, in accordance with certain conditions  </li><li><a href="https://gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/2025/2025-03-26/html/sor-dors70-eng.html#:~:text=au%20sol)-,medium%20remotely%20piloted%20aircraft,-means%20a%20remotely" target="_blank">Medium Drones</a>: You’ll be permitted to fly drones with an operating weight of up to 150kg  </li><li>With an Advanced Certificate already in hand, you meet the prerequisite to begin your Level 1 Complex ground school (more in a moment). If you’ve passed the Advanced Certificate but only hold your Basic because you haven’t yet done your Flight Review, you can pursue the Level 1 Complex</li></ul><img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1743191486395-indro-robotics-5g-drone-1080x675-1.jpg.webp" style="width:100%px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="5G Drone" /><h3 id="isPasted">And Routine, Low-Risk BVLOS?</h3>This was an area the industry had really been pushing for in the new regulations. Specifically, to be able to carry out such flights without the need for a Special Flight Operations Certificate. Here, too, there’s good news:<ul><li>After November 4 2025, you’ll be able to fly low-risk BVLOS if you hold a Level 1 Complex RPAS pilot certification (CAR 901.89). This means BVLOS in uncontrolled airspace and away from people</li><li>Permits the operation of a 250g – 150kg RPAS to conduct a BVLOS operation in uncontrolled airspace and one kilometre or more from a <a href="https://populated%20area/" target="_blank">populated area</a> </li><li>Permits the operation of a 250g – 25kg RPAS to conduct a BVLOS operation in uncontrolled airspace over a <a href="https://gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p2/2025/2025-03-26/html/sor-dors70-eng.html#:~:text=a%C3%A9ronef%20t%C3%A9l%C3%A9pilot%C3%A9)-,sparsely%20populated%20area,-means%20an%20area" target="_blank">sparsely populated area</a> or at one kilometre or more from a <a href="https://populated%20area/" target="_blank">populated area</a> </li><li>In addition to holding a Level 1 Complex pilot certificate, you also need to be an RPAS Operator (RPOC) or an employee/agent of one and comply with the conditions of your certificate (CAR 901.88) </li></ul>    <h3>Interesting Nuggets: </h3><ul><li>RPAS Operating Certificate uses the acronym RPOC rather than ROC (as was drafted previously). This is likely in response to anticipated confusion with the ROC-A or Radio Operator Certificate with Aeronautical qualification issued by ISED</li><li>The new regs contain detailed guidance for visual observers and their requirements in various scenarios</li><li>You can’t “daisy chain” Visual Observers for EVLOS over greater distances. The pilot/control station needs to be at the take-off and landing area and the RPA can’t go further than 2 NM from the pilot, control station AND VO. </li><li>Despite previous suggestions, there is no medical requirement! Just fit-to-fly rules like previously</li></ul> There are also some changes to SFOC requirements. Police operations at events won’t require an SFOC. Department of National Defence operations won’t require them, just adequate coordination. In addition, you’ll be able to drop lifesaving gear without an SFOC, providing you don’t create a hazard. Declarations, maintenance and servicing will take on a more prevalent role (not surprising, given the EVLOS, low-risk BVLOS, and the ease of restrictions on flying heavier drones). It’s also worth noting that the already-useful <a href="https://nrc.canada.ca/en/drone-tool/" target="_blank">Drone Site Selection Tool</a> (DSST) will get upgraded to include new situational data layers for lower-risk BVLOS. These layers will include population density, aerodromes, controlled airspace, and Detect and Avoid requirements. <img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1743191858232-DJI-Dock-Banner-jpg.webp" style="width:100%px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="DJI Dock" /> <h3 id="isPasted">Kate's Take</h3>Canada Gazette II is a massive document. I actually tried to do a word count and the computer simply froze in fear. But, in conjunction with all of the above, here are some final key takeaways:<ul><li>Don’t freak out: There’s plenty of time to process and time to act. There are no major changes happening before November 4th, though you’ll probably want to get your ducks in a row before then if you anticipate your flying season extending beyond that date</li><li>For maybe the first time ever, regulations have outpaced technology. We still (desperately) need technical detect solutions that are reliable, capable and affordable</li><li>We’ve had a few folks reach out about ground school for Level 1 Complex and yes – we absolutely will be offering this. At <a href="https://flyy.thinkific.com/" target="_blank">FLYY</a>, we have things well underway as we were anticipating this announcement.</li></ul>Unlike previous ground schools, there are some instructor requirements that need to be in place before we can even make the declaration to TC that we’re offering TP15530 compliant training. We’re on top of it!We plan to start offering live, TC-compliant courses prior to the end of April. Over a series of weeks, these courses will run every Wednesday at 0930 PDT for 2.5 hours. These sessions will be recorded and made available to all course participants to review or watch at their leisure. We’ll keep you posted as we get closer to launch.You can take advantage of our presale <a href="https://flyy.thinkific.com/courses/L1C-groundschool" target="_blank">here</a> to make sure you’re first in line.

What the new drone regulations mean for you and your drone operations.

Canada's New Drone Regulations

At InDro Robotics, we sell a lot of robots and drones for the purpose of research and development.Those devices range all the way from small and highly affordable out-of-the-box solutions like the <a href="https://store.indrorobotics.com/products/limo-pro-robot" target="_blank">LIMO PRO</a> right through to highly complex builds for some of the largest technology companies in the world. And that image above? A recent build with a manipulator arm (and many other capabilities) for a client.But what makes for an effective R&amp;D robot? We put that question to Luke Corbeth, Head of R&amp;D sales. Broadly speaking, he identifies four pillars of research when it comes to R&amp;D. They are:<ul><li>Control</li><li>Planning</li><li>Perception</li><li>Interaction</li></ul>In fact, Corbeth recently pulled together a graphic explaining these pillars:<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1743190032007-Research-Pillars-LI-1.png.webp" style="width:100%px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Mobile Robot Research Pillars" /><h3 id="isPasted">Crossover and Customization</h3>While the four pillars are all distinct, they’re not mutually exclusive. R&amp;D might include both planning and perception, or any other combination of the above. And the focus of the R&amp;D will obviously inform what sensors – even what locomotion – are ultimately required. Does the robot need autonomy, or will the client be coding their own autonomy stack? Is Simultaneous Localisation And Mapping (SLAM) required? Does the robot need to be able to navigate stairs? For our clients, these questions are all discussed in great detail during an initial discovery call with Corbeth.Sometimes, particularly in lab-based work, an out-of-the-box solution may be all that’s necessary. At <a href="https://www.bu.edu/" target="_blank">Boston University</a>, for example, they have a fleet of LIMOs deployed in the lab for <a href="https://indrorobotics.ca/boston-university-uses-agilex-limo-for-research/" target="_blank">research on multi-agent systems</a> (and other areas). R&amp;D in the field, by contrast, generally calls for a larger and more robust type of robot.“A project in the lab often means you can get away with a smaller platform,” says Corbeth. “And when people are trying to tackle problems in the real world they’re often using larger platforms.”While this is generally true, there’s no question some indoor R&amp;D can require incredibly sophisticated robots. One of our more complex builds, which we affectionately named Rosie, is a dual-manipulator robot designed for the Industry 4.0 setting. In fact, the entire lab itself is built for <a href="https://indrorobotics.ca/industry-4-0-and-indro-the-evolution-continues/" target="_blank">4IR</a> – with a suite of interconnected devices that share data not only within that location itself, but also with other R&amp;D labs. (It’s actually a super interesting project, <a href="https://indrorobotics.ca/dual-manipulator-rosie-the-robot-used-for-industry-4-0-research/" target="_blank">which we explored in detail here</a>.)Regardless, the planned R&amp;D will inform what’s needed – including platform, sensors, etc. That’s where InDro has extensive expertise, not only in integration but in having tested and proven the components themselves. And that saves clients a lot of time and energy.“If every client or research lab had to build a robot from scratch, it would take them a lot longer to get to the point where they need to be,” explains Corbeth. “And that’s largely why we come into the picture. We help jumpstart these projects and get them to their end goal much faster.”Because InDro has years of experience building both custom robots for clients and our own products, we’ve learned – sometimes painfully – which components and platforms offer the best value and reliability. And, in conjunction with <a href="https://indrorobotics.ca/from-napkin-sketch-to-prototype-reality-indro-forge-does-it-all/" target="_blank">InDro Forge</a>, we have the expertise for seamless integration,“We’ve tested a wide range of different hardware and configurations,” he says. “We’ve basically swallowed that pill already so that our clients don’t have to.”Plus, of course, if a customer already has some components they want to use, such as a pricey LiDAR, we can customise a package to exclude that and save the end-user money.Below: Rosie, a dual-manipulator mobile robot we built for pick-and-place in a lab doing Industry 4.0 research<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1743190087854-image-7.png.webp" style="width:100%px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Rosie Dual Manipulator Robot" /> <h3 id="isPasted">Plus, Of Course, Open Source</h3>Everything we sell, when it comes to robots, is Open Source and nearly always with ROS 2 (Robot Operating System 2). This is a significant upgrade from ROS 1, which relied on a Master-Slave architecture. By making that architecture more distributed (eliminating that central ROS Master), ROS 2 reduces single points of failure and is more scalable. It’s also what those in the R&amp;D space generally want, as Open Source allows them to easily pull in pre-existing code suitable to their research.“The main thing with Open Source is not having to start at zero. If everything was Closed Source, you’d have to do everything from scratch,” says Corbeth. “That’s the value of Open Source; you’re building off of the discoveries of your peers, and that dramatically expedites progress for everyone who is Open-Sourcing their projects.”And a final thing worth mentioning? Support. InDro has built a solid reputation for its after-sale support. From warranties and remote troubleshooting through to site visits (on the rare occasions that becomes necessary), we back what we build. We believe in minimising downtime for our clients so they can get on with R&amp;D.And remember those four R&amp;D pillars? It’s a great top-level view. But Corbeth also took the time to drill down within those themes to take a far more detailed look at research areas and use-cases. It’s amazing the number of areas where research is taking place (and there are likely even more that could be added):<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1743190141006-Robotics-Research-Themes-LI-1.png.webp" style="width:100%px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Robotics research themes" /><h3 id="isPasted">InDro's Take</h3>We’re in kind of a unique position when it comes to helping clients requiring robots or drones for Research and Development – because we’re an R&amp;D company ourselves. In addition to finding the best solution for customers (whether it’s out-of-the-box or a complex custom build), we are continuously developing our own products. Some of those products, like <a href="https://indrorobotics.ca/indro-commander-module-streamlines-robotics-rd/" target="_blank">InDro Commander</a> and the forthcoming <a href="https://indrorobotics.ca/the-new-indro-command-module-amazing-power-in-a-tiny-package/" target="_blank">InDro Cortex</a> have been designed for those clients who want to build or modify their own robots with ease. We truly understand the R&amp;D journey – and have something of a special affinity for clients in that space.“From the very outset, InDro Robotics was formed as a Research and Development company, so we truly get it,” says Founder and CEO Philip Reece. “It’s in the interests of the entire robotics industry to see advances in the R&amp;D space – so we’re always happy to assist with solutions from the simple to the complex. It really is what we do.”Want to continue the conversation? Feel free to contact us <a href="https://indrorobotics.ca/connectwithanexpert/" target="_blank">here</a>. He’s always happy to talk robotics with zero pressure.

Robots and drones for the purpose of research and development.

What Makes an Effective Research and Development Robot?

<html><head></head><body>VOSTOK, a local navigation system for autonomous systems, has been unveiled at ITMO. Useful in areas with poor or non-existent GPS signal, the technology can be applied in autonomous vehicles, unmanned aircraft employed on icebreakers along the Northern Sea Route, or drones delivering groceries to the countryside. Compared to its counterparts, the system can gauge its position and speed faster and with more precision: the coordinates are calculated with an accuracy of up to four millimeters and speed – with an accuracy of up to two centimeters per second.When navigating and planning routes, unmanned systems and vehicles rely on GPS technology. Unfortunately, it can often be unreliable in dense urban settings or even be entirely unavailable in closed spaces, such as rooms or tunnels. Even a two-meter difference between the actual and the calculated location can prevent a small drone from landing precisely on a charging base or placing a package in the correct spot.Local navigation can remedy these complications. For instance, the vehicle can use its onboard camera to scan QR codes placed along the landing area. However, this approach, too, has its drawbacks: it requires proper lighting and a great number of QR codes of various sizes that could be detected from different distances. Another local navigation approach involves radio beacons and ultrasound; with its receivers, the drone detects sources of radio waves or sound and thus locates itself. However, radio waves are reflected from walls, while ultrasound is drowned out by the sound of the drone’s blades, which hinders calculation of coordinates.Scientists from ITMO’s <a href="https://en.itmo.ru/en/faculty/105/fakultet_bezopasnosti_informacionnyh_tehnologiy.htm" target="_blank">Faculty of Secure Information Technologies</a> have developed VOSTOK, a local navigation system that helps drones navigate, land, and take off in areas without GPS access. Unlike its analogs, VOSTOK doesn’t require a camera, radar, or lidar to navigate and the system can be assembled from cheap, easily accessible components. Additionally, the new solution is faster and more accurate: coordinates are calculated with an accuracy of up to four millimeters and at several thousand times per second, surpassing real-time kinematic positioning (GPS RTK), while speed is tracked ten times per second with an accuracy of up to two centimeters per second – this is the same level of accuracy as with GPS. Thanks to these parameters, a drone can land on or launch from a moving vehicle even in dense fog.<blockquote>“Our method is based on the classic principles of radio navigation and radio direction finding (RDF) and works not unlike talking to two people standing in one place and communicating with a megaphone. If you want to hear one of them, you have to face their megaphone; and if you want to hear both – you need to put yourself between the two. In VOSTOK, two LEDs placed at an angle to each other play the role of the megaphones. Each module has two pairs of LEDs. They shine on the drone’s light detectors with a signal modulated to different frequencies. The light detectors receive the signal while a special module amplifies and processes it, calculating the drone’s coordinates and sharing the data with the onboard computer. In real time, we can see the drone’s exact location, as well as any changes in its altitude or angle of tilt,” explains&nbsp;Timofey Melnikov, the head of the project and a first-year PhD student at ITMO’s Faculty of Secure Information Technologies.</blockquote><img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1741847269514-1419400+%281%29.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The beacon forming the spacial navigational field with the help of two pairs of LEDs. Two pairs of such modules create a 3D navigational field. Photo by Dmitry Grigoryev / ITMO.NEWSVOSTOK can have various applications. For instance, if used along the Northern Sea Route, the system can ensure automatic landing of unmanned helicopters onto moving icebreakers. It can also automate the routes of driverless trucks in quarries, where dust is a problem for navigation, as well as drone deliveries of groceries to the countryside.Currently, the signal from two pairs of modules covers an 8x8 meter room with ceilings up to 3 meters, but the system can easily be scaled up by increasing the number of modules, their power, and configuration.&nbsp;In the future, the developers are planning to test the system inside a sports hall and configure the system to allow vehicles to position themselves relative to one another, and not just within a fixed space. They hope that their solution will become a part of a robodrone arena, a playground for developers to collect data and polish their drone control algorithms.<blockquote>“Using VOSTOK, we are planning to create a 3D autopilot that will be able to fly a drone as well as a human pilot. Typically, to create such an autopilot, you would need to record several hours of flight, process camera data, and use it to train an AI model. With our system, such a dataset can be collected based on coordinates received by the drone in-flight. Thus, the AI model will be more precise, as we collect more data per second than other systems, while also being significantly cheaper because you don’t need a motion capture system. With a 3D autopilot, it will be possible to reduce the time required for routine tasks, such as monitoring agricultural land or assessing bridges, tunnels, or similar structures, as the drone will require less time to turn or avoid obstacles at a higher speed,” explained&nbsp;Andrey Boyko, the project’s research consultant and a senior researcher at the Faculty of Secure Information Technologies.</blockquote><img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1741847295587-32_1+%281%29.gif" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Calculation system demonstration. Andrey Boyko is holding a mobile module with three photo receivers. Data from the module is passed to the computer. On the screen on the left, you can see received raw signal amplitudes, while on the right the three spiral shapes that correspond to the movement of the three receivers on the mobile module. Video by Dmitry Grigoryev / ITMO.NEWS</body></html>

The mobile model on a quadcopter for in-flight data collection. Photo by Dmitry Grigoryev / ITMO.NEWS

VOSTOK, a local navigation system for autonomous systems, has been unveiled at ITMO. Useful in areas with poor or non-existent GPS signal, the technology can be applied in autonomous vehicles, unmanned aircraft employed on icebreakers along the Northern Sea Route, or drones delivering groceries.

Researchers Develop Analog GPS System for Autonomous Systems

In the future, autonomous drones could be used to shuttle inventory between large warehouses. A drone might fly into a semi-dark structure the size of several football fields, zipping along hundreds of identical aisles before docking at the precise spot where its shipment is needed.Most of today’s drones would likely struggle to complete this task, since drones typically navigate outdoors using GPS, which doesn’t work in indoor environments. For indoor navigation, some drones employ computer vision or lidar, but both techniques are unreliable in dark environments or rooms with plain walls or repetitive features.MIT researchers have introduced a new approach that enables a drone to self-localize, or determine its position, in indoor, dark, and low-visibility environments. Self-localization is a key step in autonomous navigation.The researchers developed a system called <a href="https://www.mit.edu/~fadel/papers/mmDrone-infocom2025.pdf" target="_blank" data-lf-fd-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true">MiFly</a>, in which a drone uses radio frequency (RF) waves, reflected by a single tag placed in its environment, to autonomously self-localize.<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TyySRwsUpbY?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe>Because MiFly enables self-localization with only one small tag, which could be affixed to a wall like a sticker, it would be cheaper and easier to implement than systems that require multiple tags. In addition, since the MiFly tag reflects signals sent by the drone, rather than generating its own signal, it can be operated with very low power.Two off-the-shelf radars mounted on the drone enable it to localize in relation to the tag. Those measurements are fused with data from the drone’s onboard computer, which enables it to estimate its trajectory.The researchers conducted hundreds of flight experiments with real drones in indoor environments, and found that MiFly consistently localized the drone to within fewer than 7 centimeters.“As our understanding of perception and computing improves, we often forget about signals that are beyond the visible spectrum. Here, we’ve looked beyond GPS and computer vision to millimeter waves, and by doing so, we’ve opened up new capabilities for drones in indoor environments that were not possible before,” says Fadel Adib, associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, director of the Signal Kinetics group in the MIT Media Lab, and senior author of a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.mit.edu/~fadel/papers/mmDrone-infocom2025.pdf" target="_blank" data-lf-fd-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true">paper on MiFly</a>.Adib is joined on the paper by co-lead authors and research assistants Maisy Lam and Laura Dodds; Aline Eid, a former postdoc who is now an assistant professor at the University of Michigan; and Jimmy Hester, CTO and co-founder of Atheraxon, Inc. The research will be presented at the IEEE Conference on Computer Communications.<h2>Backscattered signals</h2>To enable drones to self-localize within dark, indoor environments, the researchers decided to utilize millimeter wave signals. Millimeter waves, which are commonly used in modern radars and 5G communication systems, work in the dark and can travel through everyday materials like cardboard, plastic, and interior walls.They set out to create a system that could work with just one tag, so it would be cheaper and easier to implement in commercial environments. To ensure the device remained low power, they designed a backscatter tag that reflects millimeter wave signals sent by a drone’s onboard radar. The drone uses those reflections to self-localize.But the drone’s radar would receive signals reflected from all over the environment, not just the tag. The researchers surmounted this challenge by employing a technique called modulation. They configured the tag to add a small frequency to the signal it scatters back to the drone.“Now, the reflections from the surrounding environment come back at one frequency, but the reflections from the tag come back at a different frequency. This allows us to separate the responses and just look at the response from the tag,” Dodds says.However, with just one tag and one radar, the researchers could only calculate distance measurements. They needed multiple signals to compute the drone’s location.Rather than using more tags, they added a second radar to the drone, mounting one horizontally and one vertically. The horizontal radar has a horizontal polarization, which means it sends signals horizontally, while the vertical radar would have a vertical polarization.They incorporated polarization into the tag’s antennas so it could isolate the separate signals sent by each radar.“Polarized sunglasses receive a certain polarization of light and block out other polarizations. We applied the same concept to millimeter waves,” Lam explains.In addition, they applied different modulation frequencies to the vertical and horizontal signals, further reducing interference.<h2>Precise location estimation</h2>This dual-polarization and dual-modulation architecture gives the drone’s spatial location. But drones also move at an angle and rotate, so to enable a drone to navigate, it must estimate its position in space with respect to six degrees of freedom — with trajectory data including pitch, yaw, and roll in addition to the usual forward/backward, left/right, and up/down.“The drone rotation adds a lot of ambiguity to the millimeter wave estimates. This is a big problem because drones rotate quite a bit as they are flying,” Dodds says.They overcame these challenges by utilizing the drone’s onboard inertial measurement unit, a sensor that measures acceleration as well as changes in altitude and attitude. By fusing this information with the millimeter wave measurements reflected by the tag, they enable MiFly to estimate the full six-degree-of-freedom pose of the drone in only a few milliseconds.They tested a MiFly-equipped drone in several indoor environments, including their lab, the flight space at MIT, and the dim tunnels beneath the campus buildings. The system achieved high accuracy consistently across all environments, localizing the drone to within 7 centimeters in many experiments.In addition, the system was nearly as accurate in situations where the tag was blocked from the drone’s view. They achieved reliable localization estimates up to 6 meters from the tag.That distance could be extended in the future with the use of additional hardware, such as high-power amplifiers, or by improving the radar and antenna design. The researchers also plan to conduct further research by incorporating MiFly into an autonomous navigation system. This could enable a drone to decide where to fly and execute a flight path using millimeter wave technology.“The infrastructure and localization algorithms we build up for this work are a strong foundation to go on and make them more robust to enable diverse commercial applications,” Lam says.

MIT researchers developed a system that enables a drone to determine its position in 6D space in indoor, dark, or low-visibility environments using radio frequency waves. The drone has 2 radars; the horizontal radar has a horizontal polarization, which means it sends signals horizontally, while the vertical radar would have a vertical polarization. Image: Figures courtesy the researchers; edited by MIT News

A new low-power system using radio frequency waves takes a major step toward autonomous, indoor drone navigation.

Engineers enable a drone to determine its position in the dark and indoors

Drone shows are an increasingly popular form of large-scale light display. These shows incorporate hundreds to thousands of airborne bots, each programmed to fly in paths that together form intricate shapes and patterns across the sky. When they go as planned, drone shows can be spectacular. But when one or more drones malfunction, as has happened recently in Florida, New York, and elsewhere, they can be a serious hazard to spectators on the ground.Drone show accidents highlight the challenges of maintaining safety in what engineers call “multiagent systems” — systems of multiple coordinated, collaborative, and computer-programmed agents, such as robots, drones, and self-driving cars.Now, a team of MIT engineers has developed a training method for multiagent systems that can guarantee&nbsp;their safe operation in crowded environments. The researchers found that once the method is used to train a small number of agents, the safety margins and controls learned by those agents can automatically scale to any larger number of agents, in a way that ensures the safety of the system as a whole.In real-world demonstrations, the team trained a small number of palm-sized drones to safely carry out different objectives, from simultaneously switching positions midflight to landing on designated moving vehicles on the ground. In simulations, the researchers showed that the same programs, trained on a few drones, could be copied and scaled up to thousands of drones, enabling a large system of agents to safely accomplish the same tasks.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1738629986915-ezgif-64b5c2f01d348.gif" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">A team of Crazyflie drones use MIT algorithm to safely switch positions while avoiding obstacles. Image: Courtesy of the researchers“This could be a standard for any application that requires a team of agents, such as warehouse robots, search-and-rescue drones, and self-driving cars,” says Chuchu Fan, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. “This provides a shield, or safety filter, saying each agent can continue with their mission, and we’ll tell you how to be safe.”Fan and her colleagues report on their new method in a study&nbsp;<a href="https://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/158072" target="_blank">appearing this month in the journal&nbsp;IEEE Transactions on Robotics</a>. The study’s co-authors are MIT graduate students Songyuan Zhang and Oswin So as well as former MIT postdoc Kunal Garg, who is now an assistant professor at Arizona State University.<h2>Mall margins</h2>When engineers design for safety in any multiagent system, they typically have to consider the potential paths of every single agent with respect to every other agent in the system. This pair-wise path-planning is a time-consuming and computationally expensive process. And even then, safety is not guaranteed.“In a drone show, each drone is given a specific trajectory — a set of waypoints and a set of times — and then they essentially close their eyes and follow the plan,” says Zhang, the study’s lead author. “Since they only know where they have to be and at what time, if there are unexpected things that happen, they don’t know how to adapt.”The MIT team looked instead to develop a method to train a small number of agents to maneuver safely, in a way that could efficiently scale to any number of agents in the system. And, rather than plan specific paths for individual agents, the method would enable agents to continually map their safety margins, or boundaries beyond which they might be unsafe. An agent could then take any number of paths to accomplish its task, as long as it stays within its safety margins.In some sense, the team says the method is similar to how humans intuitively navigate their surroundings.“Say you’re in a really crowded shopping mall,” So explains. “You don’t care about anyone beyond the people who are in your immediate neighborhood, like the 5 meters surrounding you, in terms of getting around safely and not bumping into anyone. Our work takes a similar local approach.”<h2>Safety barrier</h2>In their new study, the team presents their method, GCBF+, which stands for “Graph Control Barrier Function.” A barrier function is a mathematical term used in robotics that calculates a sort of safety barrier, or a boundary beyond which an agent has a high probability of being unsafe. For any given agent, this safety zone can change moment to moment, as the agent moves among other agents that are themselves moving within the system.When designers calculate barrier functions for any one agent in a multiagent system, they typically have to take into account the potential paths and interactions with every other agent in the system. Instead, the MIT team’s method calculates the safety zones of just a handful of agents, in a way that is accurate enough to represent the dynamics of many more agents in the system.“Then we can sort of copy-paste this barrier function for every single agent, and then suddenly we have a graph of safety zones that works for any number of agents in the system,” So says.To calculate an agent’s barrier function, the team’s method first takes into account an agent’s “sensing radius,” or how much of the surroundings an agent can observe, depending on its sensor capabilities. Just as in the shopping mall analogy, the researchers assume that the agent only cares about the agents that are within its sensing radius, in terms of keeping safe and avoiding collisions with those agents.Then, using computer models that capture an agent’s particular mechanical capabilities and limits, the team simulates a “controller,” or a set of instructions for how the agent and a handful of similar agents should move around. They then run simulations of multiple agents moving along certain trajectories, and record whether and how they collide or otherwise interact.“Once we have these trajectories, we can compute some laws that we want to minimize, like say, how many safety violations we have in the current controller,” Zhang says. “Then we update the controller to be safer.”In this way, a controller can be programmed into actual agents, which would enable them to continually map their safety zone based on any other agents they can sense in their immediate surroundings, and then move within that safety zone to accomplish their task.“Our controller is reactive,” Fan says. “We don’t preplan a path beforehand. Our controller is constantly taking in information about where an agent is going, what is its velocity, how fast other drones are going. It’s using all this information to come up with a plan on the fly and it’s replanning every time. So, if the situation changes, it’s always able to adapt to stay safe.”The team demonstrated GCBF+ on a system of eight Crazyflies — lightweight, palm-sized quadrotor drones that they tasked with flying and switching positions in midair. If the drones were to do so by taking the straightest path, they would surely collide. But after training with the team’s method, the drones were able to make real-time adjustments to maneuver around each other, keeping within their respective safety zones, to successfully switch positions on the fly.In similar fashion, the team tasked the drones with flying around, then landing on specific Turtlebots — wheeled robots with shell-like tops. The Turtlebots drove continuously around in a large circle, and the Crazyflies were able to avoid colliding with each other as they made their landings.“Using our framework, we only need to give the drones their destinations instead of the whole collision-free trajectory, and the drones can figure out how to arrive at their destinations without collision themselves,” says Fan, who envisions the method could be applied to any multiagent system to guarantee its safety, including collision avoidance systems in drone shows, warehouse robots, autonomous driving vehicles, and drone delivery systems.This work was partly supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation, MIT Lincoln Laboratory under the Safety in Aerobatic Flight Regimes (SAFR) program, and the Defence Science and Technology Agency of Singapore.

MIT engineers developed a training method for multiagent systems, such as large numbers of drones, that can guarantee their safe operation in crowded environments. Image: Courtesy of the researchers

New research could improve the safety of drone shows, warehouse robots, and self-driving cars.

Engineers help multirobot systems stay in the safety zone

With a more efficient method for artificial pollination, farmers in the future could grow fruits and vegetables inside multilevel warehouses, boosting yields while mitigating some of agriculture’s harmful impacts on the environment.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1737504356692-MIT-MicroAcrobatics-02-press.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The new design also has enough free space that the robot could carry tiny batteries or sensors, which could enable it to fly on its own outside the lab. Credit: Courtesy of the researchersTo help make this idea a reality, MIT researchers are developing robotic insects that could someday swarm out of mechanical hives to rapidly perform precise pollination. However, even the best bug-sized robots are no match for natural pollinators like bees when it comes to endurance, speed, and maneuverability.Now, inspired by the anatomy of these natural pollinators, the researchers have overhauled their design to produce tiny, aerial robots that are far more agile and durable than prior versions.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1737504484281-ezgif-6-d631ed678d.gif" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The new design of these tiny, aerial robots is far more robust and durable than prior versions. Here, the robot is subjected to a collision test. Credit: Courtesy of the researchersThe new bots can hover for about 1,000 seconds, which is more than 100 times longer than previously demonstrated. The robotic insect, which weighs less than a paperclip, can fly significantly faster than similar bots while completing acrobatic maneuvers like double aerial flips.The revamped robot is designed to boost flight precision and agility while minimizing the mechanical stress on its artificial wing flexures, which enables faster maneuvers, increased endurance, and a longer lifespan.The new design also has enough free space that the robot could carry tiny batteries or sensors, which could enable it to fly on its own outside the lab.“The amount of flight we demonstrated in this paper is probably longer than the entire amount of flight our field has been able to accumulate with these robotic insects. With the improved lifespan and precision of this robot, we are getting closer to some very exciting applications, like assisted pollination,” says Kevin Chen, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), head of the Soft and Micro Robotics Laboratory within the Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE), and the senior author of an open-access paper on the new design.Chen is joined on the paper by co-lead authors Suhan Kim and Yi-Hsuan Hsiao, who are EECS graduate students; as well as EECS graduate student Zhijian Ren and summer visiting student Jiashu Huang. The research <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.adp4256" target="_blank">appears today in Science Robotics</a>.<h2>Boosting performance</h2><a href="https://news.mit.edu/2021/researchers-introduce-new-generation-tiny-agile-drones-0302" target="_blank">Prior versions of the robotic insect</a> were composed of four identical units, each with two wings, combined into a rectangular device about the size of a microcassette.“But there is no insect that has eight wings. In our old design, the performance of each individual unit was always better than the assembled robot,” Chen says.This performance drop was partly caused by the arrangement of the wings, which would blow air into each other when flapping, reducing the lift forces they could generate.The new design chops the robot in half. Each of the four identical units now has one flapping wing pointing away from the robot’s center, stabilizing the wings and boosting their lift forces. With half as many wings, this design also frees up space so the robot could carry electronics.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1737504653991-ezgif-6-8fcc7c7192.gif" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The robotic insect, weighing less than a paperclip, can fly significantly faster than similar bots while completing acrobatic maneuvers like aerial flips. Credit: Courtesy of the researchersIn addition, the researchers created more complex transmissions that connect the wings to the actuators, or artificial muscles, that flap them. These durable transmissions, which required the design of longer wing hinges, reduce the mechanical strain that limited the endurance of past versions.“Compared to the old robot, we can now generate control torque three times larger than before, which is why we can do very sophisticated and very accurate path-finding flights,” Chen says.Yet even with these design innovations, there is still a gap between the best robotic insects and the real thing. For instance, a bee has only two wings, yet it can perform rapid and highly controlled motions.“The wings of bees are finely controlled by a very sophisticated set of muscles. That level of fine-tuning is something that truly intrigues us, but we have not yet been able to replicate,” he says.<h2>Less strain, more force</h2>The motion of the robot’s wings is driven by artificial muscles. These tiny, soft actuators are made from layers of elastomer sandwiched between two very thin carbon nanotube electrodes and then rolled into a squishy cylinder. The actuators rapidly compress and elongate, generating mechanical force that flaps the wings.In previous designs, when the actuator’s movements reach the extremely high frequencies needed for flight, the devices often start buckling. That reduces the power and efficiency of the robot. The new transmissions inhibit this bending-buckling motion, which reduces the strain on the artificial muscles and enables them to apply more force to flap the wings.Another new design involves a long wing hinge that reduces torsional stress experienced during the flapping-wing motion. Fabricating the hinge, which is about 2 centimeters long but just 200 microns in diameter, was among their greatest challenges.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1737504697234-MIT-MicroAcrobatics-04-press.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">“At the end of the day, we’ve shown flight that is 100 times longer than anyone else in the field has been able to do, so this is an extremely exciting result,” Kevin Chen says. Credit: Courtesy of the researchers“If you have even a tiny alignment issue during the fabrication process, the wing hinge will be slanted instead of rectangular, which affects the wing kinematics,” Chen says.After many attempts, the researchers perfected a multistep laser-cutting process that enabled them to precisely fabricate each wing hinge.With all four units in place, the new robotic insect can hover for more than 1,000 seconds, which equates to almost 17 minutes, without showing any degradation of flight precision.“When my student Nemo was performing that flight, he said it was the slowest 1,000 seconds he had spent in his entire life. The experiment was extremely nerve-racking,” Chen says.The new robot also reached an average speed of 35 centimeters per second, the fastest flight researchers have reported, while performing body rolls and double flips. It can even precisely track a trajectory that spells M-I-T.“At the end of the day, we’ve shown flight that is 100 times longer than anyone else in the field has been able to do, so this is an extremely exciting result,” he says.From here, Chen and his students want to see how far they can push this new design, with the goal of achieving flight for longer than 10,000 seconds.They also want to improve the precision of the robots so they could land and take off from the center of a flower. In the long run, the researchers hope to install tiny batteries and sensors onto the aerial robots so they could fly and navigate outside the lab.“This new robot platform is a major result from our group and leads to many exciting directions. For example, incorporating sensors, batteries, and computing capabilities on this robot will be a central focus in the next three to five years,” Chen says.

Weighing less than a paperclip, the robotic insect can fly significantly faster than similar bots while completing acrobatic maneuvers like double aerial flips. It can even precisely track a trajectory that spells M-I-T. Credit: Courtesy of the researchers

With a new design, the bug-sized bot was able to fly 100 times longer than prior versions.

This fast and agile robotic insect could someday aid in mechanical pollination

RAVEN (Robotic Avian-inspired Vehicle for multiple ENvironments) © Alain Herzog CC BY SA

EPFL researchers have built a drone that can walk, hop, and jump into flight with the aid of birdlike legs, greatly expanding the range of potential environments accessible to unmanned aerial vehicles.

Bird-inspired drone can jump for take-off

Some 80% of weather radiosondes – remote measurement instruments containing plastic, batteries and electronic parts – end up lost in nature after one flight. But a startup created by an EPFL master’s student is set to change that with a new, ultra-lightweight “glidersonde” that can automatically return to where it was launched.<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/U_GkseyejII?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe>It’s standard practice in many countries to launch radiosondes carried by weather balloons twice a day. These instruments climb for two hours towards the stratosphere, collecting data on wind speed and direction, temperature, pressure and humidity at various altitudes – critical information for generating weather forecasts and improving climate models. The weather balloons are typically inflated with hydrogen, and when they reach an altitude of around 35,000 meters, the low atmospheric pressure causes them to burst and drop the radiosondes. As they fall to the ground, the instruments are pushed by wind currents and sometimes land in water or very remote areas. Of the approximately 600,000 radiosondes launched around the world each year, some 80% are never found. Yohan Hadji, an EPFL master’s student, has developed a solution to this problem – a new type of radiosonde that can automatically fly back to a predetermined spot. His device was tested by the Swiss Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss) this summer, and weather offices in other countries are taking an interest, too. “France, the UK, Germany, Croatia and Canada also want to try it out,” says Hadji, who just created a startup called R2Home.<h2>Algorithms adjust for wind measurements taken during the ascent</h2>Hadji’s radiosondes are attached to small foam gliders equipped with a guidance system. The entire unit weighs a mere 250 grams and is lifted into the air by a weather ballon. “My device consists of a standard radiosonde inside a wing-shaped box,” he says. “It’s small and light enough to classify as a conventional radiosonde under the FOCA [Swiss Federal Office of Civil Aviation] classification.” The guidance system uses an algorithm to calculate the optimal trajectory for returning to the point where the radiosonde was launched or to another site programmed into its GPS. Developing it was a real technical challenge given the glider’s ultra-lightweight material. “I had to create an algorithm that could factor in wind measurements taken during the ascent,” says Hadji. “At some altitudes, the wind can reach speeds of over 200 km/h!”Hadji presented his invention to meteorologists and to experts at the FOCA, who were interested in its feasibility and reliability. The FOCA gave him an opportunity to run his first test flights under real-world conditions. In all, Hadji’s glidersondes have been tested approximately 60 times in Switzerland, including around a dozen times at the MeteoSwiss weather station in Payerne this summer. During each test flight, the glider successfully returned to within a 15-meter radius of the desired location. “The initial results are very promising,” says Yves-Alain Roulet, head of the Measurement Technology Division at MeteoSwiss. “Now we need to test the system’s performance under more complicated weather conditions.”Switzerland leads the pack when it comes to recovering lost radiosondes: approximately 75% of them are found, compared with a global average of 20%. “That’s because we have a highly active community of radiosonde chasers,” says Hadji. Yet less than 1% of the recovered radiosondes are actually used again, since the temperature and humidity sensors tend to get damaged after spending so much time exposed to the elements. “My device can help make sure that doesn’t happen, so that the radiosondes can be used for numerous flights,” says Hadji.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1731976749545-6af30311.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Hadji’s radiosonde may be able to return to where it was launched, but is it effective at its primary function – taking accurate measurements? MeteoSwiss ran comparative tests to find out. “Our initial tests found no significant difference between the radiosonde embedded in the R2Home glider and a standard radiosonde,” says Roulet. “But further testing is needed here too, including in weather conditions representative of all four seasons.” These encouraging results paved the way for Hadji to attend the World Meteorological Organization’s Technical Conference on Meteorological and Environmental Instruments and Methods of Observation (TECO) this year, held in Vienna, Austria, in late September.Hadji, now 20, began working on his invention in 2019 while a high-school student in Grenoble. Since then he’s been advancing through the various stages of product development at a rapid pace – despite encountering some headwinds along the way. “For instance, until 2023 my idea was to attach the radiosonde to a parachute rather than a foam glider,” he says. “But that design would have been problematic at very high altitudes.” He may further develop that approach sometime in the future too, because he believes “it could be an attractive option for heavier and more expensive payloads.”<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1731976766208-a3551373.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><h2 id="isPasted">Running tests with foreign weather offices</h2>Since 2022, Hadji has benefited from a number of local support programs for entrepreneurs: EPFL’s Blaze program, the Foundation for Innovation and Technology, the Sylvie Rusconi Foundation and, more recently, Venture Kick. His startup was recently acquired by Meteomatics, a Swiss company that’s the world’s leading supplier of weather information. For now, Hadji is focused on preparing for the tests with foreign weather offices. The many radiosonde chasers around the world could soon find themselves coming home empty-handed.<hr>References<a href="https://www.meteoswiss.admin.ch/about-us/meteoswiss-blog.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MétéoSuisse on R2Home</a>

Some 80% of weather radiosondes – remote measurement instruments containing plastic, batteries and electronic parts – end up lost in nature after one flight. An EPFL student is set to change that with a new, ultra-lightweight “glidersonde” that can automatically return to where it was launched.

New type of weather radiosonde can find its way back

In this episode, we explore how the mechanics of bird wings are inspiring new approaches to prevent airplanes from stalling and learn how bio-mimetic designs from nature are paving the way for innovations in aviation, enhancing stability and safety for future flights.

Podcast: Scared of Flying Boeing? Nature Might Be The Solution

<a href="https://www.projectceti.org/" target="_blank">Project CETI</a> (Cetacean Translation Initiative) aims to collect millions to billions of high-quality, highly contextualized vocalizations in order to understand how sperm whales communicate. But finding the whales and knowing where they will surface to capture the data is challenging — making it difficult to attach listening devices and collect visual information.&nbsp;Today, a Project CETI research team led by&nbsp;<a href="https://gil.seas.harvard.edu/" target="_blank">Stephanie Gil</a>, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), have proposed a new reinforcement learning framework with autonomous drones to find sperm whales and predict where they will surface.&nbsp;The research is published in&nbsp;<a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.adn7299" target="_blank">Science Robotics.&nbsp;</a>This new study uses various sensing devices, such as Project CETI aerial drones with very high frequency (VHF) signal sensing capability that leverage signal phase along with the drone’s motion to emulate an ‘antenna array in air’ for estimating directionality of received pings from CETI’s on-whale tags. It demonstrates that it’s possible to predict when and where a whale may surface by using these various sensor data as well as predictive models of sperm whales dive behavior. With that information, Project CETI can now design algorithms for the most efficient route for a drone to rendezvous—or encounter—a whale at the surface. This also opens up possible conservation applications to help ships avoid striking whales while at the surface.Presenting the Autonomous Vehicles for whAle Tracking And Rendezvous by remote Sensing, or AVATARS framework, this study jointly develops two interrelated components of autonomy and sensing: autonomy, which determines the positioning commands of the autonomous robots to maximize visual whale encounters; and sensing, which measures the Angle-of-Arrival (AOA) from whale tags to inform the decision-making process. Measurements from our autonomous drone to surfaced tags, acoustic AOA from existing underwater sensors, and whale motion models from previous biological studies of sperm whales are provided as inputs to the AVATARS autonomous decision-making algorithm, which in turn aims to minimize missed rendezvous opportunities with whales.&nbsp;AVATARS is the first co-development of VHF sensing and reinforcement learning decision-making for maximizing rendezvous of robots and whales at sea. A well-known application of time-critical rendezvous is used with rideshare apps, which uses real-time sensing to note the dynamic paths and positions of drivers and potential riders. When a rider requests a ride, it can assign a driver to rendezvous with the rider as efficiently and as timely as possible. Project CETI’s case is similar in that they are real-time tracking the whale, with the goal of coordinating the drone’s rendezvous to meet the whale at the surface.&nbsp;This research advances Project CETI's goal of obtaining millions to billions of high-quality, highly contextualized whale vocalizations. The addition of diverse types of data will improve location estimates and routing algorithms—helping Project CETI meet that goal more efficiently.“I’m excited to contribute to this breakthrough for Project CETI. By leveraging autonomous systems and advanced sensor integration, we’re able to solve key challenges in tracking and studying whales in their natural habitats. This is not only a technological advancement, but also a critical step in helping us understand the complex communications and behaviors of these creatures,” said Gil. “This research is a major milestone for Project CETI’s mission. We can now significantly enhance our ability to gather high-quality and large-scale dataset on whale vocalizations and the associated behavioral context, putting us one step closer to better listening to and translating what sperm whales are saying,” said David Gruber, Founder and Lead of Project CETI.“'This research was an amazing opportunity to test our systems and algorithms in a challenging marine environment. This interdisciplinary work, that combines wireless sensing, artificial intelligence and marine biology, is a prime example of how robotics can be part of the solution for further deciphering the social behavior of sperm whales,” said&nbsp;Ninad Jadhav, Harvard University PhD candidate and first author on the paper.“This project provides an excellent opportunity to test our algorithms in the field, where robotics and artificial intelligence can enrich data collection and expedite research for broader science in language processing and marine biology, ultimately protecting the health and habitat of sperm whales,” said Sushmita Bhattacharya, a postdoctoral researcher in Gil's REACT Lab at SEAS.

Project CETI and Harvard have established a new reinforcement learning framework for rendezvous with whales using autonomous robots, combining sensing from diverse sensor streams

New methods for whale tracking and rendezvous using autonomous robots

If you’re an RPAS pilot in Canada, you’re likely using NAV Drone (and if you’re not, you should be).The mobile and web app from NAV Canada is the app to ensure your mission is approved. As the NAV CANADA <a href="https://www.navcanada.ca/en/flight-planning/drone-flight-planning/nav-drone-support.aspx" target="_blank">website explains</a>: “NAV Drone is the only app that lets you safely and legally request permission to fly a drone in airspace controlled by NAV CANADA. From the web or a mobile device, professional and recreational drone pilots and operators can easily see where they can and cannot fly with interactive maps and, when needed, submit requests to fly in controlled airspace.”It’s a snap to use. The app lets you know where you can fly – and where you can’t – and could save you from both dangerous operations and potential fines. The app also notifies you if there are other drone operations underway in the vicinity of your operations, which is really useful for situational awareness.Last week, at the <a href="https://www.aerialevolution.ca/" target="_blank">Aerial Evolution Association of Canada</a>‘s annual conference and exhibition, NAV CANADA offered an update on usage stats for the app – and revealed there are more enhancements on the horizon.Below: Screengrabs from the NAV Drone mobile app, followed by a NAV CANADA explainer video<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzMxMzQ5NzgyOTAzLUlNR182MTM0LXNjYWxlZC5qcGcud2VicCIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="NAV Drone App"><img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzMxMzQ5ODA0MTg3LUlNR182MTM1LmpwZy53ZWJwIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="NAV Drone App"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FZR6ii6PX8s?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;enablejsapi=1&amp;origin=https://www.wevolver.com" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</iframe><h3 id="isPasted">By The Numbers</h3>NAV Drone has been operational now for several years. There was a lot of buzz in the industry when it was first released, but what has that translated to in terms of actual use? Here, NAV CANADA offered some numbers – which indicate the app has been widely embraced across the sector.In 2024, NAV Drone had processed 53,000 permission requests as of early November, a growth rate of 26 per cent over the previous year. By automating this process – and avoiding manual approval (30 minutes per request at $130/hour), NAV CANADA says the app has saved more than $6.5M in Air Traffic Service (ATS) costs. What’s more, users seem to really like the app; it has excellent ratings on the App Store and Google Play.And, of course, NAV Drone has greatly enhanced safety (and provided a huge amount of data) for NAV CANADA, the country’s privately run non-profit corporation that operates our civil air navigation system.“Safety is the key reason it’s there. It’s all about keeping the airspace safe,” explained Alan Chapman, NAV CANADA’s director of RPAS Traffic Management.As we head toward increased RPAS traffic, including regulations that will permit low-risk Beyond Visual Line of Sight flights in 2025, NAV CANADA has bold plans to enhance the offerings of the NAV Drone app. And that’s good news for both RPAS operators and also those operating traditional crewed aviation.“Some big changes are coming to NAV Drone in 2025,” said&nbsp;Stewart Paveling,&nbsp;Product Family Leader, RPAS Traffic Management NAV CANADA during a panel discussion.That includes a number of additional features to the app, including greater capabilities with RPAS Traffic Management (RTM), low-risk BVLOS and EVLOS flight approvals – Including the ability to record flights undertaken with a Special Flight Operations Certificate through the app.These are big changes, indicative of recognition this industry will continue to grow as well as NAV CANADA’s desire to safely help the industry expand as we head, ultimately, into the era of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM).“NAV CANADA’s strategic direction positions us to take a leadership role to effect change across the air navigation system,” read a slide during its presentation. “To unlock not just our own potential, but also the potential of the industry to be more effective, more efficient, and more environmentally sustainable going forward.”To further emphasise that, the slide continued – including the bold in the following paragraph:“RTM facilitates the safe integration of RPAS, in a highly automated way, enabling growth of operations and expansion of use cases to capture the potential aviation and societal benefits.”That was followed by a high-level road map indicating priorities for the coming years.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzMxMzUwMjgxNjYxLU5BVi1DYW5hZGEtTkFWLURyb25lLXNjYWxlZC5qcGcud2VicCIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="RTM Phase 1 Progress Report"><img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzMxMzUwMzAzNDYyLU5BVi1DQU5BREEtUlRNLVBoYXNlLVR3by1zY2FsZWQuanBnLndlYnAiLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="RTM Phase 2"><h3 id="isPasted">Next Steps</h3>Following the slides, there was a panel discussion about future plans, along with other suggestions on ways to improve the existing app. In addition to Alan Chapman and Stewart Aveling, the panel included Joanne Moon (Manager of RPAS Operations, NAV CANADA), Anne Sophie Ripple-Bouvier (Flight Safety Officer, Aerial Evolution Association of Canada) and Brian Fentiman (Project Manager, InDro Robotics/CEO BlueForce UAV Consulting, Inc.).As the slide above notes, NAV Drone will keep pace with Transport Canada regulations – including the much anticipated changes that will allow low-risk BVLOS flights in 2025. The emphasis here is on pushing the envelope with a highly automated RTM system “to support safe, efficient and scalable BVLOS operations.”For years, the sector has been eager to enable BVLOS flight without the need for a time-consuming Special Flight Operations Certificate. This obviously opens the door to a broad range of use-case scenarios, ranging from monitoring long-range assets like railroad tracks and pipelines through to large-scale mapping and other data acquisition.For those operations that will still require an SFOC, NAV Canada revealed that the capability will be in place to allow flights to be recorded in the app. Though that will simplify the process of recording for operators, NAV Canada will not approve SFOCs; these applications will be reviewed by Transport Canada, which is responsible for approving SFOCs.Later this year, Paveling added, there will be new map layers for restricted airspace. NAV Canada is also planing to improve the flight clipboard that comes with the system, redesigning it and making it easier to read. There will also be changes to the web-based support site, including a move away from PDF manuals “with better content that’s easier to consume and search.”Outside of the app, NAV Canada said it is working to beef up its ability to detect drone incursions.“We see reports of RPAS in control zones on approach paths,” said Joanne Moon of NAV Canada, adding that the corporation also obtains data from drone detection systems in place at airports. (InDro Robotics is the chief technology partner with the <a href="https://indrorobotics.ca/drone-pilot-fined-3021-for-drone-incursion-at-yow/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">drone detection system at YOW</a>. That data is shared with NAV CANADA and Transport Canada, among others.)NAV Canada, she said, is looking at strengthening its capabilities and enforcement in this arena.“(We’ve)&nbsp;Been working with industry partners, looking at things like drone detection, information sharing, emergency response, collaboratiion with airport authorities (as well as) our own air traffic services unit.”&nbsp;<h3>Other Improvements&nbsp;</h3>There was also an opportunity during the panel to discuss other improvements that could be made to the NAV Drone app. And here, InDro’s Brian Fentiman offered some suggestions.“One of the biggest things I find, more as a trainer than an operator, is the weak spot. The weak spot seems to be emergency procedures…With a flyaway,&nbsp;I would much prefer that there’s a single number. I’d like to see that phone number up front so it’s easy for people to find. In&nbsp;controlled airspace, you do get a phone number but it’s buried in a flight report…Sometimes you’ll get that phone number and the tower is not even open during those hours.”It’s an important point – and one NAV Canada says it’s about to address.“We are actively working on that right now…for an upcoming change to NAV Drone,” said Moon.The other point Fentiman raised was with regards to conspicuity – meaning the electronic visibility of a drone within a broader RTM system.“To enable BVLOS, we need conspicuity…whether it’s from the drone to other (RPAS) traffic or to commercial aviation,” he said.That is something, said NAV CANADA, that is precisely on its roadmap. And the best way to fully get there, it was suggested, was to ensure that everyone in the industry uses the NAV Drone app.“The more people who use the tool, the better situational awareness we have,” said Chapman.Below: Brian Fentiman on the NAV CANADA panel at AEAC2024. Photo by Scott Simmie, InDro Robotics<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzMxMzUwMzY4NzU4LURTQ0YzNjY4LXNjYWxlZC5qcGcud2VicCIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Brian Fentiman"> <h3 id="isPasted">InDro's Take</h3>The annual Aerial Evolution Association of Canada’s conference and exhibit is always a great event – and precisely due to learning opportunities like this one. Conversations with bodies like NAV CANADA and Transport Canada are tremendously important for the growth of the sector.“We are fortunate in Canada to have a collaborative relationship with NAV CANADA and Transport Canada, as that’s not always the case between the industry and regulators or air traffic systems organizations,” says Philip Reece, Founder and CEO of InDro Robotics.“We have seen a true evolution over the years in terms of this relationship – and from both sides. There’s a greater recognition now from the industry that safety has to remain paramount if the sector is going to continue its growth trajectory. And we’ve also seen a real willingness from NAV CANADA and Transport Canada to work with RPAS operators to safely continue growth. The NAV Drone app – and how widely it’s now used – is evidence of this collaboration from both sides. We look forward to enhanced capabilities on this already excellent tool.”Want to learn more about the benefits of membership with the Aerial Evolution Association of Canada? You can find all the details <a href="https://www.aerialevolution.ca/become-a-member/" target="_blank">here</a>.

NAV Canada Update

Enhanced Capabilities Coming to NAV Drone App

<h3 id="isPasted">Rooster Drone: Revolutionizing Search-and-Rescue and Tactical Operations</h3>In the ever-evolving field of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the Rooster drone by Robotican stands out as a groundbreaking solution for search-and-rescue, tactical, and security operations. Engineered to be an agile, resilient, and intelligent UAV, the Rooster drone’s core capabilities enable it to perform in high-risk environments, making it an invaluable asset for defense forces and emergency response teams worldwide. Let's dive into the technical specifications and capabilities that make this drone a true innovation.<h4>Flight In Complex Environments</h4>Built to operate in GPS-denied environments. This system is particularly advantageous in environments with compromised visibility or structural instability, such as collapsed buildings or booby-trapped spaces.The Rooster’s AI-driven algorithms enable it to dynamically adapt to changing environments, This capability allows the Rooster to minimize risks to personnel, providing crucial data in situations where human entry would be too dangerous.<h4>Durable Design and Resilience</h4>Designed with operational durability in mind, the Rooster drone’s rugged frame and flexible, shock-absorbent materials give it the resilience needed for both indoor and outdoor operations. Unlike conventional drones that may be vulnerable in confined spaces, the Rooster’s robust body structure and flexible propeller guards ensure it can recover quickly after minor collisions, allowing it to continue its mission uninterrupted.Additionally, the Rooster’s compact design enables it to enter narrow passageways and navigate tight spaces—a significant advantage in scenarios where traditional, larger drones would be hindered. <img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1731312571642-Rooster+for+article.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><h4>Real-Time Data Transmission and Advanced Sensing Capabilities</h4>Equipped with high-definition cameras, thermal imaging, and variable sensors the Rooster is capable of delivering real-time visual and thermal data to operators on the ground. This multi-sensory data provides a comprehensive view of the operational environment, enabling better decision-making under high-pressure situations. Those features are particularly useful for operations in dimly lit or smoke-filled rooms where visibility is otherwise compromised.<h4>Simplified User Interface and Intuitive Control</h4>Robotican has designed the Rooster with an intuitive user interface that simplifies control for operators with varied technical backgrounds. The system’s interface can be accessed on standard tablets or laptops, providing a real-time, high-definition feed and mission controls. Operators can quickly command the drone with straightforward commands or set it on an autonomous route using its way-point navigation system. <img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1731313531966-For+article.jpg" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">For defense applications, this ease of use translates to faster deployment and reduced training time. The Rooster’s controls are designed to be highly responsive, making it a powerful tool in fast-paced tactical scenarios where every second counts.<h4>Compact and Ready for Rapid Deployment</h4>The Rooster drone’s portability and readiness make it an ideal solution for situations requiring rapid deployment. With a fast setup time, it can be operational within minutes, significantly reducing the time between arrival on the scene and the commencement of the mission.Weighing under a few kilograms, the Rooster is compact enough to be carried in a backpack and deployed by a single operator. This lightweight design, combined with its modularity, allows for easy transport and swift adjustments based on mission requirements.<h4>Applications Across Diverse Operational Needs</h4>The versatility of the Rooster drone allows it to support a wide range of operations. From search-and-rescue missions in disaster-stricken areas to surveillance tasks in military and police operations, its capabilities serve as a force multiplier for teams in the field. In recent military applications, the Rooster has demonstrated its unique ability to identify threats, such as detecting improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in potentially hostile environments, saving lives and improving operational outcomes.Its usage has also extended to various emergency services, with fire departments and other first responders deploying the Rooster in challenging situations where human lives are at risk. The drone’s ability to rapidly scan a building for survivors or detect hotspots in a fire scenario has proven invaluable, showcasing its adaptability and life-saving potential.<h4>Conclusion</h4>The Rooster drone by Robotican exemplifies the future of autonomous drones in high-stakes environments. Its combination of autonomous navigation, durability, advanced sensing, and rapid deployment capabilities equips it to handle the complexities of modern tactical, rescue, and surveillance operations. Whether deployed by defense forces or emergency responders, the Rooster is setting new standards for UAV performance, reliability, and mission success.As the demand for resilient, autonomous solutions grows, the Rooster drone is poised to become an essential asset in the operational toolkit of those on the frontlines, pushing the boundaries of what is possible with unmanned aerial technology.

A Hybrid Robotic Drone Engineered for Precision and Resilience in High-Stakes Tactical and Search-and-Rescue Operation

Rooster Drone: Revolutionizing Search-and-Rescue and Tactical Operations

In this episode, we explore how AI can help aerial vehicles adjust to extreme turbulence in real-time and enhance safety/stability, even in challenging driving conditions.

Scared of Turbulence? AI -Might- Fix That

This article was discussed in our <a href="https://www.wevolver.com/profile/the.next.byte" rel="noopener noreferrer">Next Byte podcast</a>.&nbsp;<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/613afcf0-5191-4293-a6a1-7f18ec73fe53?dark=false" class="fr-draggable" data-lf-form-tracking-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-yt-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true" data-lf-vimeo-playback-inspected-kn9eq4roawkarlvp="true"></iframe> The full article will continue below.<hr>“These flaps can both help the plane avoid stall and make it easier to regain control when stall does occur,” said <a href="https://mae.princeton.edu/people/faculty/wissa" data-type="link" data-id="https://mae.princeton.edu/people/faculty/wissa">Aimy Wissa</a>, assistant professor of <a href="https://mae.princeton.edu/">mechanical and aerospace engineering</a> and principal investigator of <a href="https://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2409268121">the study</a>, published Oct. 28 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.The flaps mimic a group of feathers, called covert feathers, that deploy when birds perform &nbsp; certain aerial maneuvers, such as landing or flying in a gust. Biologists have observed when and how these feathers deploy, but no studies have quantified the aerodynamic role of covert feathers during bird flight. Engineering studies have investigated covert-inspired flaps for improving engineered wing performance, but have mostly neglected that birds have multiple rows of covert feathers. The Princeton team has advanced the technology by demonstrating how sets of flaps work together and exploring the complex physics that governs the interaction.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzMwMTYzMTAzMjIwLVdpc3NhLXBsYW5lLWZlYXRoZXJzLWhlcm8tZm9yLXdlYi0yMDQ4eDExNTIuanBnIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Princeton researchers at the Forrestal campus. Left to right: Ahmed K. Othman, Girguis Sedky, Hannah Wiswell and professor Aimy Wissa. Photo by Lori M. NicholsGirguis Sedky, postdoctoral researcher and the paper’s lead author, called the technique “an easy and cost-effective way to drastically improve flight performance without additional power requirements.”The covert flaps deploy or flip up in response to changes in airflow, requiring no external control mechanisms. They offer an inexpensive and lightweight method to increase flight performance without complex machinery. “They’re essentially just flexible flaps&nbsp;that, when designed and placed properly, can greatly improve a plane’s performance and stability,” Wissa said.A wing’s teardrop form forces air to flow quickly over its top, creating a low-pressure area that pulls the plane up. At the same time, air pushes against the bottom of the wing, adding upward pressure. Designers call the combination of this pull and push “lift.” Changes in flight conditions or a drop in an aircraft’s speed can result in stall, rapidly reducing lift.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNzMwMTYzMTIzMjAxLWZvci13ZWItMDkxMjI0LVBSTi1XaW5kVHVubmVsLUxNTjI2NDcxLTE1MzZ4MTAzMC5qcGciLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The researchers explored the physics behind the flaps’ performance in a wind tunnel at Princeton.Wissa’s team designed a series of experiments in the wind tunnel at Princeton’s Forrestal Campus to understand how flaps mimicking the feathers would affect flight performance, especially near stall, which usually happens when the plane is at a steep angle, when covert feathers were observed to deploy. The tunnel allowed the team to examine the way different flap arrangements affected variables like air pressure around the wings, wind speed over the wing and vortices that impact performance.The team attached the covert-inspired flaps to a 3D-printed model airplane wing and mounted it in the wind tunnel, a 30-foot-tall metal contraption that simulates and measures air flow. “The wind tunnel experiments give us really precise measurements for how air interacts with the wing and the flaps, and we can see what’s actually happening in terms of physics,” Sedky said.The wind tunnel is equipped with sensors that read the forces felt by the wing, as well as a laser and high-speed camera that measure precisely how air is moving around the wing.The study uncovered the physics by which the flaps improved lift and identified two ways that the flaps control air moving around the wing. One of these control mechanisms had not been previously identified. The researchers uncovered the new mechanism, called shear layer interaction, when they were testing the effect of a single flap near the front of the wing. They found that the other mechanism is only effective when the flap is at the back of the wing.The researchers tested configurations with a single flap and with multiple flaps ranging from two rows to five rows. They found that the five-row configuration improved lift by 45%, reduced drag by 30% and enhanced the overall wing stability.“The discovery of this new mechanism unlocked a secret behind why birds have these feathers near the front of the wings and how we can use these flaps for aircraft,” Wissa said. “Especially because we found that the more flaps you add to the front of the wing, the higher the performance benefit.”Following the results of the wind tunnel experiments, the team moved outside the lab and into the field to test the covert-inspired flaps on a scaled model aircraft. Princeton’s Forrestal Campus was once an airport and still features an operational helipad. So, the researchers teamed up with Nathaniel Simon, graduate student in mechanical and aerospace engineering who researches drone flight, and demonstrated the technology in real-world conditions by equipping a radio-controlled (RC) airplane with covert-inspired flaps.The researchers worked with members of the Somerset RC model aircraft club to select a model plane. The researchers then modified the airplane body to outfit it with an onboard flight computer, and Simon drew on his experience piloting drones to fly it. They programmed the flight computer to stall the aircraft autonomously and repeatedly. Simon said it was amazing to see the flaps deploy in-flight and to see that they helped delay and reduce stall intensity, just as they did in the wind tunnel. “It’s cool to be able to collaborate in the shared space at the Forrestal campus, and to see how many areas of research this project touched,” he said.Sedky said that in addition to improving flight, their findings could be extended to other applications where modifying the surrounding fluid would benefit performance. “What we discovered about how coverts alter the airflow around the wing can be applied to other fluids and other bodies, making them applicable to cars, underwater vehicles, and even wind turbines,” he said.Wissa said that this study could open the door to collaborations with biologists to learn more about the role of covert feathers in bird flight, and that the results of this study will help form new hypotheses that can be tested on birds. “That’s the power of bioinspired design,” she said. “The ability to transfer things from biology to engineering to improve our mechanical systems, but also use our engineering tools to answer questions about biology.”<hr>The paper, “Distributed feather-inspired flow control mitigates stall and expands flight envelope,” by was published Nov. 20 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Besides Wissa, Sedky and Simon, authors include Ahmed K. Othman, and Hannah Wiswell, graduate students in mechanical and aerospace engineering. Support for the project was provided in part by the National Science Foundation.

Princeton researchers equipped the wings of an RC plane with wing feather-inspired flaps, and flew it at Princeton’s Forrestal Campus to prove that the flaps help prevent airplanes from stalling. Photos by Lori M. Nichols

Taking inspiration from bird feathers, Princeton engineers have found that adding rows of flaps to a remote-controlled aircraft’s wings improves flight performance and helps prevent stalling, a condition that can jeopardize a plane’s ability to stay aloft. 

Bird wings inspire new approach to flight safety

As you might recall from <a href="https://cypherrobotics.com/2024/10/17/cypher-robotics-puts-captis-on-the-global-stage-at-gitex-global-2024-in-dubai/?et_fb=1&PageSpeed=off" target="_blank">this post</a>, Cypher Robotics and its <a href="https://indrorobotics.ca/cypher-robotics-announces-captis-a-new-solution-for-industrial-scanning/" target="_blank">Captis</a> cycle-counting/inventory management solution recently attended the huge <a href="https://www.gitex.com/" target="_blank">GITEX GLOBAL 2024</a> event in Dubai. It’s the world’s largest technology and AI exhibition, with some 200,000 attendees. It was a *huge* show.But a lot of the work – and the opportunities – for both Cypher Robotics and InDro Robotics (which incubated Cypher and has a technology agreement with the company) took place away from the show floor. Cypher Robotics CEO and InDro Vice President Peter King spent much of his time in high-level meetings with executives from five of the largest companies in the United Arab Emirates.“These were C-Suite level meetings, where we were able to learn more about what these companies do – and discuss how both InDro and Cypher can offer solutions that could benefit them,” says King.These aren’t companies where you can simply call and ask for a meeting with high-level executives. There needs to be a catalyst to facilitate such discussions.And there was: The Government of Canada; specifically, the Canadian Consulate in Dubai.Below: Cypher Robotics CEO Peter King on the floor at GITEX GLOBAL 2024. Much of his time was spent off the floor, meeting with executives from the largest companies in the UAE<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1729798081995-GITEX-Peter.jpg-2.webp" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Cypher Robotics Booth at GITEX"><h3 id="isPasted">Trade Mission</h3>Among the many responsibilities of the Federal Government is promoting trade between Canadian firms and international clients. Sometimes, there are large “Team Canada Trade Missions” which are led by a Minister and often covered by media. With these missions, there’s a specific push on the Indo-Pacific region. On other occasions, however, the government pulls together smaller groups with a very specific focus. Months before GITEX GLOBAL 2024 was to take the world stage, planning began for a mission in Dubai that would take place the same week.Government officials identified five Canadian firms in the Canadian high-tech sector it felt might be a fit for the UAE market. InDro Robotics was invited to participate – and was the only company among those five from the robotics sector.“They identified that our solutions could be highlighted in Dubai – not only for trade reasons, but also to help solve some really hard problems,” says Peter King. “We were obviously really pleased to be one of a small handful of technology companies to be on the federal government’s radar.”Canada’s Consul General in Dubai, H.E. Tracy Reynolds, was at the helm of this program and coordinated a series of meetings with “the UAE’s most influential business and technology leaders,” reads a Government of Canada document outlining the program.“Consul General Reynolds will lead a two-day outreach program that will allow selected Trade Commissioner Service (TCS) clients to pitch their products and solutions to Dubai’s conglomerates, which are considered to be major buyers of ICT products and solutions. The meetings will also allow the delegation to learn about the latest technologies being adopted by these organizations,” it adds.<h3> </h3><h3 id="isPasted">Why UAE?</h3>Though historically an oil-driven economy, the United Arab Emirates has diversified greatly in recent years. It has evolved, according to the CIA’s World FactBook, “into a trade-oriented logistics and supply chain leader (with) strong foreign direct investment orientation; building trade and investment ties through partnership agreements…” The UAE Gross Domestic Product is the fourth highest in the Middle East (after Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Israel), with an estimated USD 719.733 billion GDP in 2023.In Dubai, the skyline has been utterly transformed over the past few decades. It’s home to the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, and other ultra-modern architecture. Known also for its luxury shopping and high-end autos, Dubai has also embraced technology in recent years. In fact, the local police count Tesla Cybertrucks among their fleet.Dubai has never been as dependent on oil as the other six Emirates that comprise the UAE – and Dubai has led the way in the UAE in terms of economic diversification. According to Wikipedia, “Oil production, which once accounted for 50% of Dubai’s gross domestic product, contributes less than 1% today. In 2018, wholesale and retail trade represented 26% of the total GDP; transport and logistics, 12%; banking, insurance activities and capital markets, 10%; manufacturing, 9%; real estate, 7%; construction, 6%; tourism, 5%. The International Herald Tribune described it as ‘centrally-planned free-market capitalism’.”In other words, Dubai – and the wider UAE – are a significant and growing global marketplace.Below: The Dubai Skyline at night. Photo by Ivan Siarbolin – https://www.pexels.com/photo/city-skyline-during-night-time-3787839/, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=95959711<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1729798138316-Dubai_Skylines_at_night_Pexels_3787839-scaled.jpg.webp" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Dubai Skyline"> <h3 id="isPasted">High-Level Agenda</h3>With that context, it’s clear why the Canadian Consulate in Dubai sees opportunity. Being on the ground, Canadian&nbsp;Consul General&nbsp;Tracy Reynolds,&nbsp;Deputy Consul General Anthony Finch and Trade Commissioner&nbsp;Arun Basandai have an insider’s vantage point into the key economic players in Dubai and the UAE.&nbsp;And so, over the course of two days, they accompanied representatives of the five invited Canadian companies to five different high-level meetings.The first was with one of the largest real estate developers in the entire UAE. Remember the earlier reference to the Burj Khalifa? This company owns it. In addition to real estate, its diverse portfolio includes&nbsp;retail, hospitality, and&nbsp;leisure. The firm’s Executive Director and its Head of Information Technology attended the meeting.We don’t want to get into the details, but it was an excellent discussion – which included how solutions from both InDro Robotics and Cypher Robotics might be useful to that firm.&nbsp;From there, it was off to a massive global investment company that has been a major driver of Dubai’s spectacular growth. It’s involved with 10 sectors,&nbsp;including real estate, hospitality, leisure&nbsp;&amp; entertainment, media, ICT, design, education, retail, manufacturing, and&nbsp;logistics and science. It owns hotels, parks, resorts, a huge arena, multiple large retail outlets – and is also involved in multiple projects to accelerate Dubai into a fully Smart City. There were fruitful discussions there as well.Meeting three was with one of the largest retailers in Dubai and the entire UAE with an emphasis on the fashion and lifestyle industry. On the food and beverage side, it runs multiple name brand franchises throughout the UAE and is the distributor/retailer of major fashion brands. It’s a huge company with a massive rolling inventory across several sectors. As with the previous meetings, all five Canadian technology companies had a chance to discuss their offerings.&nbsp;<h3>And There Was More…</h3>Once again, it was C-suite meetings with the full support of senior Consulate staff. The group met with the CEO and Chief Strategy and Technology Officer (CSTO) of the leading shopping mall, retail and leisure company across the Middle East, Africa and Asia. It owns and operates 27 major shopping malls, multiple hotels, cinemas, etc. and has assets in excess of USD 18 billion and 44,000 employees.The final meeting was with “a multinational retail franchise operator of 70 brands in 20 countries.” Those brands include Starbucks, Chipotle and Cheesecake Factory. The company runs hotels and major retail outlets with names you’d recognize. The company’s Chief Strategy and Digital Officer attended this meeting, and was able to learn about solutions offered by all five Canadian technology companies.“These meetings were a tremendous opportunity to learn not only about what these leading UAE companies do, but also explore some of the challenges they face with operations at that scale,” says King. “There was significant interest in solutions from both InDro and Cypher – and I’m confident these were just the first of many conversations to come.”Below: The Cypher Robotics cycle-counting and RFID scanning Captis, which can operate autonomously for five hours and also capture precision digital twins. Below that is the InDro Robotics Sentinel, designed for remote asset inspection, security and surveillance and digital twins<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1729798194505-Captis-1-scaled.jpg.webp" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Captis Robot"><img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1729798212185-Sentinel-in-substation-1.jpg.webp" style="width: 100%px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Sentinel Inspection Robot"><h3 id="isPasted">InDro's Take</h3>We are pleased to have been selected to take part in this trade mission in the United Arab Emirates – and are exceedingly grateful to the senior staff at the Canadian Consul General in Dubai. These were exceptional meetings and, potentially, the beginning of new business relationships.“These meetings were a significant step along Cypher’s long-term roadmap, which includes markets beyond North America,” says King. “Every business relationship begins with a discussion, and these were very productive introductory meetings for all of the Canadian firms on this trip. I’d like to extend our deepest thanks for Consul General Tracy Reynolds, Trade Commissioner Arun Basandani and Deputy Consul General Anthony Finch.”InDro Founder and CEO Philip Reece is also pleased.“These meetings were a remarkable opportunity for not only InDro and Cypher, but for four other innovative Canadian tech companies,” he says. “The Government of Canada recognizes the global shift toward Industry 4.0 and the role Canadian technology companies can play in that. We are pleased that InDro had this opportunity and extend our thanks to all those involved.”If you’d like to learn more about InDro Robotics solutions, contact us <a href="https://indrorobotics.ca/connectwithanexpert/" target="_blank">here</a>. For Cypher Robotics and Captis, reach out <a href="https://cypherrobotics.com/contact-us/" target="_blank">here</a>.Cover image of Dubai at top of story via Wikimedia Commons by Tim Reckmann, CC BY-SA 3.0

Exploring strategic partnerships and showcasing cutting-edge robotic technologies, InDro Robotics and Cypher Robotics attend pivotal trade discussions to expand their global impact.

InDro Robotics and Cypher Robotics attend High-Level Trade Meetings in Dubai

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