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A Spy And A RoboFly:

This radio-controlled insect-like aircraft is actually a robotic dragonfly spy called DelFly II developed by robot jockeys at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. It can fly for at least 15 minutes and can take off and land vertically, and can even fly backwards. Imagine this robot improved even further; its developers is planning to create a DelFly Nano with a wingspan of just two inches, making it effectively invisible. Check out the video after the jump.

Here is its Video:

A new type of flying machine is watching you Onera JUST below a half-opened garage door a tiny device can be seen at the feet of someone lurking in the shadows. It looks like a blue dragonfly. Then its miniature wings begin to flap as it slips under the door and darts along the street. After rising through the air it stops to hover outside the window of a building several storeys high. There is an opening on the roof, and it slips inside. As it flits from room to room its video-camera “eye” transmits pictures to a screen on a remote-control unit strapped to the wrist of its clandestine operator. This is not a scene from a James Bond film, in which 007 tests a new device from “Q”, but an animated video produced by Onera, France’s national aerospace centre, to explain REMANTA, a project to develop the technologies needed for miniature robotic aircraft. More bug-like flying devices are being developed in other research laboratories around the world. A few are already small enough to be carried in a briefcase; others are the size of a jet fighter and need a runway for take-off.

Having evolved from military use, drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are taking to the air in increasing numbers for public-service and civilian roles. They are being operated by groups as diverse as police, surveyors and archaeologists. A UAV helped firemen track the blaze that recently ravaged southern California. The most immediate advantage of a UAV is cost: operating even a small helicopter can cost $1,000 an hour or more, but the bill for a drone is a fraction of that. However, the growing use of UAVs is causing a number of concerns.

The first is safety. Last month America’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) completed its first-ever investigation into an unmanned-aircraft accident. Pilot error was blamed for the crash in Arizona in April 2006 of a 4,500kg (10,000lb) Predator B, a type of UAV used by American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was being operated by Customs and Border Protection when its engine was accidentally turned off by the team piloting it from a control room at an army base. No one was hurt, but the NTSB issued 22 recommendations to address what Mark Rosenker, its chairman, described as “a wide range of safety issues involving the civilian use of unmanned aircraft.”

Continue reading ‘The fly’s a spy’ »

One of the most amazing coming developments in aviation is the UAV - Unmanned Air Vehicle. These airplanes have no pilot on board - they are remote controlled. This means that the pilots who can fly them can perform much more violent maneuvers and send them into more dangerous situations than you could possibly risk with a human being on board. It also means that these airplanes can be any size. Some UAVs are as small as your fist.

Future soldiers will likely be issued small UAVs along with their rifles and other personal gear. Under fire, they’ll be able to launch these UAVs to spy on the enemy, jam radar and electronic surveillance, even deliver small bombs, all by remote control.

If a cyber attack occurred tomorrow, could your organization continue to function? Odds are the answer is no.

In a survey by Spy-Ops, less than 1% of organizations have planned for a cyber attack. What is even more shocking is that less than 1% has business continuity plans that address the threat of a terrorist attack. Both of these events are now foreseeable threats and as such require all organizations to create strategies to minimize these risks. Failure to prepare for these events could bring charges of negligence from all of those who are negatively impacted.

“For companies in America, the issue of liability for cyber-attacks is a significant risk,” said Edward Maggio of Spy-Ops.

Many business organizations are waiting for specific regulations to require action before they implement procedures and safeguards to a cyber-attack. The reality is that with so many publications like this one and other like news article, academic journals or material from a conference available to the public now puts an organization on notice that a cyber-attack is foreseeable.

Continue reading ‘Resilience Engineering’ »