Engineers from Caltech and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab built a three-inch drone that could be launched from a barrel. It’s called SQUID, or the Streamlined Quick Unfolding Investigation Drone. And this year, the team has debuted a larger six-inch version of the drone.

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The US Army’s research lab has come up with a new drone sensor that is capable of detecting and avoiding live power lines nearby. Power lines are notorious for being undetected by autonomous drones.

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Engineers from around the world have created a four-winged drone that flaps similarly to a bird. The creation goes by the name of Ornithopters, meaning it’s based on the design of birds rather than using the more traditional motors and propellers.

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Researchers have shared data suggesting drones and artificial intelligence (AI) could save the declining population of farmland birds. The drones use thermal cameras to detect the bird nests for later analysis by an AI system.

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Engineers at Caltech have successfully designed a new method to control the movement of drones within a swarm to stop them from flying into one another. The new method relies on data to control the movement of the drones through cluttered unmapped spaces.

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Researchers at the University of Hong Kong have built a drone capable of seeking out gemstone deposits and fossils at night using a laser. The drone uses a scanning laser to react with fluorescents in the various objects that can later be detected in processing.

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