Automated inspection of solar panels, the NUAIR Public Safety Summit, USAF interest in supersonic target drones and the Boeing MQ-28 Ghost Bat, the Pixy selfie drone goes out of production, drones and rural law enforcement, and UAVs that can land on steep roofs.

Percepto announced it has completed the proof-of-concept phase for its automated system that will be used for inspection and data analysis of a giant floating solar power farm in Thailand. The solar power farm includes a grid of 145,000 panels floating over an area equivalent to about 70 soccer fields. The Percepto artificial intelligence-enhanced, automated UAVs will conduct regular inspection flights and use the company’s Autonomous Inspection and Monitoring software package to identify panels that need maintenance or repair.

NUAIR (the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance) recently hosted the fourth annual UAS Public Safety Summit at Griffiss International Airport in upstate New York. Drone developers exhibited their aircraft and some companies performed flight demonstrations. Aircraft exhibitors included Ascent Aerosystems, Skydio, BRINC, senseFly, and Inspired Flight.

Video: Spirit | All Weather UAV

The U.S. Air Force has long used target drones for training purposes, most recently with the QF-16 Viper Full Scale Aerial Target (FSAT) drones. Now the Air Force wants aerial targets that mimic supersonic Chinese and Russian stealth fighters and they’ve posted a request for information (RFI) for a supersonic-capable Next Generation Aerial Target (NGAT).

Preliminary discussions are underway on the possibility that the USAF could purchase the Boeing MQ-28 Ghost Bat under the NGAD (Next Generation Air Dominance) program. The MQ-28 was known as the Boeing Airpower Teaming System and the Loyal Wingman project developed by Boeing Australia for the Royal Australian Air Force.

Snap says it will sell the little selfie drone from its limited existing inventory. The company is shifting its focus and priorities.

Rural law enforcement is increasingly seeing drones used for criminal activity, and at the same time recognizing that UAVs are a valuable resource. The South Carolina Public Safety Drone Pilot Association was organized as a nonprofit in 2020 and has trained more than 100 personnel as public safety drone pilots.

These small UAVs can land on inclined surfaces of up to 60 degrees using adaptive friction shock absorbers and reverse thrust. The legs compress during impact and dissipate energy through friction. A small DC motor controls the friction in each leg by compressing disks. Reverse thrust is applied at contact to increase friction and prevent flipping. This is described in a paper published in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.

Video: Fast Multirotor Landings on Steep Roofs using Friction Shock Absorbers and Reverse Thrust

…the Mars Sample Return campaign will no longer include the Sample Fetch Rover or its associated second lander. The Sample Retrieval Lander will include two sample recovery helicopters, based on the design of the Ingenuity helicopter, which has performed 29 flights on Mars and survived over a year beyond its original planned lifetime. The helicopters will provide a secondary capability to retrieve samples cached on the surface of Mars.