iRobot Cofounder Developing UAVs for Search and Rescue

The NSF has given The Droid Works a grant worth nearly $100,000 to develop indoor and outdoor unmanned air vehicles. According to the report, the UAVs will be used for emergency response:

Indoor applications would enable the UAVs to respond to emergency situations that involve large steps, closed doors and rough terrain. The NSF grant will be used to develop indoor flight control and safety technology for the UAVs.

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New radar aims to detect illegal border tunnels

The DHS is working with Lockheed Martin to develop a ground-penetrating radar technology that would be designed specifically for finding underground tunnels. If successful, the tool will help agents locate and plug tunnels almost as fast as they can be dug.

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Next up in body protection: Cement armor

Engineers in England have come up with a product to save a few bob for those who work in semi-dangerous occupations--cement body armor.

The vests combine "super strong" cement with recycled carbon fiber, making the vests tough enough to withstand most bullet calibers, according to researchers at the University of Leeds' School of Civil Engineering.

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What Supersonic Looks Like

he breaking of the sound barrier is not just an audible phenomenon. As a new picture from the U.S. military shows, Mach 1 can be quite visual.

This widely circulated new photo shows a Air Force F-22 Raptor aircraft participating in an exercise in the Gulf of Alaska June 22, 2009 as it executes a supersonic flyby over the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis.

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NGC Demos Rocket Engine Technology

Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) has demonstrated rocket engine technology that may enable the return of American astronauts to the moon.

Working with NASA on the TR202 lunar descent engine, the company has successfully demonstrated stable combustion over a broad throttling range, utilizing high-performance pintle injector technology. The ability to throttle thrust level over a wide range is critical to providing a soft, precision lunar landing with hazard avoidance capability.

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Spanish Scientists Develop Human Echolocation

A series of clicks and whistles could allow the blind to find their way, batlike, with sound

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DARPA selects Pranalytica as one of three to continue development of high-efficiency mid-IR QCLs

The US's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected Pranalytica, Inc. (Santa Monica, CA) to continue its involvement in the Efficient Mid Infrared Laser (EMIL) program, a project created to fill the Department of Defense's (DoD's) need for directional infrared countermeasures (DIRCM), advanced stand-off chemical sensors, and laser radar (LADAR).

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Wireless Bluetooth RFID Reader to locate passive tags in real time

DAILY RFID has released 13.56MHz bluetooth RFID Reader DL990 for mobile RFID application. It is designed as a palm-sized wireless reader to locate passive tags in a real-time mode by transferring data to a back-end computer via the Bluetooth connection.

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A Green Way to Dump Low-Tech Electronics

Since 2004, 18 states and New York City have approved laws that make manufacturers responsible for recycling electronics, and similar statutes were introduced in 13 other states this year. The laws are intended to prevent a torrent of toxic and outdated electronic equipment — television sets, computers, monitors, printers, fax machines — from ending up in landfills where they can leach chemicals into groundwater and potentially pose a danger to public health.

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U.S. Releases Stingers to Taiwan

The U.S. has released a $45.3 million sale of 171 Stinger air-to-air missiles to Taiwan. Raytheon's Missile Systems won the contract under the Foreign Military Sales program.

The missiles will be outfitted on new AH-64D Apache attack helicopters released to Taiwan in October.

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$125M to CACI for Army Fire Support System Software Engineering

CACI International in Arlington, VA received a $125 million task order to provide the U.S. Army’s Communications-Electronics Command’s (CECOM) Fires Software Engineering Division (FSED) with software engineering support for fielded fire support systems. The award, for 1 base year and 2 option years, was competitively awarded under the Army’s Strategic Services Sourcing (S3) contract vehicle.

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Raytheon to Develop Network Centric Radio Systems for DARPA

Raytheon’s Network Centric Systems in Fort Wayne, IN won a $21.7 million cost-plus-fixed-fee and fixed-price contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop the Network Centric Radio System (NCRS). DARPA envisions two critical technologies for the NCRS: 1) a backbone radio architecture that enables IP versatile networks and 2) a radio gateway that enable legacy analog and digital communications systems to be linked together.

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