Newly released Aerovironment demo footage of the final project phase of the Nano Hummingbird aerial reconaissance vehicle, developed for the DARPA Defense Sciences Office. The flight test video shows the “birds eye view” on screen as well as the bird and engineer. Bird flies outside and then goes inside the building. We see what it sees via flat panel screen. Battery-powered and remote-controlled, the hummingbird-like prototype uses flapping wings for… read more

The ARM-H track of DARPA’s Autonomous Robotic Manipulation (ARM) program focuses on development of robust, low-cost and dexterous robotic hand hardware. DARPA funded performers to design and build hand mechanisms that could replace the claw-like hands currently used on robots with hands incorporating 3-4 fingers and useable palms.

The teams successfully produced hands that can be manufactured for as little as $3,000 per unit (in batches of 1,000 or… read more