DARPA’s Maple leaf Handheld remote control drone takes first flight (video)

After five years behind locked doors, researchers at Lockheed Martin’s Intelligent Robotics Laboratories in New Jersey have emerged with a working prototype of the “Samarai,” a tiny DARPA-commissioned surveillance drone. The nano air vehicles (NAVs), modeled after falling Maple leaf seeds, are designed to be super light weight and agile for vertical lift off, hovering, and navigation in tight spaces. Like your favorite $5 Subway sammie, these surveillance bots are a foot long, but in place of being shoveled for your mouth, they’re thrown like boomerangs into flight and regulated using a tablet app or a basic remote. These eyes within the sky will officially launch next week on the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International Conference, but until then you definately can take a look at the video in their first flight below.

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This post is tagged: intelligent robotics, lockheed martin, robotics laboratories, surveillance drone, unmanned vehicle systems