Weekend Roundup

Photo courtesy Resuters.

A roundup of noteworthy news in the unmanned systems and robotics world this week, including…



Rolls-Royce’s Blue Ocean development team has created a virtual-reality prototype that simulates 360-degree views from a vessel’s bridge. Rolls Royce is planning to set up similar control centers so captains on dry land can command hundreds of crewless ships. (Bloomberg)



Meteorologist Jeff Tilley and his team at Nevada’s Desert Research Institute are working on a UAV to prevent droughts and for cloud seeding, which shoots small silver iodide particles into storm clouds to help transform water vapor into snow or rain. (CBS News)



The Fennemore Craig Jones Vargas law firm has launched a practice in Nevada focusing on legal issues related to the use of unmanned aerial vehicles. (Review Journal)



University of Alaska Fairbanks has partnered with UAS Iceland to expand unmanned aircraft operations and will now support arctic science, glacier studies, volcano monitoring, mammal research and environmental monitoring. (Alaska Native News)



Ford has created a self-driving car that takes 2.5 million measurements every second, which are then turned into a real-time 3-D map that is sent to the car’s onboard computers. (Sky News)