The Innovation Report
Billings Fire Department Receives Grant for Hazmat Detecting Drones
Billings firefighters can now purchase a small fleet of drones designed specifically for search-and-rescue operations and assessing accidents involving hazardous materials. A federal $300,000 grant awarded by the Department of Homeland Security and distributed...
Army and University of Illinois Collaborate on Autonomous Drone Swarm Technology
Army researchers are working with the University of Illinois Chicago on unmanned technology for recharging drone swarms. The university has been awarded a four-year, $8 million cooperative agreement “to develop foundational science in two critical propulsion and power...
Waymo Announces Autonomous Trucking Technology
Autonomous vehicle company Waymo provided a glimpse of its autonomous truck technology in a blog post this week, as the Alphabet-backed startup best known for self-driving passenger vehicles steps up its delivery and freight program. Waymo said its...
AVs and Food-Beverage Logistics
Driverless forklifts have been roaming warehouses since Automated Guided Vehicles (AGVs) were first brought to market in the 1950s. Compared to today’s standards, the technology was quite basic—the vehicles simply sensed and followed a wire buried in the floor. Over...
Study: Climate Change Responsible for Loss of Half of Great Barrier Reef
Australia's Great Barrier Reef has been severely damaged over the years, as widespread bleaching caused by rising temperatures and climate change negatively impact the structure. Now, a new study has put a firm figure on just how much of the reef has been lost over...
Robot Hummingbird Spies on 500 Million Monarch Butterflies
It’s difficult to spy on shy creatures in their natural habitats, whether it be in the deep sea, or in the trees. Now, however, thanks to animatronic drones and robots, people are able to safely infiltrate the private lives of wild animals. Below, for example, is a...
Bicycles and Buses: Future’s Dominant Modes of Urban Mobility
A significant new report supported by the World Economic Forum argues there must be a “transport transformation” if the planet is to benefit from the Paris Agreement’s decarbonization commitments. The Transport for Under Two Degrees project published...
Siemens Developing Hydrogen Systems for Trains
Siemens Energy and Siemens Mobility have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) jointly to develop and offer hydrogen systems for trains. The project aims at jointly developing holistic hydrogen solutions for rail transport and offering them to customers to...
Mobility-as-a-Service: Lime to Integrate 3rd-party Providers
Electric mobility company Lime is launching a new mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) platform that allows third-party transport providers to offer their vehicles directly inside the Lime app. The launch comes amid a growing push to combine multiple forms of...
Robotic Exoskeleton Improves Lives of People with Limited Hand Mobility
The Engineering Design and Technological Development Group (DIDET), from the University of Alicante ArtefactosLAB, has once again taken a step forward in terms of social innovation with the design of a new handheld robotic exoskeleton. Named [flick], this robotic...
