News

Sandia Labs News Releases

Tag Archives: drones

Detecting threats beyond the limits of human, sensor sight

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Remember what it’s like to twirl a sparkler on a summer night? Hold it still and the fire crackles and sparks but twirl it around and the light blurs into a line tracing each whirl and jag you make. A new patented software system developed at Sandia National Laboratories can find the curves […]

Identify, track, capture

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories robotics experts are working on a way to intercept enemy unmanned aircraft systems midflight. They successfully tested their concept indoors with a swarm of four unmanned aircraft systems that flew in unison, each carrying one corner of a net. Acting as a team, they intercepted the flying target, trapped […]

Don’t set it and forget it — scan it and fix it with tech that detects wind blade damage

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Drones and crawling robots outfitted with special scanning technology could help wind blades stay in service longer, which may help lower the cost of wind energy at a time when blades are getting bigger, pricier and harder to transport, Sandia National Laboratories researchers say. As part of the Department of Energy’s Blade […]

Warning Area in Arctic airspace to aid research and exploration

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A  700-mile-long airspace that stretches north from Oliktok Point — the northernmost point of Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay — to about 400 miles short of the North Pole has been put under the stewardship of Sandia National Laboratories by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Oliktok Point […]

Hard cold work and unsung science heroes

Data for climate simulations doesn’t come easy ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —The Sierra went down over the Arctic Ocean, about 60 miles from the northernmost tip of North America. One moment the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with its 20-foot wingspan was up in the sky, gathering “hard” data over frozen terrain to help climate scientists in comfortable offices […]