Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has been named Elroy Air’s exclusive US manufacturing partner for the Chaparral VTOL drone, in a five-year agreement to accelerate high-volume production. The move leverages Kratos’ mature unmanned aircraft systems factory line, supply chain and quality credentials to scale Chaparral from prototype to mass production for defense and commercial customers....

Woodpecker-Inspired Tensegrity Drone Demonstrates Crash Resilience In a bold fusion of biology and aerospace engineering, researchers at EPFL have unveiled a fixed-wing drone platform designed to survive frontal impacts with obstacles. The SWIFT project—Shockproof Woodpecker-Inspired Flying Tensegrity—reframes how we think about drone resilience by borrowing the woodpecker’s energy-dissipation pathways. Instead of relying on heavy armor...

Drone light show in Pune for Modi Birthday by IIT-Delhi startup When Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 75th birthday was celebrated in Pune, a 1,000-drones light show painted the night sky with choreographed precision. BotLab Dynamics, the IIT Delhi incubated startup leading India’s aerial entertainment scene, delivered a performance that doubled as a demonstration of domestic...

Imaging technology could see a quiet revolution as researchers unveil multilayer metalenses that can focus multiple colors simultaneously in a footprint thinner than a strand of hair. The layered metasurface approach, developed by researchers at the Australian National University (ANU) and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS), uses stacked metamaterial layers...

Gecko StratoSight: Drone Roof Inspections for Buildings Gecko Robotics is extending its automation play from boilers to the roof with StratoSight, a drone-based roof inspection system built in collaboration with NAES Corp. The offering embodies the industry shift toward end-to-end solutions that combine robotics, software, and human insight to turn raw data into actionable decisions....