Un equipo de ingenieros del Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory ha desarrollado un UAV que se puede lanzar al aire desde una estación submarina, en la que puede permanecer meses. Se trata del Corrosion Resistant Aerial Covert Unmanned Nautical System (CRACUNS).
A group of engineers went the extra mile just so I could make that joke, by naming their unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) the Corrosion Resistant Aerial Covert Unmanned Nautical System, or CRACUNS. The team at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory has developed a UAV that can launch into the air from a station underwater.
To achieve this, the engineers needed to jump two major hurdles. First, they needed to create a drone that could withstand the water pressure it’d experience while surfacing, so the frame had to be as lightweight as possible to reduce resistance.
Second, they needed to build a machine whose parts would not corrode in a saltwater environment. The engineers applied protective coating to the drone’s motors, and after two months of submersion in saltwater, the motors showed no signs of damage.
CRACUNS doesn’t need to stay near the water’s surface, either—it can rise from several hundred feet underwater.
While neither the video nor the press release explicitly state possible future uses for CRACUNS, the project earned praise from the U.S. Secretary of the Navy, and the military and surveillance uses are pretty obvious.
Fuente: http://motherboard.vice.com
