Humans have long admired the ability of cats to always land on their feet — known as the cat righting reflex. The flexible bodies of our feline friends allow them to twist as they fall. It’s no wonder then, that researchers at Georgia Tech are studying the way cats flex and turn in the air — so they can apply what they learn in designing robots that can land without sustaining damage. The applications are numerous!

Check out more information and check out 15 other cat qualities scientists could study to make better robots (as told by Susan C. Willett) at catster.com

Drone America, an aerospace company, and American Medical Response (AMR), a medical transportation company, have announced a partneship that aims to bring Unmanned Autonomous Systems (UAS) to the EMS industry. By leveraging UAS technologies, AMR’s specialty teams would be able to provide swifter and safer rescue operations in dangerous situations such as disaster response, mountain rescue and swift water rescues.

“We are looking at the various potentials for the use of UAS’s for both the delivery of medical services such as an AED, and as a platform for public safety such as search and rescue operations and communications platforms,” said AMR’s Senior Vice President of Operations Randall Strozyk.

A pre-production model of Drone America’s medical DAx8 UAS was revealed at AMR’s booth during the American Ambulance Association conference in Las Vegas. Recently the AMR DAx8 gave a short flight demonstration inside a North Lake Tahoe Fire Department station for a Channel 8 KOLO News story about drones.

“Drone America’s DAx8 is specifically engineered with emergency services and first responders in mind,” said President and CEO of Drone America Mike Richards.

Check out more information at unmannedsystemstechnology.com