Five men in white overalls lifted the stretcher off the ground, one of them taking care to lay a clear plastic IV bag that's connected to the patient onto his stomach. They marched him toward what looks like a black inflatable dinghy on small wheels, crossed with a fly. The stretcher was loaded in through a hatch on the side, and then the men stood back. The patient was actually a medical training mannequin, but that didn't stop him (it, rather) from taking part in the first "mission representative" demonstration of a new aircraft. That bean-shaped thing is called the Cormorant, and it was built by Israel-based Tactical Robotics to make battlefield evacuations--which today rely on helicopters--quicker and safer, thanks to a new design and the fact that there's no human pilot involved.

New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announces partners in order to develop the drone testing corridor. SRC/ Gryphon Sensors and Raytheon were awarded to complete the UTM corridor. The project would be including system planning, design, implementation, commissioning and operational support of UTM research. "This partner selection is just the latest advancement in positioning central New York and the Mohawk Valley as leaders in the global market for this cutting-edge technology," says Cuomo. The designed corridor will enable the companies to test both UAS platforms and UTM technologies in real-world settings.

Sally Ride was the first astronaut to operate the robotic Canadarm. We know Sally Ride, born on this day in 1951, as the first American woman in space (and since her death in 2012, we've known her as the only openly LGBT American astronaut so far) but she did much more than just show up for the ride, whether on her first Space Shuttle flight or during her 34-year career as an astronaut and physicist. It's easy for the basic fact of Ride's identity to eclipse her actual work. Her 1983 Challenger flight was groundbreaking, but in many ways the rest of her career is far more interesting; Ride herself certainly thought so, based on her comments in several interviews. From designing Canadarm 1 to investigating the loss of two Space Shuttles, and from X-rays in the interstellar medium to the physics of lasers, here's a look at what the first American woman in space actually did.

The Federal Aviation Administration has started expanding the use of an automated system that will help the agency provide UAS operators real-time processing of their airspace authorization requests. "What used to take weeks now takes mere seconds," says Dan Elwell, FAA Acting Administrator. The Low Altitude Authorization and Notification Capability (LAANC) help to integrate drones into the airspace. According to FAA, companies such as AirMap, Project Wing, Rockwell Collins and Skyward have entered into an agreement with the FAA to provide LAANC services. "The use of drones is increasing constantly and the FAA is working hard to integrate them into the airspace," comments Elwell in the video.

Europe is ahead in the digital game, says Tata's Consultancy Services COO. But businesses and governments will need to utilise Big Data and Artificial Intelligence to improve services and the quality of life of customers. N. Ganapathy Subramaniam is the Chief Operating Officer of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), an Indian multinational IT service, consulting and business solutions company headquartered in Mumbai. He spoke to EURACTIV's Alexandra Brzozowski on the sidelines of the European Business Summit in Brussels. How could digital economy improve business and public-sector performance?

Just a day after the NTSB released its preliminary findings on the Uber crash in Arizona, senators Edward J. Markey and Richard Blumenthal began an investigation into safety protocols for driverless car testing. In a letter sent to major auto manufacturers involved in autonomous driving systems, the senators asked several specific questions to find out what kind of procedures the companies have to ensure the safety of others during testing. The senators want to know where testing is occurring, how companies determined if the self-driving tech was safe for public roads and whether the technology relies on internal sensors or external inputs and more. Copies of the letter were sent to the US offices of BMW, Daimler Trucks, Fiat Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar Land Rover, Kia, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru, Tesla, Toyota, Volkswagen, Volvo, Amazon, Apple, Intel, Lyft, NVIDIA Corporation, Uber and Waymo. "This latest fatality has raised many questions about the processes companies have in place to guard public safety when testing this type of technology on public roads," the senators wrote in the letter sent to Uber.

NASA's Curiosity rover has begun drilling into the surface of Mars again after a nearly two-year break due to a mechanical issue. Engineers recently revealed they'd developed a new technique to restore the robotic explorer's drilling ability, using its robotic arm to push the bit forward as it spins, much like a human might operate a drill. In an important step forward, Curiosity has now tested out the technique, using it to drill a 2-inch-deep hole in a target called'Duluth.' NASA's Curiosity rover has begun drilling into the surface of Mars again after a nearly two-year break due to a mechanical issue The .6 inch-wide hole drilled by Curiosity on May 20th marked the first rock sample it's captured since October 2016; its drill was taken offline in December of that year. The new drilling technique is known as Feed Extended Drilling (FED), and keeps the drill's bit extended beyond the stabilizer posts that were previously used to steady the drill against the rocks, NASA explains. Engineers tested the technique over the last few months.

A few years before the presidential election of 2016, with all its Wikileaks, Russian disinformation campaigns, and phony Facebook links, San Diego's Mitek Systems (NASDAQ: MITK made a strategic decision to expand into identity verification technology. Funny how things work out. While mobile banking technology still represents 60 percent of Mitek's business, COO Kalle Marsal said Thursday the company's identity verification technology is now its fastest-growing business. After paying $10.6 million in 2015 for IDchecker, a Dutch provider of identity and document authentication technology, and $15 million last October for iCar, a Barcelona-based specialist in digital identity verification software, Mitek recently closed its biggest-ever acquisition--a nearly $51 million deal for A2iA, a French company focused on artificial intelligence and imaging technology. Mitek is a onetime defense contractor that re-invented itself as a technology provider for the banking industry--initially with computer vision technology for handwriting recognition (i.e.

The hysteria about the future of artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere. There seems to be no shortage of sensationalist news about how AI could cure diseases, accelerate human innovation and improve human creativity. Just looking at the media headlines, you might think that we are already living in a future where AI has infiltrated every aspect of society. While it is undeniable that AI has opened up a wealth of promising opportunities, it has also led to the emergence of a mindset that can be best described as "AI solutionism". This is the philosophy that, given enough data, machine learning algorithms can solve all of humanity's problems.

Marines will soon be even more deadly - and safer - with their new extremely lethal Switchblades. When you think of a switchblade, you think of a smallish knife that fits in a pocket, right? Marines will soon have in their hands entirely different breed of Switchblades – these are smart, flying little drones loaded with devastating miniature missiles. Tiny, fast and very quiet, they are extremely difficult for adversaries to detect or track. Even if an adversary does spot the drone, it doesn't matter.