On October 5th, hobbyists will no longer be able to fly their drones around ten US landmarks. The Department of the Interior and the FAA have restricted UAV flights within 400 feet of the monuments, which include the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore and the Hoover Dam. The #FAA and @Interior agree to restrict #drone use over certain landmarks. No reason was given for the new restrictions on the FAA post announcing them, though the department's data website notes it was by request of the Department of Defense along with federal intelligence agencies due to "National Security, or Intel Agency or National Defense" concerns. Regardless, the restriction is classified as temporary, and it's the first time the department has banned hobbyist UAVs from flying over monuments, though the FAA has long banned them from military bases.

The European Robotics League (ERL) announced the winners of ERL Emergency Robots 2017 major tournament, during the awards ceremony held on Saturday, 23rd September at Giardini Pro Patria, in Piombino, Italy. In addition to the Competition Awards, Marta Palau Franco from Bristol Robotics Laboratory and ERL Emergency project manager introduced the referees' special awards. "Behind a multi-domain competition there is always a large technical committee, I feel privileged to have worked with such an amazing team of volunteer referees, technical assistants and safety pilots and divers. We were delighted to give these awards to recognise teams' effort, fair play and hard work. The experience of participating in this robotics competition will prove beneficial for team members to develop further their professional career", said Marta Palau Franco.

The European Robotics League (ERL) announced the winners of ERL Emergency Robots 2017 major tournament, during the awards ceremony held on Saturday, 23rd September at Giardini Pro Patria, in Piombino, Italy. The ERL Emergency Robots 2017 competition consisted of four scenarios, inspired by the nuclear accident of Fukushima (Japan, 2011) and designed specifically for multi-domain human-robot teams. The first scenario is The Grand Challenge made up of three domains – sea, air, land, and the other three scenarios are made of only two domains. The Awards, given for each scenario to the best performing teams, were introduced by Alan Winfield from Bristol Robotics Laboratory and ERL Emergency Coordinator. "The energy, enthusiasm and spirit of cooperation among the teams competing in ERL Emergency was amazing. We witnessed not only great performances from the teams and their robots, but also the drama and excitement of last minute field repairs and workarounds to the robots", said Alan Winfield.

In 2006, the European Space Agency crashed its first lunar mission, Smart-1, into the moon after the spacecraft started running low on fuel. But until now, its final resting place has remained a mystery. Now, 11 years after the crash, scientists have identified Smart-1's crash site using a technique they call'Crash Scene Investigation.' The researchers now hope to send a robotic investigator to examine the remains of the spacecraft. In 2006, the European Space Agency crashed its first lunar spacecraft, Smart-1, into the moon.

The FAA and U.S. Interior Department said they would restrict drone flights up to 400 feet within the boundaries of the sites including the U.S.S. The restrictions will be effective Oct. 5 and there only a few exceptions that permit drone flights within these restrictions.

On Thursday 7 September, the Director of UNICRI, Cindy Smith, and the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the International Organizations, Johan van der Werff, signed the Host Country Agreement for the establishment of the first United Nations Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, in The Hague, The Netherlands. The benefits of AI and robotics will be of paramount importance for society in the years to come. Critical areas such as health, education, energy, economic inclusion, social welfare, the environment, as well as crime prevention, security, stability and justice, will benefit from the progress being made. However, this growth will not be costless if societies will not be prepared to take up the gauntlet to address relevant challenges, for the greater good. Many of these challenges also present opportunities that can be developed if the implications involved by this technological revolution are addressed from the very beginning.

Robots might not be stealing our jobs after all – at least, not if you're German. An analysis of more than 20 years of labour automation in Germany found no evidence that robots caused job losses in the country as a whole. Automation has changed the kinds of work people do, but hasn't taken jobs away permanently, says Jens Südekum at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. Although there are plenty of reports that predict future job losses caused by automation, Südekum's study is only the second to look at how many jobs robots have already taken from us. The first – a US study published earlier this year – painted a much gloomier picture.

The tax function can access the power of AI's predictive functionality to facilitate more accurate forecasting for tax calculations, including the forecasted effective tax rate for interim financial reporting. Data sets can be created to capture appropriate general ledger account details with rules applied to calculate tax amounts. A simple example is the treatment of meals and entertainment expenses where several general ledger account details are aggregated based on tax requirements, with the 50% deductibility limitation then applied for tax purposes. For finance and tax, AI and machine learning capabilities can produce "bots" that mimic human behavior and, with the appropriate rules applied, can perform routine tasks, freeing up humans for higher-risk, higher-value activities.

Setting up a permanent village on the moon is the first step towards exploring Mars, the European Space Agency said as plans to reach and colonise the Red Planet gathered pace. At an annual gathering of 4,000 global space experts in Adelaide, the ESA said the Moon was the'right place to be' as humans expand economic activities beyond low-Earth orbit, even while Mars remained the'ultimate destination'. 'We have been living in low-Earth orbit for the last 17 years on board a space station and we are on our journey to Mars for the first human mission,' ESA's Piero Messina told AFP at the congress. 'In between, we believe that there is an opportunity to create a permanent... sustainable presence on the surface of the Moon.' Reaching and colonising Mars has been viewed by private and public interests as the next stage in exploring the final frontier, and has been a key part of this year's International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide. Messina said the more immediate goal was to have a permanent presence on the Moon, even if it was just a robot, by the end of the next decade.

Democrats and Republicans can't get on the same page about most things, but robots driving cars is apparently a-okay no matter your political affiliation. After the House approved a bipartisan pact, both sides in the Senate agreed to a deal making it easier for Ford, GM and other automakers to get self-driving cars on public roads. "We expect adoption of self-driving vehicle technologies will save lives, improve mobility for people with disabilities, and create new jobs," Senators John Thune (R-SD) and Gary Peters (D-MI) said in a statement. Industry has been seeking US approval of autonomous cars without steering wheels and pedals, provided regulators find them to be safe (as it stands now, self-driving vehicles must have human controls). It also wants the law to prevent individual states from blocking the use of self-driving cars.