Fifty years ago this month, the Outer Space Treaty came into force. To date, 105 nations are party to it, including the dozen or so countries with space-launch capabilities. But the agreement could soon be strained by forces that were only science fiction at the time of its drafting. These include a burgeoning commercial space industry that is preparing to send robots to asteroids and the moon to mine for minerals and fuel--a legally ambiguous area that the treaty is mostly silent on. Critics say the companies cannot claim ownership of the moon or an asteroid or any part them. But the companies argue that they can extract materials without claiming ownership--just as with maritime law, where anyone can fish and own what they catch without owning the sea.

Perching is turning out to be a very desirable skill for aerial robots. The ability to land on walls or ceilings, rather than having to go to the ground, gives a drone the advantage of being high up in the air (probably why you're using a drone in the first place) without the disadvantage of having to spend a lot of energy not falling. We've seen lots of different perching techniques, most of them bio-inspired, including many different flavors of claws, spines, grippers, and adhesives. One of the best perchers in the animal kingdom (although it rarely gets credited as such) is the spider. And spiders don't just perch: They build infrastructure.

One of the biggest advances in transportation has been self-driving technology, which has facilitated breakthroughs in not just self-driven cars, but even driverless trains, self-flying planes and self-navigating ships. Rio Tinto, an Australian mining corporation, has unveiled the first operational driverless train in Western Australia, even before China, which has its own similar automated train in the works. The train completed its first run of 100 kilometers (62 miles) in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, without anyone manning the train. "This successful pilot run puts us firmly on track to meet our goal of operating the world's first fully-autonomous heavy haul, long distance rail network, which will unlock significant safety and productivity benefits for the business," Rio Tinto Iron Ore chief executive Chris Salisbury stated in the press release issued Monday. "New roles are being created to manage our future operations and we are preparing our current workforce for new ways of working to ensure they remain part of our industry."

AI will impact every facet of business–changing how we work, and the pace of innovation. It has the power to deliver immense business value, and help brands create the personalized experiences that customers demand. However, to realize its full potential requires a shift in how organizations invest their resources, develop their talent, and foster an AI mindset focused on unlocking creativity and collaboration. Join Bluewolf CEO Eric Berridge to learn key strategies for designing your workforce around a mindset and culture needed to compete and win with AI.

A drone that can switch between flying and rolling could soon be exploring underground mines without the aid of a human pilot. In open air, drones can navigate autonomously using GPS, but these satellite signals don't penetrate deep underground, meaning robot spelunkers require human pilots. Ahmed AlNomany and his colleagues at Swedish company Inkonova are working on an alternative. "It's complicated because we are trying to invent another way of positioning using bits and pieces of technologies," says AlNomany. Having a view of its surroundings is the first step.

Its surface, approximately 850 degrees Fahrenheit, is hot enough for paper to spontaneously combust. Its atmosphere, an oppressive mix of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and sulfur dioxide, is dense enough to crush a submarine. "I like to think of Venus as turning your oven at home onto self cleaning mode, but also filling it with Easy Off," says Jason Derleth, head of NASA's Innovative Advanced Concepts Program (NIAC), a small slice of the agency that funds the exploration of forward-looking technologies. "That's still not as toxic as the chemical soup it has as its atmosphere. Earth's neighbor, while certainly inhospitable to humans, is almost just as rough for robots.

The CIRRIS XITM and the CIRRIS XRTM robots by ULC Robotics were developed to allow gas utilities to extend the life of large diameter cast iron pipeline infrastructure. But those pipelines are expensive to replace and difficult to manually repair, making them prime territory for robots.

Remember how just five years ago it seemed like 3D printing was going to take over the world? How it seemed like we'd have 3D-printed cars that we'd be parking in our 3D-printed houses? Things didn't seem to work out so much. But even while the hype died, companies have been steadily working on the technology. Two years after MX3D announced a plan to 3D print an entire steel bridge designed by Joris Laarman, the project really is going forward, with anticipated completion sometime next year.

Google is pivoting from being a mobile-first company to an AI-first company, declares Barney Pierce, Director, APAC Platforms and Display GTM for Google. He points to how Google is deploying artificial intelligence everywhere – in Gmail which now suggests replies, in its Photos app which helps you search, archive and even suggests which snaps can be junked, in Maps which is parsing local searches and has now significantly improved due to machine learning. But what he doesn't say is that perhaps the most lucrative deployment of AI for Google, which is expected to make $73.8 billion in net digital ad sales in 2017 according to eMarketer, is in its ad tech solutions. Pierce, who was speaking at Google's Think Platform event in Gurgaon, does describe how machine learning is virtually powering the digital advertising landscape, especially media buying which, thanks to the rise of programmatic, affords huge scope. AI, which Pierce describes as the science of making things smart, is not just greatly improving efficiency but also the relevance of ads.

The term "industrial Internet of Things" has a more muted-sounding promise of driving operational efficiencies through automation, connectivity and analytics. But the focus of IIoT -- on industry at large -- is broader. Here, we take a comprehensive view, rounding up 20 IIoT leaders and pioneers, drawing on the feedback from industry analysts and consultants. The focus here is not on vendors offering, say, a cloud-based platform for monitoring industrial machines but on the companies that themselves are using IIoT technology to drive their business forward. For the sake of this feature, we focus on organizations that use connected technology in tandem with cloud-based analytics to drive efficiencies and launch new business models.