If you're the kind of person who really likes chatting with the mail carrier, Dispatch won't be your favorite startup. That's because the four-person South San Francisco company is working on technology that could replace postal workers; UPS and FedEx drivers; Instacart couriers; and anyone else who gets paid to bring you stuff. Instead, you might be dealing with a 3-foot-tall, 150-pound, battery-powered roving robot that looks like a little dumpster on wheels. Called Carry, the device uses artificial intelligence, five cameras and a laser to navigate on sidewalks around pedestrians, flaming hoverboards and any other obstacles to get packages to your door. The only places you'll find Carry today are on two California college campuses, where it's still being tested.

Federal officials say they will work quickly to draft new regulations that would permit small, commercial drones to fly over people, including crowds. That comes in response to recommendations from an industry advisory committee. The Federal Aviation Administration currently prohibits most commercial use of drones over people. The recommendations, first reported by The Associated Press, would create four categories of commercial drones. Drones weighing about a half pound or less would be allowed to fly over people virtually without restriction.

Machine learning--the process by which computers can get better at performing tasks through exposure to data, rather than through explicit programming--requires massive computational power, the kind usually found in clusters of energy-guzzling, cloud-based computer servers outfitted with specialized processors. But an emerging trend promises to bring the power of machine learning to mobile devices that may lack or have only intermittent online connectivity. This will give rise to machines that sense, perceive, learn from, and respond to their environment and their users, enabling the emergence of new product categories, reshaping how businesses engage with customers, and transforming how work gets done across industries. Emerging technologies rarely get as big a publicity boost as machine learning recently saw, when Google software defeated one of the world's top players of Go, one of the most complex board games ever created, in a best-of-five series of matches.6 The international headlines confirmed that machine learning--the process by which fresh data can teach computers to better perform tasks--is one of the hottest domains within the field of artificial intelligence, and that this cognitive technology is progressing rapidly.7 Neural networks--computer models designed to mimic aspects of the human brain's structure and function, with elements representing neurons and their interconnections--are an increasingly popular way of implementing machine learning.

Now, a source claims the Small UAV Coalition is recommending the ban be relaxed to encourage commercial development in the area. The recommendations call for creating four categories of small drones that commercial operators can fly over people, including crowds in some cases. The first category of drones would weigh no more than about a half-pound (230 grams). They essentially could fly unrestricted over people, including crowds. Drone makers would have to certify that if the drone hit someone, there would be no more than a 1 percent chance that the maximum force of the impact would cause a serious injury.

The system uses an optical camera for detection, as well as "passive ranging features" to predict whether any nearby aircraft will cross its flight path. If there's a potential collision, it'll recommend the best evasive action that complies with air safety regulations. "This SAA system has the potential to enable a wide range of manned and unmanned systems to safely integrate into an increasingly populated and complex airspace," Dan Patt, a Program Manager at DARPA said. "What pilot wouldn't want to set a box on their dashboard that would provide an additional pair of eyes?" DARPA has been working on the project for two years now. Its next step is to shrink the hardware -- a shoebox is still a little large, especially for commercial drones -- continue testing and develop some "mature" features, such as the ability to detect aircraft below the horizon line.

This is the Delft Dynamics Dronecatcher catching a drone. Robots that hunt other robots are my favorite robots. This is Delft Dynamic's Dronecatcher, a big drone built to hunt smaller drones. Here it is, from the ground. The dronecatcher debuted last year in crude form, and recently Delft Dynamics released new footage of it in action.

The dawn of drones is ushering in a fundamental shift in how we do things--it's affecting everything from lifestyle to privacy, logistics to entertainment. Yet one obvious (but largely untapped) potential use for unmanned aerial vehicles is its capacity to aid emergency services. While not completely unheard of (there have been talks of using drone technology for search and rescue missions or combat poaching), this is the first time that its capability is actually going to be tested. And according to a recent announcement, Rwanda is going to be the first country that will make use of delivery drones to ferry medical supplies around the country. Zipline, a drone startup, is behind the initiative, working in partnership with the Rwandan government.

A California startup called Zipline International has announced a partnership with the government of Rwanda to use its fixed-wing cargo drones to deliver medical supplies to remote health clinics in the East African nation. The Zip aircraft is made by Bay Area startup Zipline, which will begin drone delivery of blood and medicine to remote Rwandan clinics later this year. SAN FRANCISCO-- How's this for a flight plan to get a drone delivery service financially aloft? Carry cargo that's of live-saving importance, fly long-range fixed-wing aircraft in uncongested skies, and score a government as your first client. That's the atypical approach being taken by Zipline, a Bay Area startup that has raised 18 million in funding from Yahoo founder Jerry Yang, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and others.

Drones may known for their prowess in the skies, but thanks to some new developments at the U.S. Navy, they'll soon be turning the open seas into their turf as well. A new video shows off an autonomous watercraft dreamed into reality from the men and women at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ( DARPA), all with the hopes of tracking submarines that that haunt the depths of the ocean. The very first prototype hopes to demonstrate the potential of what will ultimately become a fleet of unmanned ships, known as Anti-Submarine Warfare Continuous Trail Unmanned Vessels (to be pronounced "active" for short). The 132 foot long vessel managed to log a top speed of 27 knots during its test in Portland, Oregon, and it'll be ready for open seas this summer when it launches from the California coast. The drone ship's official christening is fast approaching on April 7, and the Navy seems pretty excited by the prospects of "an unmanned vessel optimized to robustly track quiet diesel electric submarines."

It might sound odd that Rwanda will have an established a drone network before the United States, but it makes sense for the country to deliver lifesaving cargo using drones. In developing nations, you often have to deal with unpaved -- or even lack of -- roads, heavy traffic, lack of access to transportation, among other things. With a drone network in place, a clinic can send a text message, and a drone could be there in 30 minutes if it's within 90 miles of the UAVs' homebase. That said, a startup called Flirtey recently made the first FAA-approved drone delivery in Nevada, so the industry is at least making some progress in the US. Rwanda plans to expand its drone network's capabilities to benefit the country's economy.