A combat drone dropped explosives on an electricity substation in a Russian village near the border with Ukraine, while Russia's Ministry of Defence reported shooting down more than a dozen Ukrainian drones over the Russian regions of Belgorod, Kursk and Kaluga. In the Russian village of Belaya, located less than 25km (16 miles) from the border, "a Ukrainian drone dropped two explosive devices on a substation", Kursk regional governor Roman Starovoyt said on the Telegram messaging app early on Friday. "One of the transformers caught fire. Five settlements and a hospital were cut off from power supply. Fire crews rushed to the scene," he said.

We investigate the problem of energy-constrained planning for a cooperative system of an Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV) and an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). In scenarios where the UGV serves as a mobile base to ferry the UAV and as a charging station to recharge the UAV, we formulate a novel energy-constrained routing problem. To tackle this problem, we design an energy-aware routing algorithm, aiming to minimize the overall mission duration under the energy limitations of both vehicles. The algorithm first solves a Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) to generate a guided tour. Then, it employs the Monte-Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) algorithm to refine the tour and generate paths for the two vehicles. We evaluate the performance of our algorithm through extensive simulations and a proof-of-concept experiment. The results show that our algorithm consistently achieves near-optimal mission time and maintains fast running time across a wide range of problem instances.

A common approach to localize a mobile robot is by measuring distances to points of known positions, called anchors. Locating a device from distance measurements is typically posed as a non-convex optimization problem, stemming from the nonlinearity of the measurement model. Non-convex optimization problems may yield suboptimal solutions when local iterative solvers such as Gauss-Newton are employed. In this paper, we design an optimality certificate for continuous-time range-only localization. Our formulation allows for the integration of a motion prior, which ensures smoothness of the solution and is crucial for localizing from only a few distance measurements. The proposed certificate comes at little additional cost since it has the same complexity as the sparse local solver itself: linear in the number of positions. We show, both in simulation and on real-world datasets, that the efficient local solver often finds the globally optimal solution (confirmed by our certificate), but it may converge to local solutions with high errors, which our certificate correctly detects.

Footage captured by a food delivery robot in Los Angeles was used to arrest and convict two people after a failed attempt to steal it off the street earlier this year, according to 404 Media. Serve Robotics, which works with Uber Eats for last-mile deliveries in the area, shared videos of the incident with the Los Angeles Police Department both proactively and after a subpoena. Serve previously met with LAPD to "open a line of communication" between the two ahead of any potential troubles, emails obtained by 404 also show. It comes at a time when public wariness around the technology is already high, with concerns about just how much the robots are recording and where that footage ultimately goes. Serve Robotics CEO Ali Kashani boasted about the resulting convictions on social media, tweeting, "Some genius once tried to steal one of our robots… It didn't end well (for them)."

Scientists at the University of Washington have developed flying robots that change shape in mid-air, all without batteries, as originally published in the research journal Science Robotics. These miniature Transformers snap into a folded position during flight to stabilize descent. They weigh just 400 milligrams and feature an on-board battery-free actuator complete with a solar power-harvesting circuit. These robots actually mimic the flight of different leaf types in mid-air once they're dropped from a drone at an approximate height of 130 feet. The origami-inspired design allows them to transform quickly from an unfolded to a folded state, a process that takes just 25 milliseconds.

Former U.S. Defense intel officer Rebekah Koffler discusses additional aid pledged to Ukraine and the U.S.'s decision to launch an unarmed ICBM in California. Last Friday, responding to questions about recent strikes on Crimea, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov, acknowledged, albeit indirectly, that Ukraine was behind them. He also warned that there will be more drone attacks on Russian warships. Drone warfare is a critical component to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's new asymmetric strategy, likely intended to ensure that Ukrainian armed forces are able to stay in the fight, over the long run, even if they are unable to secure a clear military victory over their highly entrenched opponent. Zelenskyy probably calculates that by systematically employing small scale drone attacks, Ukraine may be able to frustrate, demoralize and exhaust the Russian forces and psychologically dislodge Russian civilians.

The death toll for Bahraini soldiers killed in an attack blamed on Yemen's Houthis has risen to three, Bahrain's state news agency said. Two Bahraini servicemen in Saudi Arabia were initially confirmed dead in Monday's drone attack, before a third soldier succumbed to his injuries on Wednesday, the Bahrain Defence Force said. The attack took place as the soldiers were patrolling Saudi Arabia's southern border with Yemen. "We mourn one of our men who was martyred today as a result of his serious injuries after the Houthi attack on the southern border of Saudi Arabia," the Bahrain Defence Force said on Wednesday, announcing the death of the third soldier. Bahrain's state agency identified the soldier as First Warrant Officer Adam Salem Naseeb, and said he had "valiantly gave his life in the line of duty".

The "Pro" moniker gets thrown around a lot on gadgets that are, at best, built for hobbyists with some disposable income. The original Mavic 3 was already a fantastic drone, but the newest variation packs an entire film studio into a small, flying package (and a high price to match its power). At $4,799, this drone is not cheap, but you can capture high-quality aerial shots! This is just not something that's really feasible without spending tons more. The most stark change in the Pro Cine variant of the Mavic 3 is its triple-camera array.

Russia released a video reportedly showing Viktor Sokolov, commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in Crimea, at a meeting with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and other military top brass a day after Ukrainian special forces claimed he was among dozens of officers killed in an attack on the fleet's Sevastopol naval base. Ukraine said it was clarifying information regarding Sokolov. The United Kingdom's defence ministry said "a dynamic, deep strike battle" was under way in the Black Sea after the Russian Black Sea Fleet suffered a series of major attacks. Kyiv said its air defences destroyed 26 of 38 Russian drones fired overnight but that some of the drones hit the Danube River port of Izmail, damaging more than 30 vehicles and injuring two drivers during a two-hour attack. The drone barrage also prompted the temporary suspension of ferry services to Romania.

Nearly 1,500 US police departments operate drones but only about a dozen routinely dispatch them in response to 911 calls, according to ACLU research. Drone maker Skydio aims to see that change, with a new model launched last week called the X10. The goal, cofounder and CEO Adam Bry said during a launch event last week in San Francisco, is to "get drones everywhere they can be useful in public safety." The new drone is capable of flying at speeds of 45 miles per hour and is small enough to fit into the trunk of a police car. It has infrared sensors that can be used to track people and fly autonomously in the dark.