Back in 2017, the Microsoft Research team developed and open-sourced Aerial Informatics and Robotics Simulation (AirSim). On Monday, the team shared how AirSim can be used to solve the current challenges in the development of autonomous systems. Microsoft AirSim is an open-source, cross-platform simulation platform for autonomous systems including autonomous cars, wheeled robotics, aerial drones, and even static IoT devices. It works as a plugin for Epic Games' Unreal Engine. There is also an experimental release for the Unity game engine.

The FAA has warned against equipping your drone with weapons such as flamethrowers and handguns. But can a nail gun really be considered a weapon -- that is, outside of Quake? Let's hope not, because roboticists at the University of Michigan have made a roofing drone that uses that tool to autonomously nail shingles into place. In a video shot in UM's special drone testing habitat, the craft flies up, approaches its bit of roof, and gingerly applies the nail gun before backing off and doing it a couple more times. It's very much just a tech demonstration right now, with lots of room to improve.

This paper presents an initial design concept and specification of a civilian Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) management simulation system that focuses on explainability for the human-in-the-loop control of semi-autonomous UAVs. The goal of the system is to facilitate the operator intervention in critical scenarios (e.g. avoid safety issues or financial risks). Explainability is supported via user-friendly abstractions on Belief-Desire-Intention agents. To evaluate the effectiveness of the system, a human-computer interaction study is proposed.

There's an old saying that wars are easy to get into but hard to get out of. President Trump understands this, which is why he wisely resisted the temptation to launch a military strike against Iran after that nation launched a missile and drone attack last week against Saudi Arabian oil facilities. When he was running for president, Trump promised the American people he would not jump into endless conflicts in the greater Middle East, where thousands of members of the U.S. military have been killed and wounded in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fighting began in 2001 in Afghanistan and 2003 in Iraq and still continues in both countries. U.S. forces have also fought on a smaller scale in Syria to strike at terrorist targets.

Saudi officials display what they claim are Iranian cruise missiles and drones used in the attack on Saudi Arabia's oil industry; Benjamin Hall reports from Jerusalem. The attacks on Saudi Arabia's oil fields will drive a massive increase in the need for perimeter security gear, according to a new report. The report, released by IHS Markit earlier this week, says that knowing where drones are at all times is a new reality. While benign drones must be tracked, it is the malicious ones that must be stopped. "Drone attacks are relatively cheap and easy to initiate but can inflict major damage," IHS Markit analyst Oliver Philippou wrote in the note.

The White House weighs its options as Iran warns that a military response could trigger an'all-out war'; chief White House correspondent John Roberts reports. Saudi Arabia defended itself as well as possible from the recent massive attack on its oil facilities -- an attack that the U.S. has blamed on Iran, a military expert said. "I don't think there is any country that could have defended any better than Saudi Arabia did, and that includes the United States," Peter Roberts, director of military sciences at the Royal United Services Institute, told The New York Times. "I don't think there is any country that could have defended any better than Saudi Arabia did, and that includes the United States." Eighteen drones and seven cruise missiles bombarded the facilities in an asault described as a "Pearl Harbor-type" attack.

Democratic presidential hopeful Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, said Thursday that she would re-enter the Iran nuclear deal and end sanctions in response to Iran's involvement in drone attack against Saudi Arabia oil facilities if she was president. "What I would do is, I would re-enter the Iran nuclear deal to prevent Iran from continuing to move forward in building a nuclear weapon that puts us and the world further at risk," Gabbard said on "The Story with Martha MacCallum." Every day that we don't do this, every day we continue down this failed strategy Iran gets closer and closer to a nuclear weapon. U.S. officials told Fox News on Tuesday that Iranian cruise missiles and drones were both used in the attack on the two Saudi Arabian oil facilities, and that they were fired from inside southwest Iran this past weekend. Gabbard called the attack a "retaliation" against "extreme sanctions."

Walgreens is getting its wings. The pharmacy chain has teamed up with Alphabet's drone delivery service Wing to bring food and beverage, over-the-counter medication and other items to consumers. This'store to door' testing is set to begin next month in Virginia and will offer more than 100 products and pre-built'packs' for purchase in the Wing app. Walgreens has teamed up with Alphabet's drone delivery service Wing to bring food and beverage, over-the-counter medication and other items to consumers The partnership between Walgreens and Wing aims to further explore the future of health and wellness products and retail delivery through the air, offering product availability and home delivery minutes after placing orders via the Wing app. 'Walgreens continues to explore partnerships to transform and modernize our customer experience and we are proud to be the first retailer in the U.S. to offer an on-demand commercial drone delivery option with Wing,' said Vish Sankaran, chief innovation officer, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., in a press release.

Prof Ashutosh Sharma, secretary to the government (Ministry of Science and Technology) reportedly said that the government has initiated a project to digitally map the country with a resolution of 10 centimetres, using drones and technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data. The Survey of India, a part of the Department of Science and Technology, started on the project a few months ago and has chalked out a five-year plan to complete the project. The survey has started the exercise in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Haryana. "The project will be extended to other states but the respective government should show interest and also provide some financial support," Sharma said. The project, which is expected to cost INR 1000 Cr, is also mapping the entire Ganga basin from the beginning to the end, 25 km from either sides of the banks with an accuracy of 10 cm.

A former Google software engineer is sounding the alarm on killer robots. Laura Nolan resigned from Google last year when the tech giant started working with the U.S. military on drone technology, and since then, she has joined the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, warning that autonomous robots with lethal capabilities could become a threat to humanity. Discussions concerning possibly banning autonomous weapons fell apart on August 21 during a United Nations meeting in Geneva, when Russian diplomats allegedly made a fuss over the language that was used in a document meant to begin the process of establishing a ban. "If you're a despot, how much easier is it to have a small cadre of engineers control a fleet of autonomous weapons for you than to have to keep your troops in line?" Nolan tells Inverse. "Autonomous weapons are potential weapons of mass destruction. They need to be made taboo in the same way that chemical and biological weapons are."