In the first days after a fleet of 25 delivery robots descended on George Mason University's campus in January, school officials could only speculate about the machines' long-term impact. The Igloo cooler-sized robots from the Bay Area start-up Starship Technologies -- which were designed to deliver food on demand across campus -- appeared to elicit curious glances and numerous photos, but not much else. It was clear, officials said at the time, that more time and more data would be necessary to understand whether the robots would actually change the campus culture or become a forgettable novelty. Today, some of that data emerged for the first time. In the two months since the robots arrived at the Fairfax, Va.-based school, an extra 1,500 breakfast orders have been delivered autonomously, according to Starship Technologies and Sodexo, a company that manages food services for GMU on contract and works closely with the robots.

An army of'killer robots' that will assist infantry on the battlefield has been unveiled in propaganda footage released by Russia The video, released by the Kremlin, appears to showcase the state's latest drone technology. That includes and AI-controlled driverless tank that follow the aim of a soldier's rifle to obliterate targets with its own weaponry. Russia's Advanced Research Foundation (ARF) said the ultimate goal is to have an army of robots entirely controlled by Artificial Intelligence algorithms. Currently the drones are deployed alongside infantry who remotely control the vehicles, but in the future the tech will be fully autonomous. That means the military hardware will be able to target and kill enemies without any human intervention.

In the past four months, airports have been brought to a standstill by the sight of drones hovering above runways. Last week, rules came into force in the UK that make it illegal to fly drones within 5 kilometres of an airport. But is there anything more we can do to stop them becoming a weaponised nuisance?

That is, if you were fortunate enough to get an invite. While last year's invite-only conference, held in southern California's Palm Springs, produced striking images of Bezos strolling with a robotic dog designed by Boston Dynamics, the CEO this time took to the stage with a flying robo-dragonfly. Much of this year's buzz, however, has come straight from the stars; among the attendees is actor Mark Hamill, who portrayed'Star Wars' protagonists'Luke Skywalker' in the films' original trilogy. Bezos demonstrated a robotic dragon fly on stage that circled around his head. As Hamill, who recently revived Skywalker for the latest iteration of the Star Wars franchise, mingled with guests, the conference's other attendees showcased their newest and most exciting revelations in the fields of robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and more.

Technology used to map the interior of Icelandic lava tubes could be used to explore deep caves on Mars and the moon, scientists say. 'Space drones', or LiDAR-equipped drones, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, are currently used to examine the lava tube's shape and its ice formations. The team, from the SETI Institute and Astrobotic Technology, was investigating the Lofthellir Lava Tube Ice Cave in the remote Myvatn region of Iceland. Scientists are hoping to use the same technology used to map the interior of Icelandic lava tubes to explore deep caves on Mars. SETI's mission is to explore and examine the origin and nature of life in the universe.

You have probably read about robots replacing human labor as a new era of automation takes root in one industry after another. But a new report suggests humans are not the only ones who might lose their jobs. In New Zealand, farmers are using drones to herd and monitor livestock, assuming a job that highly intelligent dogs have held for more than a century. The robots have not replaced the dogs entirely, Radio New Zealand reports, but they have appropriated one of the animal's most potent tools: barking. The DJI Mavic Enterprise, a $3,500 drone favored by farmers, has a feature that lets the machine record sounds and play them over a loud speaker, giving the machine the ability to mimic its canine counterparts.

Now, it's self-driving cars to make the delivery. Two Kroger markets in Houston are rolling out a self-driving car program, in which orders can be placed online and delivered right to your home without a driver. The self-driving service will be offered at stores in South Post Oak Road and Buffalo Speedway, per ABC13. Those in Texas can access the service from the 77401, 77096, 77005 and 77025 ZIP codes, for same- or next-day delivery. The delivery service was conceived by the robotics company Nuro, founded by two ex-Google employees.

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your Automaton bloggers. We'll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months; here's what we have so far (send us your events!): Let us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today's videos. This soft gripper from MIT is based on an origami "magic-ball." It's a "magic-ball gripper," and that hyphen placement is absolutely critical to it functioning appropriately.

The University of Albany in Upstate New York recently unveiled a two-story, 1,700-square-foot drone lab. The College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity (CEHC) hosted an open house last month to launch the lab, located in the basement of Page Hall at the university's downtown campus. The space, enclosed with netting and rubber flooring, offers a controlled indoor environment for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight training, along with land-based robotics research and educational opportunities. According to a press release from UAlbany, last summer, Brandon Behlendorf, an assistant professor at CEHC, was leaving his office in Richardson Hall when he stumbled upon an aging stairwell on the north corner of the second floor. Wondering where it led, he made his way down five stories to a locked door in the basement.

You are free to share this article under the Attribution 4.0 International license. Machine learning powers a new kind of drone flight controller software, researchers report. After Wil Koch flew a friend's drone for the first time, operating it through "first-person view" where a person wears a headset connected to a video feed streaming live from a camera on the drone, he thought it was amazing. So amazing that he went out that same day and purchased his own system--a video headset, controller, and quadcopter drone, named for the four propellers that power it. "You put the goggles on and they allow you to see live video transmitting from a camera mount on the drone," Koch says.