Drones have been given'eyes' and a new algorithm to help them fly intelligently, reaching their target position when GPS is not available. Dr. Jiefei Wang, a researcher from UNSW Canberra Trusted Autonomy Group, used an Xbox Kinect sensor as an input camera to help drones'see' their environment. Jiefei developed algorithms to process the video footage image by image, to help the drones know their own speed, motion, and to detect obstacles so they can reach their target position--a completely autonomous system. "Depth information is crucial for locating objects," Jiefei says. "Human beings can use one eye to see the world but need two eyes to locate. For example, try closing one eye, then point your index fingers towards each other and bring them together. Most people will find this difficult."

You know what happens when I get a new toy? I can't stop myself, it's just the way I am. In this case, the toy is a DJI Spark drone (it was a birthday present). I've always wanted a drone that could do some cool stuff. The one I had before was basically just a toy.

Editor's Note: Tech Tracker looks at different technologies that are disrupting the industry and changing the way restaurants operate and interact with customers. Through a partnership with online reservation platform Resy, several critically acclaimed and buzzworthy restaurants across the country are hosting "Off Menu Week" throughout the year starting in late February. Off Menu Week was designed as an alternative to traditional restaurant weeks, which occur in various cities throughout the year. Off Menu Week, by contrast, celebrates experimentation and risk. "As diners, we crave connection to the creative people behind our favorite restaurants. We thought, let's throw out the dated premise of restaurant week and bring to life a program that's fundamentally about that connection and creativity," Resy co-founder and CEO Ben Leventhal said in a statement.

DARPA Image of a drone ship vessel called Sea Hunter, which is not the new LUSV/MUSV. Those do not exist yet. The Navy is building two new large drone ships to coordinate synchronized attacks, perform command and control across fleets of Unmanned Surface Vessels and conduct high-risk maritime missions such as anti-submarine operations, mine countermeasures, surface warfare, and forward-deployed surveillance. The new vessels, now in early stages of conceptual development, are intended to perform both manned and unmanned operations while networked to a smaller fleet of multi-mission USVs, Capt. Pete Small, Program Manager, Unmanned Maritime Systems, Naval Sea Systems Command, told reporters at the Surface Naval Association Symposium.

Insect-scale flying robots are usually designed to mimic biological insects, because biological insects are masters of efficient small-scale flying. These flapping-wing micro air vehicles (FMAVS) approach the size of real insects, and we've seen some impressive demonstrations of bee-sized robots that can take off, hover, and even go for a swim. Making a tiny robot with flapping wings that can move in all of the degrees of freedom necessary to keep it controllable is tricky, though, requiring complicated mechanical transmissions and complicated software as well. It's understandable why the biomimetic approach is the favored one--insects have had a couple hundred million years to work out all the kinks, and the other ways in which we've figured out how to get robots to fly under their own power (namely, propeller-based systems) don't scale down to small sizes very well. But there's another way to fly, and unlike wings or airfoils, it's something that animals haven't managed to come up with: electrohydrodynamic thrust, which requires no moving parts, just electricity.

The changing parameters of opportunity and risk from the emerging AI revolution run much deeper than might be generally supposed, say Professor Anthony Elliott and Julie Hare. From personal virtual assistants and chatbots to self-driving vehicles and tele-robotics, AI is now threaded into large tracts of everyday life. It is reshaping society and the economy. Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, has said that today's AI revolution is "unlike anything humankind has experienced before". AI is not so much an advancement of technology, but rather the metamorphosis of all technology.

Fisac is interested in ensuring that autonomous systems such as self-driving cars, delivery drones, and home robots can operate and learn in the world--while satisfying safety constraints. Towards this goal, Fisac discusses different examples of his work with unmanned aerial vehicles and talks about safe robot learning in general; including, the curse of dimensionality and how it impacts control problems (including how some systems can be decomposed into simpler control problems), how simulation can be leveraged before trying learning on a physical robot, safe sets, and how a robot can modify its behavior based on how confident it is that its model is correct. Below are two videos of work that was discussed during the interview. The top video is on a framework for learning-based control, and the bottom video discusses adjusting the robot's confidence about a human's actions based on how predictably the human is behaving. Jaime Fernández Fisac is a final-year Ph.D. candidate in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley.

FLYMOTION, a leading provider of unmanned systems, innovative technology solutions and system integration is proud to introduce our newest Mobile Drone Command Trailer built in partnership with E-ONE, a subsidiary of REV Group and a leading manufacturer of fire apparatus, made its debut at Fire Rescue East Conference and Trade Show in Daytona Beach, Fla. The 16-foot all-aluminum Mobile Drone Command Trailer can serve as a fully climate controlled hub for remote UAS operations. With multiple work and flight stations, integrated communications, advanced LTE network capabilities inside along with a large external monitor compartment, this unit serves as a central command center for receiving all of the telemetry, video downlinks and data processing when operating drones. The Mobile Drone Command Trailer has practical applications for fire departments, law enforcement agencies, private entities and more, including search and rescue operations, hazmat responses, active shooter situations, mass casualty incidents, SWAT and tactical operations. To learn more about FLYMOTION visit www.flymotionus.co

Here's our list of the top 15 most important AI companies that have the power and resources to shape our connected futures. These are the big players in AI right now. Retail goliath, Amazon, has invested in both the consumer-orientated side of AI, as well as applications for its own business and processes. Alexa, the company's AI voice assistant built into its Echo speaker range, is well known but AWS, a set of set of machine learning and pre-trained AI services for business is not quite as famous. AWS currently has more than 10,000 customers including Siemens, Netflix, Tinder, the NFL and NASA.

They were the mischievous creatures blamed for causing mechanical failures and faults on aircraft during World War Two - before starring in a hit film as destructive monsters. Now, the gremlins are back - as a new type of killer flying drone. The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) research arm is pitting Dynetics and General Atomics (maker of the Predator drone) against each other in a contest to make the craft. Darpa said the program has been deliberately named Gremlins after the imps that British pilots during Wold War Two adopted as their good luck charms. The program envisions launching groups of UASs from existing large aircraft such as bombers or transport aircraft - as well as from fighters and other small, fixed-wing platforms - while those planes are out of range of adversary defenses.