On Sunday and Monday, Twitter was abuzz over a harrowing Russian video, obviously shot with a drone, that showed a mother bear and cub making their way across a steep, snowy ridge. As the drone films, the cub falls down the ridge and laboriously makes its way up to its worried mother, sliding back down onto the rock on multiple occasions. The cub finally makes it to the top of the ridge, and both mother and cub dart off into the brush, the mother glancing over her shoulder in concern as the drone follows them. Many Twitter users found the video to be inspiring, in a way: Look, that baby bear never gave up! Many wildlife biologists, however, saw something rather different.

In the time it takes some countries to slightly extend one train station platform, China can rustle up entire high-speed railways. And this stunning drone footage shows what incredible feats of engineering they can be. The clip shows 160mph trains running along the now completed 411-mile Xi'an to Chengdu high-speed line, which was started in October 2012. The clip shows 160mph trains running along the now completed 411-mile Xi'an to Chengdu high-speed line, which was started in October 2012 To connect Xi'an with Chengdu engineers had to tackle the fearsome Qinling Mountains that divide northern and southern China It's something to behold, with the £8billion (71bn yuan) line – finished in December 2017 - passing amid towering mountains and through huge tunnels. To connect the two cities engineers had to tackle the fearsome Qinling Mountains that divide northern and southern China and thread the track underneath numerous environmentally sensitive areas.

A 15-year-old Australian has been crowned overall champion at the FAI World Drone Racing Championships in Shenzhen, China.

Drones can already be effective search and rescue tools, but not in densely-packed forests where the tree cover might block GPS signals. Thankfully, MIT has a clever solution: use the same technology that guides self-driving cars. Its researchers have developed drone tech that uses LIDAR to map forests without any use of GPS. Each drone creates a 2D map that also includes the orientations of trees, making it easy to tell where the robotic aircraft has already been as it searches through a specified area. That, in turn, makes it feasible to merge maps from an entire drone fleet and comb large swaths of forest with a minimum of wasted effort.

New York state has invested more than $40 million into developing the area between Syracuse and Rome into a drone testing corridor for high-tech companies developing new uses for unmanned aerial technology.

A shape-shifting robot that can autonomously reconfigure itself into a variety of different shapes has been developed by scientists. The device can perceive its own surroundings, make decisions and autonomously assume different shapes, they say. That means the shape-shifting machine can easily switch between a delivery drone and an arm that lifts and moves objects. It is hoped that similar gadgets will one day be used in search and rescue operations and to explore distant planets. The shape-shifting robot is composed of wheeled, cube-shaped modules that can detach and reattach to form new shapes.

If you live in Washington, D.C., or Redwood, Calif., you may have glimpsed a small, boxy robot rolling along a local sidewalk, minding it's own business, but attracting the attention of many a curious onlooker. The autonomous machines -- which look like the spawn of an Igloo Cooler and a slow cooker -- were part of a pilot program last year by Starship Technologies focused on delivering meals from local restaurants in dozens of cities around the world. This week, the company unveiled plans to broaden its delivery service beyond food to include packages, a move that led it to declare itself "the world's first robot package delivery service." "Today, more than ever, people lead busy and diverse lives," Lex Bayer, Starship's chief executive, said in a statement online. "The hassle of needing to rearrange your life for a delivery will become a thing of the past. No more having to switch your working from home day, reschedule meetings, visit a locker, drive to a post office or contact a courier all because of a missed delivery."

FILE - In this Thursday, Oct. 23, 2014 file photo, a member of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) mission to Ukraine watches a drone take off during a test flight near the town of Mariupol, eastern Ukraine. Germany and France say it appears that Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine downed a drone being used by neutral European observers and are demanding accountability. In a joint statement, they said Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018 the downing is a "clear violation" of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, which is to have unimpeded access.

SAN FRANCISCO/BEIJING – DJI, the world's top seller of drones for consumers, has snagged a pair of wins in its effort to court businesses. SZ DJI Technology Co. said its latest industrial gadget -- the Mavic 2 Enterprise -- will soon survey power grids for U.S. utility Southern Co., while American Airlines Group Inc. will test the craft for plane inspections. Those are important alliances for the Chinese company, which is grappling with a U.S. government shut-out, a potentially damaging patent lawsuit and rising American tariffs. Privacy is a particularly thorny issue for DJI -- one of the few Chinese technology giants that's made major strides abroad. Escalating U.S. tensions are fueling concerns about the dominance of a Chinese company in unmanned flying craft.

China has released a new propaganda video of its deadly unmanned fighter jet, which shows the aircraft striking still and moving targets. CH-5, also known as Rainbow-5, was unveiled in 2016 and is said to be China's largest and most powerful drone bomber. The aircraft can carry 16 missiles and strike targets while flying at an altitude of 6,000 metres (19,685 feet), Chinese media have claimed. It can fly up to 60 hours without refuelling with a maximum flight altitude of 8,000 metres (26,246 feet) and a maximum range of 10,000 kilometres (6,213 miles). CH-5, also known as Rainbow-5, is on display during the 11th China International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition in 2016.