The next generation farmhand in Japan's aging rural heartland may be a drone. For several months, developers and farmers in northeast Japan have been testing a new drone that can hover above paddy fields and perform backbreaking tasks in a fraction of the time it takes for elderly farmers. "This is unprecedented high technology," said Isamu Sakakibara, a 69-year-old rice farmer in the Tome area, a region that has supplied rice to Tokyo since the 17th century. Developers of the new agricultural drone say it offers high-tech relief for rural communities facing a shortage of labor as young people leave for the cities. "As we face a shortage of next-generation farmers, it's our mission to come up with new ideas to raise productivity and farmers' income through the introduction of cutting-edge technologies such as drones," said Mr. Sakakibara, who is also the head of JA Miyagi Tome, the local agricultural cooperative. The drone can apply pesticides and fertilizer to a rice field in about 15 minutes – a job that takes more than an hour by hand and requires farmers to lug around heavy tanks.

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. Some of China's most advanced legged robots were prancing around the World Robot Conference in Beijing, including a small quadruped called Laikago from Unitree Robotics that we wrote about last year and a big quadruped from the China North Vehicle Research Institute. They all look very Boston Dynamics-y, except for the one that has six legs, from Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

One particularly stressful part of using the pre-planned flight modes is that the craft might hit a tree branch of some other overhanging obstacle. In order to combat that, DJI added an infrared sensor to the top of the craft with a range of roughly 25 feet. This is a nice addition because, as many aspiring drone pilots will tell you, the ascent is often more stressful than the descent. Our full review later will report just how nimble this thing is on its own, but in my limited experience so far, it seems like an improvement over the Mavic Air's already-excellent system. Now that it's adept at sensing things that are behind it, the Mavic 2 Zoom also adds a new automated flight mode called Dolly Zoom, which involves zooming in while flying backward to create a unique effect like you see in the movies without worrying about smashing it into your garage, which may or may not be what happened with a previous drone during its review.

Japanese farmers are testing a new drone that can hover above paddy fields and perform backbreaking tasks in a fraction of the time it takes a labourer. The drone applies pesticides and fertilizer to a rice field in 15 minutes - a job that takes more than an hour by hand and requires farmers to lug around heavy tanks. Developers of the new agricultural drone say it offers high-tech relief for rural communities facing a shortage of labour as young people leave for the cities. They plan to release the $36,000 (£28,000) Nile-T18, which farmers can control through an iPad app, next year. Japanese farmers are testing a new drone that can hover above paddy fields and perform backbreaking tasks in a fraction of the time it takes a labourer.

Along with Nikon's new camera, we also have hands-on impressions of some new drones, a supercar and Sony's new Aibo. Sony's robot dog is back, and the new model will arrive in the US later this year. Pre-orders open in September for the $2,899 First Litter Edition with accessories and three years of cloud services included. Devindra Hardawar saw a few of the AI-powered pups at an NYC event and found that "if you're an early adopter, or someone allergic to most animals, it might just fill the fur baby-sized hole in your heart." Yesterday drone behemoth DJI didn't just reveal the Mavic 2 Pro, it also introduced a second option in the line: the Mavic 2 Zoom.

Chinese drone leader DJI unveiled two new drone models at a press conference in New York City that bring higher quality cameras and the ability to zoom in while flying. They are updates to the Mavic line; the Mavic 2 Pro has a camera made by legendary imaging company Hasselblad, and the Mavic 2 Zoom lets users get closer to the action with the zoom. This is important because drones use wide-angle lenses to show the expanse of the area you're flying over. And now, with the zoom, users will be able to zero in on other things on the ground. Flight time from a battery, which has lasted around 20 minutes with the original Mavic Pro, is increased to 31 minutes on the new 2 Pro.

Dramatic drone footage showing an previous unknown and uncontacted indigenous tribe living deep in the Brazilian jungle has been seen for the first time. The video was shot from above a vast area of dense Amazon rainforest in the far west of northern Brazil. The images show a group of 16 indigenous people from a tribe which, according to the Brazilian agency for native tribes, Funai, has never had any contact with the outside world. The photos, as well as the drone footage, were taken in 2017, and has now been released. The video and photographs were taken during an expedition in 2017, but have only been released now.

Dronemaker DJI announced Thursday two new models aimed squarely at the prosumer-to-professional crowd: The Mavic 2 Pro and the Mavic 2 Zoom. Both of DJI's new Mavic 2 drones are built around the same basic design. The key difference is in the camera payload: The Mavic 2 Pro packs a 20-megapixel camera with 1-inch CMOS sensor from Hasselblad, the high-end camera maker in which DJI invested in 2015. The Mavic 2 Zoom, meanwhile, offers a 24-48mm lens that lets photographers and videographers reach farther-away subjects or add telephoto compression effects to their work. The lens on the Mavic 2 Zoom also allows for the drone's new "Dolly Zoom" effect, which works by zooming in on a subject while simultaneously flying away from it.

If you are a fan of DJI's Mavic Pro, today is a good day. Why? Because, as rumored, the drone behemoth didn't just reveal the Mavic Pro 2, it also introduced a second option in the line: the Mavic 2 Zoom (note: no "Pro"). As the name suggests, the latter comes with a 2X optical zoom (24-48mm and 2X digital to 96mm), meaning there's no "greedy boy" option here, each has its own unique selling points -- so you'll need to think long and hard about which one you really want Before we get to the differences, let's talk about what the two models share. Bar the camera, the two new Mavics are the same. The key upgrades include up to 31 minutes of flight time (up from the original Mavic Pro's 27) and there are now more sensors on the drone (10 total) so that Mavic now has obstacle avoidance in all directions (including above/below).

RIO DE JANEIRO – New aerial images give a rare glimpse of an isolated tribe in Brazil's Amazon, showing 16 people walking through jungle as well as a deforested area with a crop. In a clip released Tuesday night, one of the tribespeople appears to be carrying a bow and arrow. Brazil's agency for indigenous affairs, Funai, said it captured the drone shots during an expedition last year to monitor isolated communities, but only released them now to protect their study. Researchers monitored the tribe in Vale do Javari, an indigenous territory in the southwestern part of the state of Amazonas. There are 11 confirmed isolated groups in the area -- more than anywhere else in Brazil.