News reports of May 20, 2018 have reported the government has embarked upon an ambitious defence project for incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance operational preparedness of the armed forces in a significant way. The project is to include equipping the military with unmanned tanks, vessels, aerial vehicles and robotic weaponry. The DRDO has been talking of preparing the military for robotic warfare for past several years but without much to show on ground other than few applications. DRDO's Centre for Artificial Intelligence & Robotics (CAIR) has developed a range of robots with varied applications, and is also developing: man portable Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) for low intensity conflicts and surveillance in urban scenario; wall climbing and flapping wing robot; walking robot with four and six legs for logistics support; Network Traffic Analysis (NETRA) which can monitor internet traffic. But considering the pace at which developments are taking place, particularly in China in combining robotics and AI, our slow progress in this field is liable to leave us at huge asymmetric disadvantage.

Millions of Americans are now registered consumer drone owners. But have anyone given a thought to what kinds of skills people need to learn related to drones? What are all options available for those who do want to train? It takes a lot of training to operate it consistently and in different types of weather. The thing is not just operating and flying, but one needs to know how to react when different circumstances arise. There are various videos on YouTube for first-time drone pilots that display, how to fly a drone, some ways to avoid drone crashing, and FAA regulations one need to stick to.

Every year, Time magazine gets swamped with pitches from thousands of companies, all convinced their product deserves to be included in Time's "25 Best Inventions" list. This past December, the magazine reserved its cover for a Pixar-like, 11-inch armless robot named Jibo. Jibo -- a so-called "social robot" -- is just the latest example of a clear phenomenon: A new generation of exponentially more intelligent and capable robots is on the way. In fact, they're already everywhere we look: over our heads, in our cars and operating rooms, next to us on the assembly lines, in our military, and on the last mile. An article written in 2015 by a former Pentagon robotics researcher looks more prescient by the day.

"The use of drones by fire departments and in other public safety organizations is on the upswing, and we've seen vastly increased demand since we launched our drone division two years ago, and we continually add products and services to deliver latest technology from top industry vendors to meet public safety needs," says Glenn Poulos, Vice President and General Manager at Gap Wireless. DJI Enterprise, FLIR Systems, Flyability, KSI Data Sciences are some of the partners to be featured at the GAP Wireless OAFC Booth. On the other hand, drones have grown constantly and provide a unique, aerial perspective that help assessing emergency situations and can help first responders see through smoke and underbrush.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV's) or better called drones, are becoming quite popular. But, with its growth a very few know its proper application and operation. Not everyone knows how they're allowed to use them. For this reason, the Minnesota Department of Transportation is helping people learn about drones. Various people learnt about the technology and there were also flights simulations and Competitive drone racing.

This collaboration will help import field boundaries from Operations Centre to organize fields for drone flights, order on-demand high resolution drone imagery, and receive processed or raw data for decision making during the growing season. In 2017, Deveron completed over 2200 flights for its customers. "As we continue to expand our drone fleet in North America, we look forward to growing our user base and offering farmers a solution that allows them to focus on farming, not flying drones and processing data," says David MacMillan, President and CEO of Deveron.

Google was set to help develop an artificial intelligence program to help military drone strikes reduce the number of civilian casualties -- that is, until 12 employees resigned from the company in protest and another 3,000 signed an open letter blasting the program as evil. Google had an employee meeting to discuss whether AI should be used in the military, The New York Times reported on May 30. Diane Greene, CEO of Google Cloud, announced the decision on Friday at an employee meeting, according to Gizmodo. There is a current contract with the Pentagon that expires in 2019, but it will not be renewed. Drone strikes have had varying degrees of accuracy and have left some civilians dead in the wake of their attacks.

Nevada and Alberta signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to foster economic growth, innovation and diversification. The motive behind the collaboration is to efficiently operate the unmanned aircraft system technology and tackle the challenges related to its safe integration and opening up industrial market opportunities in key sectors like energy, agriculture and the environment. "We are excited to build and strengthen economic relations with Nevada, especially in the growing unmanned system sector," says Rachel Notley, Premier of Alberta. "Combining the considerable unmanned aerial system expertise of Nevada and Alberta offers significant potential growth and innovation across numerous industries," says Brain Sandoval, Governor of Nevada.

Any Star Wars fan knows that the chances of successfully navigating an asteroid field are approximately 3,720 to 1. The odds are probably significantly higher against today's autonomous drones, which fly quite a bit slower than sublight speed and without the mad skills of Han Solo. Researchers at MIT believe they have hit upon a solution--more than one, actually--to train drones to move quickly through a crowded, complex environment, though we're probably light years away from navigating through hostile star systems. One solution, dubbed "Flight Goggles," involves streaming a virtual reality environment to the drone as it flies through empty space. "The system is at the intersection of motion capture equipment, drone technology, and high-bandwidth communications," Sertac Karaman, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, told Singularity Hub. "We had to develop a number of hardware and software components to make it work."

He estimates that he talks or texts, on average, with each CEO in his portfolio three or four times a week. He visits potential customers with Jörg Lamprecht, CEO of Dedrone, a 75-employee drone-security firm. "It's not about the investments," Mr. Chambers says about his portfolio. "I want to first be a strategic partner with the CEO, where I am his or her most trusted adviser, mentor--a coach." Mr. Chambers is part of a wave of big-time CEOs and executives who, instead of more conventional retirements of just sitting on a couple of big-company boards, are embarking on second chapters as guiding lights on the startup scene.