The Army is now crafting early requirements for what is expected to be a new attack helicopter -- beyond the Apache -- with superior weapons, speed, maneuverability, sensor technology and vastly-improved close-combat attack capability. "We know that in the future we are going to need to have a lethal capability, which drives us to a future attack reconnaissance platform. The Apache is the world's greatest but there will come a time when we look at leap ahead technology," Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville told a small group of reporters. A future attack-reconnaissance helicopter, now in its conceptual phase, is a key part of a wide-spanning, multi-aircraft Army Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program. FVL seeks a family of next-generation aircraft to begin emerging in the 2030s, consisting of attack, utility and heavy-class air assets.

Drones have been serving ample of industries like construction, inspection, agriculture, businesses and many more. Plus, its use have resulted in time and cost saving. With the increase in the drone use cases focus on the sky, many drone innovators are moving indoors. "Because aviation regulations are not charging as rapidly as drone technology, investors are paying more attention to drone solutions where these regulations don't apply and a faster ROI can be achieved," says Colin Snow, Founder and CEO of Skylogic Research. For instance, flying in the indoor spaces may be a bit difficult as without the benefit of GPS positioning one can't navigate well.

It's been nearly three months since many Google employees, and the public, learned about the company's decision to provide artificial intelligence to a controversial military pilot program known as Project Maven, which aims to speed up analysis of drone footage by automatically classifying images of objects and people. Now, about a dozen Google employees are resigning in protest over the company's continued involvement in Maven. The resigning employees' frustrations range from particular ethical concerns over the use of artificial intelligence in drone warfare to broader worries about Google's political decisions - and the erosion of user trust that could result from these actions. Many of them have written accounts of their decisions to leave the company, and their stories have been gathered and shared in an internal document, the contents of which multiple sources have described to Gizmodo. The employees who are resigning in protest, several of whom discussed their decision to leave with Gizmodo, say that executives have become less transparent with their workforce about controversial business decisions and seem less interested in listening to workers' objections than they once did.

Miniscule robotic drones might be the future, but they've been tricky to get off the ground. Until now, any wing-flapping insect robot had to have a power source, making it too heavy to lift off with its tiny wings. Now, however, researchers at the University of Washington have found a way to transmit power to a flying robotic insect (lovingly dubbed RoboFly) via laser, obviating the need for a separate power supply. The team is set to present its findings in a paper at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Brisbane, Australia on May 23rd. "Before now, the concept of wireless insect-sized flying robots was science fiction, said co-author and assistant professor Sawyer Fuller in a statement. "Would we ever be able to make them work without needing a wire?

Artificial intelligence researchers have called on Google to abandon a project developing AI technology for the military, warning that autonomous weapons directly contradict the firm's famous'Don't Be Evil' motto. The experts join more than 3,100 of Google's own employees, who signed an open letter last month protesting the company's involvement in a controversial Pentagon program called Project Maven. The partnership between the technology giant and the US Military involves using customised AI surveillance software to analyse data from drone footage in order to better recognise target objects, such as distinguishing between a human on the ground and a vehicle. Around a dozen employees have reportedly resigned in protest at Google's refusal to cut ties with the US military, each one citing ethical concerns to Gizmodo. Google did not respond to a request for comment from The Independent.

In 1989, two MIT artificial intelligence researchers made a terrifying prediction. "Within a few years," wrote Rodney Brooks and Anita Flynn, "it will be possible at modest cost to invade a planet with millions of tiny robots." Their paper "Fast, Cheap and out of Control: A Robot Invasion of the Solar System,", argued that small, autonomous "gnat robots" would soon become cheap enough to solve problems en masse. Nearly three decades later, those millions of tiny robots have yet to take over, at least not exactly like Brooks and Flynn envisioned. While they were right in some ways--the world has more than 700 million active iPhones--the vision of the fast, autonomous, tiny, buzzing bot is still a dream.

It's tough being an imagery analyst for the U.S. military: you're drowning in pictures and drone video, with more pouring in endlessly from the tons of sensors and cameras used on planes, ships and satellites. Sifting through it to find roadside bombs or missile components is a time-consuming challenge. That's why the Pentagon's blue sky research arm figures that cameras ought to be able to filter out useless information themselves – so you don't have to. Darpa announced yesterday that it's moving forward in earnest with a program to endow cameras with "visual intelligence." That's the ability to process information from visual cues, contextualize its significance, and learn what other visual data is necessary to answer some pre-existing question.

Around a dozen Google employees have quit over the company's involvement in an artificial intelligence drone program for the Pentagon called Project Maven, Gizmodo reported today. Meanwhile, nearly 4,000 workers have now demanded an end to the company's participation in Maven in a petition that also calls for Google to avoid military work in the future. Project Maven seeks to help the military analyze drone footage faster through machine learning, as the AI detects people and objects for human review. Those who resigned from Google cited ethical concerns over the use of AI in drone operations and the company's broader involvement in political and military spheres -- Google recently sponsored the Conservative Political Action Conference, for instance. Some claimed that Google is increasingly less transparent with employees about contentious decisions and seems less concerned about objections from staffers than it used to be.

Around a dozen Google employees have quit over the company's involvement in an artificial intelligence drone program for the Pentagon called Project Maven, Gizmodo reported today.

Between now and 2020, Drones are big business according to Goldman Sachs, $100 billion big. From Amazon to Uber and your neighbour's kid trying to take an aerial picture, Drones are going to be a big part of life once the law can get its act together. Unless you're Dominos, businesses seem to be struggling with how to apply the new technology and are back on forth on when to go in. How can you make the right decisions? I recently sat down with Robert Garbett (Founder and CEO of Drone Major Group - 'the global commercial trade organisation for the drone industry' and got some answers about where drones are doing in the next ten years and how businesses can take advantage of the technology now and later on.