The state firefighting service of California collaborated with a unit of California Air National Guard and deployed military wartime drones in order to receive real time photos and videos of the massive wildfire which spread across the area. According to a report by USA Today, this is only the third time such collaboration had taken place. The Reaper MQ-9, operated by the 163d Attack Wing at March Air Reserve Base in the Riverside County, will fly five miles above and transmit relevant information to commanders on the ground. This also includes information about spot-fire detection. Scott McLean, Deputy Chief of California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said, "It's out of the way."

As Israel prepares for yet another war directly on its border, the truth about Israel's vast military capabilities has been largely absent in the corporate media. However, if one were to be fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to be able to travel to Israel's border with Syria in the north and the Gaza strip in the south, they might see what looks more or less like a scene from RoboCop. Israel is the first country in the world to use unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) to not only patrol its borders but also to replace soldiers on missions, as well. The new Border Patroller model can be armed with remote-controlled weapons, reconnaissance means, and additional components that cannot be fitted on the traditional Guardium model it had been using for years prior. The robot is also able to patrol underground and gather information for units that are present on the surface.

City-sanctioned land drones could be hitting a sidewalk near you by February 2018. That was the report Austin Transportation Department Chief of Staff Karla Taylor gave to the Urban Transportation Commission on Tuesday evening. Her briefing was an update on the development of a pilot program that would allow private companies to deploy electric-powered personal delivery robots on sidewalks, crosswalks and other pedestrian ways. City Council authorized the pilot through a resolution the members passed in August. "(Council members) see it as a disruptive or emerging technology that's coming whether or not we want to pilot it," Taylor told the UTC.

The two biggest societal challenges for the twenty-first century are also the biggest opportunities – automation and climate change. The epitaph of fossil fuels with its dark cloud burning a hole in the ozone layer is giving way to a rise of solar and wind farms worldwide. Servicing these plantations are fleets of robots and drones, providing greater possibilities of expanding CleanTech to the most remote regions of the planet. As 2017 comes to end, the solar industry for the first time in ten years has plateaued due to the proposed budget cuts by the Trump administration. Solar has had quite a run with an average annual growth rate of more than 65% for the past decade promoted largely by federal subsidies.

That means that people once again must register their drones (or any other remote-controlled flying device that meets the criteria) at the FAA's site for small Unmanned Aircraft System registration service. The registration still costs $5, and you still have to put put that registration number on the drone when you're flying it. The FAA suggests writing it on in permanent marker, using a label, or even etching it into the drone. The potential penalties for failing to register are potentially steep-- civil penalties up to $27,500 and criminal penalties up to $250,000 or three years in jail. Of course, those are assuming severe incidents result from unregistered drone flight, but the site does say pilots need to keep the registration certificate handy during operation or could possibly face punishment.

Last month, the ScanPyramids project, led by a team of researchers from the University of Cairo's Faculty of Engineering in Egypt and the HIP Institute in France, announced that they'd used muon imaging to discover a large void hidden deep inside the Khufu's Pyramid (also known as the Great Pyramid of Giza, since it's the big one). Nobody knows what's inside, or if there's anything inside at all, or even if maybe that's where the Stargate is stashed. Obviously there's a lot of interest in what may or may not be hiding out in here, and it could help solve mysteries like how and why exactly the pyramids were built. The problem is that (understandably) we're not going to just start blowing holes in the Great Pyramid to see what's going on. In 2002, Egyptologists used a custom exploration robot (made by iRobot, in fact) to explore a small shaft leading out of the Queen's Chamber in the Great Pyramid that was sealed by a door.

The US' brief period of registration-free drone flight is over -- President Trump has signed the National Defense Authorization Act for 2018, and it revives the registration requirement for civilian drones. Robotic fliers between 0.5lbs and 55lbs need to be submitted to a database if they're going to remain legal. A Washington, DC appeals court had struck down the FAA's original requirement in May, arguing that it didn't have the authority to regulate model aircraft, but that clearly wasn't a deterrent. The FAA had said said it would rethink its approach to the regulation after its earlier defeat. Naturally, the FAA is slightly giddy.

Be sure to also wrap up some extra rotors, a spare battery or two, and get drone registration through the Federal Aviation Association (FAA), because the drone registration requirements that were declared dead earlier this year were just revived by the Trump administration. A relative footnote in the National Defense Authorization Act, which was signed into law today, the new regulation requires that drone owners register their unmanned aerial vehicles before taking to the skies. You can register you new drone on the FAA's drone Unmanned Aircraft System website. But for longtime drone pilots, this requirement is nothing new. In December 2015, regulators began requiring drone registration, and the program took off, with 300,000 drone owners signing up within the first month.

Koch said having an aerial view will help investigators put together complex scenes and will be a critical tool to leverage during dangerous encounters, such as hostage situations or with a barricaded subject. He said the drone's video feed instantly goes to a monitor in the Special Operation Team's command post.

Last month, the ScanPyramids project, led by a team of researchers from the University of Cairo's Faculty of Engineering in Egypt and the HIP Institute in France, announced that they'd used muon imaging to discover a large void hidden deep inside the Khufu's Pyramid (also known as the Great Pyramid of Giza, since it's the big one). Nobody knows what's inside, or if there's anything inside at all, or even if maybe that's where the Stargate is stashed. Obviously there's a lot of interest in what may or may not be hiding out in here, and it could help solve mysteries like how and why exactly the pyramids were built. The problem is that (understandably) we're not going to just start blowing holes in the Great Pyramid to see what's going on. In 2002, Egyptologists used a custom exploration robot (made by iRobot, in fact) to explore a small shaft leading out of the Queen's Chamber in the Great Pyramid that was sealed by a door. Rather than try to open the door, likely destroying it in the process, the robot drilled a tiny hole just large enough to poke a camera through in an effort to do the minimum amount of irreversible damage to the only wonder of the ancient world that we've got left.