UAV designs are a perpetual compromise between the ability to fly long distances efficiently with payloads (fixed-wing) and the ability to maneuver, hover, and land easily (rotorcraft). With a very few rather bizarre exceptions, any aircraft that try to offer the best of both worlds end up relatively complicated, inefficient, and expensive. The ideal fantasy UAV would be a fixed-wing aircraft with the magical ability to land on a dime, and a group of researchers from the University of Sherbrooke in Canada have come very close to making that happen, with a little airplane that uses legs and claws to reliably perch on walls. The majority of the perching robots that we've seen are quadrotors. Perching with a quadrotor is significantly easier than perching with a fixed-wing aircraft, because you have many more degrees of control, and you're not obligated to keep the vehicle moving forward all the time.

In 2014 the world came into contact with Artificial Intelligence (AI) for the home with the release of Amazon Echo. This type of personal AI had been introduced previously in the mega-hit movie "Iron Man' with the AI system called "Jarvis." The main character Tony Stark uses Jarvis for anything he needs executed: lighting, television, phone calls, dinner orders, simple chores and computer data analysis. Up to a few years ago, people thought this was only possible in movies and fiction. One start-up company in New Jersey attempted to reinterpret and repurpose existing leisure drones with an added benefit of AI.

Drones might become a normal sight in the skies over Houston following Hurricane Harvey. Eyewitness News learned many big name companies like Farmers Insurances rely on the new technology to help process claims. Brent Hazen deployed a drone in Sienna Plantation Thursday afternoon. He works as a claims representative for Farmers' insurance catastrophe response team. He used the drone to snap pictures of damage to a policyholder's house.

Tech visionaries may tantalize us with visions of instant gratification via drone delivery, but Silicon Valley has yet to deliver on such promises. Meanwhile, halfway around the globe in an African country barely the size of Maryland, drone deliveries have already taken flight--with more serious cargo than burritos. Jeremy Hsu is a science and tech journalist based in New York. Sign up to get Backchannel's weekly newsletter. In October 2016, Rwandan crowds cheered the launch and landing of delivery drones developed and operated by Zipline, a San Francisco-based startup.

If you imagined the skies of California would someday be buzzing with drones carrying tiny vials of pot or edibles for recreational marijuana users, think again because that stoner fantasy was just a pipe dream. California's Bureau of Cannabis Control last week outlined its plans to ban pot delivery by drone, putting the kibosh on any business hoping to make a buck on the concept. On Wednesday, the bureau released an initial study describing proposed emergency regulations for commercial cannabis businesses ahead of Jan. 1, when marijuana sales, with proper retail licensing, will be allowed for recreational use in California. In its study -- Commercial Cannabis Business Licensing Program Regulations -- the bureau is clear: Marijuana must be transported in trailers or commercial vehicles. If the message was lost, the bureau goes a bit further: "Transportation may not be done by aircraft, watercraft, rail, drones, human-powered vehicles or unmanned vehicles."

Authorities have said that before going to Pakistan, Farekh and Imam frequently watched videos promoting violent jihad, including online lectures by Anwar Al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born, Yemen-based militant preacher affiliated with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula who was killed in a U.S. drone attack in 2011.

While you may soon be able to get just about anything delivered by drone thanks to Amazon, marijuana won't be on the list. California has declared the newly-legalized drug cannot lawfully be delivered via unmanned vehicles, including drones and self-driving cars. The new requirement completely upends the plans of several marijuana delivery startups that planned to tap into drone technology. California has declared the newly-legalized drug cannot lawfully be delivered via unmanned vehicles including drones and self-driving cars. California has released new regulations for marijuana delivery ahead of legalized recreational sale in 2018.

In the near future, your pizza, Big Mac, and groceries could all be delivered autonomously. But, the good Cali folk out there expecting their newly legalized batches of pot to arrive in the same manner, are in for a bummer. The California Bureau of Cannabis Control recently declared that weed deliveries cannot be made by autonomous vehicles -- that includes UAVs and unmanned self-driving cars. Therefore, don't go expecting the robot delivering your munchies to bring you Scooby Snacks too. "Transportation may not be done by aircraft, watercraft, rail, drones, human-powered vehicles, or unmanned vehicles," according to the bureau's business licensing regulations.

A drone is flown during a property inspection following Hurricane Harvey in Houston. The mass destruction brought on by Harvey has been a seminal moment for drone operators, proving that they can effectively map flooding, locate people in need of rescue and verify damage to speed insurance claims. A drone is flown during a property inspection following Hurricane Harvey in Houston. The mass destruction brought on by Harvey has been a seminal moment for drone operators, proving that they can effectively map flooding, locate people in need of rescue and verify damage to speed insurance claims. Tropical Storm Harvey disrupted at least 17 emergency call centers and 320 cellular sites, and it caused outages for more than 148,000 Internet, TV, and phone customers, according to the Federal Communications Commission.

Last week a story went viral about how Facebook shut down two artificial intelligence robots when they started talking to each other in a language engineers couldn't understand. Welcome to the intelligence era. Let's think a little deeper about AI than the rise of the machines and consider the next big industrial shakeup. Artificial intelligence and big data are going to change everything. Yet again, innovation will flourish and industries will be completely disrupted. New industries and industry leaders will emerge, and many companies will go out of business.