The proposal also sets out technical and operational requirements for the unmanned aircraft.

EASA's proposals include requirements for drones to be remotely identifiable, to be fitted with geo-fencing technology to prevent them from entering prohibited zones such as airports and nuclear sites, and a requirement for people operating drones weighing more than 250 grams to register themselves.

Drone Co-habitation Services operates a Phantom 3 commercial drone, one of 11 vehicles in the NASA field demonstration in Nevada. Drone Co-habitation Services operates a Phantom 3 commercial drone, one of 11 vehicles in the NASA field demonstration in Nevada. By 2020, an estimated 7 million drones could be zipping around the country delivering packages, taking photos, inspecting infrastructure or conducting search and rescue missions. But before that happens, they'll need a system in place to avoid crashing into each other -- or worse, passenger aircraft. NASA, along with the Federal Aviation Administration and an extensive list of industry partners, has been researching the requirements needed to establish a drone traffic management system. This summer, some of those ideas will be tested in the field.

Amazon said on Thursday it would open a 60,000 square foot development center later this year in the U.K. focused on artificial intelligence (A.I.) and drone delivery research. The site in Cambridge, which is just north of the capital London, will have a capacity for 400 people but the U.S. e-commerce giant did not say how many people it was hiring. Amazon's announcement comes after it pledged in February to hire 5,000 full-time staff in the U.K. this year, which would bring its headcount in the country to 24,000 from the previous 19,000 figure. The company announced separately on Thursday that it has invested £6.4 billion ($8.26 billion) across the U.K. since 2010. "By the end of this year, we will have more than 1,500 innovation related roles here in Britain, working on everything from machine learning and drone technology to streaming video technology and Amazon Web Services," Doug Gurr, U.K. country manager for Amazon, said in a press release on Thursday.

The months-long manhunt for French-born Rachid Kassim ended one chilly morning early this year when a drone-launched missile destroyed his battered white pickup truck as it motored through the besieged Iraqi city of Mosul. The 29-year-old former rapper had cast a grim shadow in international counter-terrorism circles. He spoke fluent French, once beheaded a man in an online video and allegedly helped organize or encourage nine terrorist plots -- nearly all unsuccessful -- in France last year. The Feb. 8 drone strike notched a victory for a U.S.-led effort that seeks to silence Islamic State operatives who use social media, encrypted messaging and other online tools to reach disaffected Muslims overseas and to launch what counter-terrorism experts now call "remote-controlled" attacks. As Islamic State steadily loses ground in Iraq and Syria, its ability to sponsor and inspire headline-grabbing attacks abroad looms larger than ever -- providing the militants the appearance of lethal viability despite the caliphate's collapsing borders.

After reading the press releases for this batch of 24 research reports, although they vary widely in their forecasts, they almost all agree that most segments of the robotics industry are expected to grow at a double-digit pace at least through 2022. Drone Identification System Market April 2017, Markets and Markets, $5,650 The drone identification market is estimated to grow from $801.8 Million in 2016 to $16 billion by 2022, at a CAGR 64.64% during the forecast period. Automated Guided Vehicle Market April 2017, Markets and Markets, $5,650 The automated guided vehicle market is expected to reach $2.68 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 9.34% between 2017 and 2022. The growth of this market is propelled by advancements in automation, emphasis on workplace safety, and the growing need to cut down operational cost and increase productivity. Global smart robots market January 2017, 84 pages, TechNavio, $2,500 Forecasts the global smart robots market to grow at a CAGR of 20.65% during the period 2016-2020.

Amazon is continuing its fierce expansion in the UK, unveiling plans to hire 400 people for a new development centre due to open in Cambridge in autumn. The retail giant said on Thursday that it was recruiting "extensively" for machine learning scientists, knowledge engineers, data scientists, mathematical modellers, speech scientists and software engineers to staff the new facilities and work on products like the Kindle, Fire tablet, Fire TV Stick, Echo, Echo Dot and the new Echo Look. Once the new centre is open, an existing facility in Cambridge will largely be used for research and development related to Amazon's Prime Air – a delivery system which aims to get parcels to customers in 30 minutes or less using drones. Last week Amazon announced that it was creating 1,200 new jobs at a site in Warrington under plans announced in February to expand its UK workforce by 5,000, despite uncertainty stemming from Brexit. The UK has for some years been a major market for Amazon and in March the sprawling Seattle-headquartered group launched Amazon Business for the UK, aimed at doing for businesses what it already does for individual customers, by offering a marketplace where companies can buy everything from industrial machinery to paper clips and janitorial equipment, even in bulk.

If you can't wait for the day drones plop packages on your porch or a flying car whisks you to work, you should know that the hold-up isn't technological, but technocratic. Before these future flyers can take off, they must learn to play by the rules of the sky. That means communicating with air traffic control and other aircraft, spotting and avoiding threats, and generally knowing what to do when things go sideways. Making all of this happen demands whole new levels of capability--not just from the aircraft, but from the sprawling system that oversees them. The good news is, change is coming.

According to AgFunder's 2016 AgTech Investing Report (supported by The Robot Report's own research), 2016 drone funding fell 64% from 2015 levels. Also, the type of companies getting funded were sensor, payload and analytics-based add-ons or service-providing companies rather than drone makers. In 2015, according to AgFunder, the largest drone deal was DJI's $75 million followed by 3D Robotics' $64 million. In 2016, the largest deal was 3D Robotics' $27 million and the majority of drone tech deals closed during the year were seed stage (15 out of 25), whereas there was an even split between late and seed stage deals in 2015. The Robot Report's year-end article: 2016 best year ever for funding robotics startup companies included 27 UAS deals. The largest was for $43.8 million to a meds drone delivery service, Zipline International.

An RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drone arrived at Yokota Air Base Monday night, starting a five-month operation in Tokyo, the U.S. base announced. A Defense Ministry source said that the aircraft could be used to conduct surveillance of North Korea, over which political tensions have been ratcheted up over the past month. The aircraft is part of the 69th Reconnaissance Group Detachment 1 and provides near real-time aerial imagery reconnaissance support to U.S. and partner nations, according to the base's website. The aircraft was flown from its home at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, to avoid typhoons there, the Stars and Stripes quoted Detachment 1 commander Col. Jeremy Fields as saying. The drones and members of the detachment normally travel from their Guam home base to operate out of Misawa Air Base in Aomori Prefecture during the summer to avoid typhoons, but that wasn't possible last year or this year because of renovations to the runway at Misawa, the paper quoted Fields as saying.