A crash resistant drone has been developed by researchers who say they were inspired by the properties of insect wings. The external frame of the drone is flexible and bends without breaking, but it locks around an internal case with magnets - making it rigid during flight. Experiments showed that the frame of the drone withstood roughly 50 collisions with no permanent damage. The drone, designed by researchers at the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) and the Floreano Lab at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), is a soft quadcopter that doesn't break during collisions. Its design was modeled after the dual stiffness properties of insects wings.

Once fully deployed in South Korea, a THAAD battery could theoretically use its radar to see and monitor activity beyond North Korea, deep into Chinese territory. Russia also worries the deployment could compromise its security, and said it would lead to a stalemate on the Korean peninsula.

In order to counter the growing nuclear threat from North Korea in the Korean Peninsula, the U.S. is expected to deploy an unmanned aircraft system to South Korea, Yonhap News Agency reported Monday, citing a Seoul military official. The attack drone will be deployed to strengthen strike capabilities against ground targets in the North, the official told the South Korean news agency. The Gray Eagle aircraft will be deployed to a U.S. military base in the southwestern town of Gunsan -- about 111 miles south of Seoul, the report said. However, it is still unclear when the system will be installed. The Gray Eagle is capable of striking military facilities in the north of the Military Demarcation Line separating the two Koreas, the official told Yonhap.

The world's bestselling drone-maker has unveiled models that warn their operators when there is a risk posed by nearby aeroplanes or helicopters. The M200 series use ADS-B (automatic dependent surveillance broadcast) receivers to detect broadcasts from nearby manned flights. The transmissions allow users to see the position, altitude and velocity of surrounding aircraft so they can take evasive action if required. "It's an extra safety measure and will help drone operators work in restricted airspace," explained Dave Black from the commercial drone services firm Blackwing Aerial. "The way we tend to do this is to contact air traffic controllers before we fly, tell them where we are flying and then they contact us by phone if there's going to be any conflict. "But in time, the authorities may well also want this kind of feature fitted as standard before they approve operations with larger drones." Mr Black added that some enthusiasts had created their own ADS-B kit by connecting a receiver to a Raspberry Pi computer with customised software and then tying this to their drone. But he added that an integrated unit would be appreciated. The announcement was made at the Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona. DJI announced last July that it intended to develop an ADS-B collision avoidance system in conjunction with uAvionix, a specialist in the technology. The M200 series drones, which debut the feature, are designed for industrial applications such as inspecting power lines and mapping construction sites. They have a range of 7km (4.3 miles) and can stay airborne for up to 38 minutes, but some country's regulators currently require them to stay within line-of-sight. The aircraft are bigger and heavier than many consumer drones - they weigh 3.8kg (8.4lb) and can carry a further 2kg of equipment - so potentially pose a greater risk if involved in a crash. However, one analyst warned that the new safety system could give drone pilots a false sense of confidence. "The problem is that ADS-B isn't yet required for all aircraft, so even if you had a receiver you're not necessarily seeing all the traffic in the area," explained Colin Snow, chief executive of the Skylogic Research consultancy. "Its use is also not required at the low altitudes at which commercial drones tend to fly.

Philip Hammond says he wants the UK to become a "world leader" in 5G, the next-generation mobile technology that proponents say is the key to an internet-connected world of driverless cars, smart home appliances, delivery drones and lightning-fast video on the go. The government, which has published a 70-page tome on its future 5G strategy, said in the budget it would invest up to £16m to run trials and support the technology's development, to make sure the UK is at the crest of the "next wave of mobile technology services". However, 5G, which is set to be rolled out in the UK next decade, also has its critics. They argue consumers don't need the superfast speeds the upgrade from current 4G technology promises, and many in the industry believe that logistical issues mean that 5G may not be properly rolled out in the UK for decades. In the meantime, there are still basic infrastructure issues – including rural areas with little or no broadband coverage at all – that need sorting out.

Beginning in 2006 beekeepers became aware that their honeybee populations were dying off at increasingly rapid rates. Scientists are also concerned about the dwindling populations of monarch butterflies. Researchers have been scrambling to come up with explanations and an effective strategy to save both insects or replicate their pollination functions in agriculture. Although the Plan Bee drones pictured above are just one SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) student's concept for how a swarm of drones could handle pollinating an indoor crop, scientists are considering different options for dealing with the crisis, using modern technology to replace living bees with robotic ones.Researchers from the Wyss Institute and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard introduced the first RoboBees in 2013, and other scientists around the world have been researching and designing their solutions ever since. Honeybees pollinate almost a third of all the food we consume and, in the U.S., account for more than $15 billion worth of crops every year.

UgCS is easy-to-use software for planning and flying UAV drone-survey missions. It supports almost any UAV platform, providing convenient tools for areal and linear surveys and enabling direct drone control. What's more, UgCS enables professional land survey mission planning using photogrammetry techniques. GSD and area boundaries are usually defined by the customer's requirements for output material parameters, for example by scale and resolution of digital map. Overlap should be chosen according to specific conditions of surveying area and requirements of data processing software.

Just days after China announced plans to grow its defense budget, the country's largest missile maker has started developing military drones with stealth abilities that can evade anti-aircraft weapons, local media reported Thursday. The move comes as China continues to advance in its military modernization program amid growing threats from its neighbors and the West. "Drones have become an indispensable weapon in modern warfare because they can play an important role in high-resolution reconnaissance, long-distance precision strikes, anti-submarine operations and aerial combat," Wei Yiyin, deputy general manager of China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, told the China Daily. China has been working to develop new weapons, including stealth fighters and aircraft carriers but has clarified that its investment to upgrade its military prowess has no hostile intent. Amid tensions with U.S. over the South China Sea, and the recent threats from North Korea after its missile launches, China, which is ranked third in the list of biggest military in the world has stepped up research into military drones.

People are just now getting comfortable with the idea that data from many electronic gadgets they use flies up to the cloud. But going forward, much of that data will stick closer to Earth, processed in hardware that lives at the so-called edge--for example, inside security cameras or drones. That's why Nvidia, the processor company whose graphics processing units (GPUs) are powering much of the boom in deep learning, is now focused on the edge. Deepu Talla, vice president and general manager of the company's Tegra business unit, says bringing AI technology to the edge will make a new class of intelligent machines possible. "These devices will enable intelligent video analytics that keep our cities smarter and safer, new kinds of robots that optimize manufacturing, and new collaboration that makes long-distance work more efficient," he said in a statement.

Airbus has unveiled a new concept that could put an end to traffic jams. Called Pop.Up, the modular system consist of a two-seater capsule that functions as a car or can be carried to the rider's destination by a vertical take-off and landing air vehicle when the roads are too congested. Once passengers reach their destination, both the the air and ground modules will return to dedicated recharge stations, where they will wait to be summoned by the next customers. Airbus has unveiled a new concept that could put an end to traffic jams. Called Pop.Up, the modular system consist of a two-seater capsule that functions as a car or can be carried to the rider's destination by a vertical take-off and landing air vehicle when the roads are too congested Passengers summon the two-seater capsule using a designated app.