America is now one step closer to becoming a sci-fi utopia, thanks to a new law passed in Virginia. On Friday the state's governor signed a ruling which will allow delivery robots to use its sidewalks and crosswalks from July 1st. Advised by Starship Technologies (an Estoninan robotics company that specializes in ground delivery) the legislation states that the bots cannot travel faster than ten miles per hour, or weigh over 50 pounds. The new law will allow the little bots to roam the streets completely autonomously. In a bid to reduce collisions, however, Virginia requires them to remain under the watchful eye of the delivery company via remote monitoring.

It's hard to believe the first personal computer was introduced only 40 years ago. Captivated by the implications of this intelligent machine, the world began to speculate on the next big thing for IT. And while the idea of self-driving cars or the "smart" home seemed like science fiction back then, the future is now and these innovations are real. Fast forward to 2017 – technology is directly shaping how people live, work, and even think. State-of-the-art technology allows visions to become printed realities.

A total of 37 people are suspected of violating the national drone flight rules in the year since the revised Civil Aeronautics Law took effect in late 2015, the National Police Agency said Thursday. Of the 36 cases in which police had taken action by the end of last year, most involved unmanned flights over prohibited areas, with the rest concerning breaches of regulations on appropriate drone use. The law was revised to regulate unmanned flights after a small drone carrying radioactive material was found on the roof of the prime minister's office in Tokyo in April 2015. The law allows police officers to destroy drones, if necessary. The revision was first applied in Shikoku in January 2016 against a male photographer who flew a drone over a crowded residential area in Takamatsu without authorization.

CloudMinds, a Chinese startup developing cloud-intelligence-based services for robotics and other application areas, raised $100 million in a Series A funding round. Although no funder information was provided, seed financing was provided by SoftBank, Foxconn, Walden International and Keytone Ventures. Desktop Metal, a 3D metal printing startup based in Burlington, Mass., is gearing up to take its first product into production and raised $45 million from GV, BMW I Ventures and Lowe's Ventures. The company has now raised a total of $97 million. Other investors include NEA, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Lux Capital, GE Ventures, Saudi Aramco, and Stratasys.

Drones are used for aerial photography, surveillance, news coverage, and rescue operations. Now a group of scientists and researchers are figuring out if drones can make it rain. The science is called cloud seeding, and it is being tested in Nevada at an FAA site, four hours north of Las Vegas. Seeding clouds involves releasing flares of silver iodide from a plane's wing to generate more ice particles in a cloud. This aims to help a cloud's ability to produce and enhance precipitation. The weather conditions need to be right for this to take place--cloud cover and even the presence of storms are optimal.

Snapchat could be working on a camera drone at its secretive California research labs, rumours suggest. Three people working behind the scenes at the company revealed the drone plans to the New York Times this week. Snapchat is yet to confirm the existence of the drones, or what they would be used for. The New York Times described its informants as'people briefed on the project who asked to remain anonymous because the details are confidential.' The drone technology could help Snapchat users to take photos and video from above.

Domino's has delivered new additions to its Domino's Robotics Unit (DRU) family, announcing the DRU Platform, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based technology that will allow customers to order a pizza using their voice. As of Monday, customers will be able to use DRU Assist, an in-app AI virtual assistant that was built in partnership with natural language company Nuance. DRU Assist takes the pizza giant somewhat back to the start of its digital journey, with customers speaking to order a pizza via their phone. Powered by Nuance's Nina, Domino's DRU Assist engages with customers in human-like conversation via text or speech recognition. "DRU Assist is not just a toy, this is real platform change," Domino's Group CEO and Managing Director Don Meij said.

Helicopter drones which could shoot down Islamic State's new remote-controlled weapons are under development, the Defence Secretary announced yesterday. Sir Michael Fallon said the terror group's latest drone tactics in Iraq – in which they drop grenades from the skies – had been a'wake-up call' for Britain. Unmanned craft would enable the UK to stay ahead of enemies as they would be faster, fly for longer, and spare pilots from any risk, he said. In a speech at Oxford University to engineers and academics, he said drone wars were the future, adding: 'Science fiction will soon be science fact. Unmanned warfare is coming absolutely.'

Ford has a vision for the future, and it's apparently one where an army of autonomous vans and drones deliver things to your doorstep. The company used VR to put visitors at Mobile World Congress in the shoes of a dinner party host missing key ingredients. Using a service called "Autolivery," the woman places an order from an app. Her package is loaded into an self-driving van, and a drone flies it up to a landing pad on the balcony on her 30th floor apartment. Autolivery was developed by Shanghai-based Ford designers Euishik Bang, James Kuo and Chelsia Lau for the company's Last Mile Mobility Challenge.

The next big goal in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) is to make them fully autonomous. The belief is that this will be the only way drones can deliver goods to customers from a mobile platform or return to a warship moving at high speeds in the ocean. Researchers at University of Cincinnati's College of Engineering and Applied Sciences are tackling the issue of drones and precision landing by using a type of artificial intelligence, which they call fuzzy logic. Researchers test drones using fuzzy logic, a type of artificial intelligence, in order for precision landing on moving targets. Source: University of Cincinnati "[A drone] has to land within a designated area, with a small margin of error," says Manish Kumar, associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Cincinnati.