Hilton Nunez felt more like an air traffic controller than the commander of six Hunter unmanned aerial vehicles. A division commander wanted a UAV to check for surface-to-air threats. A corps commander sought one to fly far ahead of advancing troops to gather intelligence for the next day's war planning. There were never enough UAVs to go around. "There was a constant battle over who would control the UAVs," Nunez says.

This article is by Sean Varah, founder and chief executive of MotionDSP, a company that makes advanced image processing and video analytics software. Last month the Federal Aviation Administration made a decision that marks a significant step for the commercial drone industry, permitting six movie and television production companies the right to use drones. This is the first time the FAA has allowed this type of industry exemption from the rules that prohibit drones from flying in U.S. airspace. Despite Congress' request that it develop standards in support of safe drone use by September 2015, and despite corporate America's campaigning for drone operations, the FAA has been dragging its feet. Thanks to Hollywood and the broader entertainment industry, a door has been opened for commercial drones.

Drones get some bad press, with many associating them with a dystopian future defined by war and surveillance. But now a company is trying to make drones more popular - and in the process improving aerial photography so you can take selfies from the air. The Fotokite Phi is a drone on a leash that you can lead around just like a pet and is now available for pre-order as part of crowdfunding campaign. On a tight leash: 'The Fotokite's tether (pictured) provides a safer, more direct way to fly. It enables close-proximity operations and the tether provides visual accountability for bystanders and property owners,' the Swiss start-up said The drone is now on sale with prices starting at $249 (£159) and can be pre-ordered on their Indiegogo crowdfunding page.

Emerging from a lake, a giant amphibious drone gingerly picks its way over Russia's Rzhevka military training ground. This huge drone is the latest in a menagerie of automated robots to be developed worldwide, adding to what some have described as the creation of ground-based robotic armies. Its appearance comes as large organisations, such as Google and Amazon, invest in drone technology, with some experts claiming the it could lead to a full on robotics war by 2020. Air-based drones have been under development in Russia for some time, with reports last year that the country had been developing a new 20-tonne attack unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). These latest images, however, provide a glimpse into Russia's future capabilities in ground-based drones.

On Sunday, Mark Zuckerberg set his goal for 2016 via a Facebook post: build an artificial intelligence to run his home and assist his work, "like Jarvis in Iron Man." The lofty ambition fits a growing trend of "smart" home technology, which links smartphones, tablets, and other computers with household appliances and other home items. High-powered commercial drones, self-driving cars, and virtual reality dominated the presentations at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, with Microsoft announcing its intention to become the "ultimate platform for all intelligent cars" and Intel showing how its new drone can dodge falling trees. But Samsung aimed closer to home. During its CES press conference, the South Korean company focused on new its new "SmartThings" appliances, which range from televisions to washing machines.

First it was Amazon drones; now Google is rolling out robots. The tech company revealed it is developing humanoid robots focused on automating daily tasks, according to The New York Times Wednesday, right on the heels of Amazon announcing the development of a drone delivery program, PrimeAir. Though Google remained tight-lipped on where the project stands, and what specific tasks its robots might do, the announcement has spurred conversation on what role artificial intelligence and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) may play in our future. The project is spearheaded by Google executive Andy Rubin; better known as the engineer who built Google's Android software. He sees the robots as a way to alleviate daily grunt work, possibly in a consumer goods delivery setting.

Navy leaders have spoken about the push to develop more autonomous and intelligent unmanned systems The Navy's push comes despite critics expressing increasing alarm at further automating drones The Navy's push comes despite critics expressing increasing alarm at further automating drones Washington (CNN)The Navy is looking to increase its use of drones that are more and more independent of direct human control despite the concerns of alarmed scientists and inventors over increasing automation in the military. In recent days, Pentagon officials and Navy leaders have spoken about the program and the push to develop more autonomous and intelligent unmanned systems. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter in a speech earlier this month confirmed that the United States was developing "self-driving boats which can network together to do all kinds of missions, from fleet defense to close-in surveillance, without putting sailors at risk." And Rear Adm. Robert P. Girrier, the Navy's director of Unmanned Warfare Systems, discussed the effort at a January event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The drive is being dubbed "human machine teaming," which uses unmanned vehicles that are more independent than those piloted or supervised by human operators.

Raffaello D'Andrea heads ETH Zurich's Flying Machine Arena Arena is at forefront of research into autonomous flying robots Quadrocopters learn amazing throwing and catching maneuvers D'Andrea says technology education needs to promote "unconstrained creation" D'Andrea says technology education needs to promote "unconstrained creation" Professor Raffaello D'Andrea isn't short of admirers for his autonomous flying robots and the amazing tricks they perform. Every week, he receives a flood of e-mails from excited people telling him how to use them, he says. "Folks have contacted me about using them to deliver burritos and pizzas, paint walls, do search and rescue, monitor the environment, flying cameras for movies ... It's just endless," D'Andrea says. "I'm not going to pass judgment on whether they are good or bad ... my role is to show people what is possible." It appears those possibilities are growing by the day at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) where D'Andrea leads a team of researchers at the Flying Machine Arena (FMA).

BERKELEY – When scale model helicopters pass through a makeshift "urban canyon" in a test field, or engage in a game of aerial "chicken", the drills may look like a robotic stunt show to outside eyes. Members of the university's Berkeley Aerial Robot (BEAR) program have successfully conducted a series of field tests with 130-pound helicopters that not only fly autonomously -- without human control -- but that also react to avoid obstacles in their flight path. "Our BEAR group is the first to successfully develop a system where autonomous helicopters can detect obstacles, stationary or moving, and recompute their course in real-time to reach the original target destination," said David Hyunchul Shim, a research engineer on the project who first began this work as a UC Berkeley Ph.D. student in mechanical engineering. With these achievements, the researchers are inching towards a future of robo-copters that could maneuver through city streets or forested landscapes. The development of reliable systems that can handle obstacle-avoidance tasks is still several years away, researchers said, but the computational foundations for such unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been laid.

Drones are becoming more common in our skies, performing a variety of tasks, from taking photos to monitoring crops and potentially even delivering broadband. But there are strict rules about their usage, which has led some to come up with innovative ways to fly such vehicles more safely. "I'm using a dog leash for a small dog," says roboticist Sergei Lupashin as he demonstrates a new kind of consumer-friendly drone at the Ted (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference in Vancouver. By tethering it, he hopes the Fotokite, as it is called, can avoid some of the issues faced by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which are banned without a special licence because of safety and privacy concerns. "It doesn't rely on GPS [ Global Positioning System], sophisticated machine vision, radio, it doesn't even use a compass. Most crashes today happen because of GPS, radio or piloting issues," says Dr Lupashin.