In this episode of Newsbud's Roundtable Professor Abigail Hall Blanco provides a deeper look into the driving factors behind official drone policy, who it benefits and why. We are also joined by Erik Moshe, a Newsbud Analyst & Author. We cover Erik's recent series'The New Drone Order, Part IV- Reapernomics: An Economic Way of Thinking About Drones' Follow Newsbud on Twitter http://bit.ly/29d5XFD

A six-propeller clawed machine swooping down from the sky might sound like something from your nightmares, but one day, drones of this kind could help to save lives. Japanese firm Prodrone has revealed a new craft equipped with two robotic arms – each with a pincer-like claw at the end. The large-format drone is capable of carrying 44-pound loads and can fly for up to 30 minutes across long distances, giving it potential to retrieve hazardous materials or even assist rescue missions by dropping lifesaving buoys at sea. Japanese firm Prodrone has revealed a new craft equipped with two robotic arms – each with a pincer-like claw at the end. In a video demonstrating the PD6B-AW-ARM drone's capabilities, Prodrone reveals how the craft can use its massive claws to pick up chairs, carry a lifeguard buoy, and even perch on a narrow railing.

A drone is a body for a computer. Inside its electronic brain, the moving vessel matches input from sensors, like cameras, to motion, like the spinning of rotor blades. Which makes it all the more remarkable when this little autonomous drone, using only onboard computing and a camera, can fly through a narrow slot, oriented at 45 degrees, traveling at over 10 mph. It isn't the first robot to fly through windows, but it does so at speed, with a bare minimum of equipment, and requires no outside sensors or power supply to do so. And it can even fly at 90-degree angles.

What's the best way to track drones in the sky? There is no good way to track the drones in the sky. Passenger airplanes and helicopters report their flights to air traffic control, and even if they didn't, the vehicles are large and show up easily on radar, making it possible to keep an eye on them over land. Drones, especially commercial or hobbyist drones, are small enough to appear like birds on radar. Drones are also new enough that there isn't yet a system requiring them to broadcast their location to traffic control (or even, if such a system was devised, a guarantee that all small drones could power and obey it).

Timothy Amukele, an assistant professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, and systems engineer Jeff Street are trying to figure out how to use drones to deliver blood samples. Timothy Amukele, an assistant professor of pathology at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, and systems engineer Jeff Street are trying to figure out how to use drones to deliver blood samples. Three years ago, Geoff Baird bought a drone. A Seattle dad and hobby plane enthusiast, Baird used the 2.5-pound quadcopter to photograph the Hawaiian coastline and film his son's soccer and baseball games. But his big hope is that drones will soon fly tubes of blood and other specimens to Harborview Medical Center, where he works as a clinical pathologist running the hospital's chemistry and toxicology labs.

Today on In Case You Missed It: A large format hexacopter with mechanical gripper arms is all set to swoop in on your backyard and move some chairs around. Going by the Prodrone's YouTube video, it can carry 10 kilograms. Meanwhile, MIT and Georgia Tech researchers developed an imaging system that can read the first nine pages of a closed book. MIT worked out the computational device while Georgia created the algorithm to separate layers of letters. If you want to see the macro video, that's here, while the Boston Dynamics Atlas robot update is here.

For the past year, the Dutch National Police and raptor training company Guard From Above have been investigating whether eagles could be an effective way of dealing with potentially dangerous drones. The trials have been a resounding success, and the Dutch police today announced that they're ready to operationally deploy an anti-drone team of specially trained bald eagles and their human partners. This video shows a demo that the Dutch police put on yesterday of a drone threatening a mock state visit. The eagle vs drone action starts at about 1:50. We use all kinds of technological solutions, like electromagnetic pulses, or even laser technology, and one of the projects is the use of birds of prey.

There remain significant questions about the future of drone use in our country. Anytime you fly a device in the skies over people and buildings and near other flying crafts, there are risks. Legislation, however, has quickly been enacted to protect our privacy and to ensure our safety. Drones aren't just for taking aerial videography of sporting events and outdoor weddings -- there are many ways that drones can be useful to society. An organization called Drones for Good explores future life saving possibilities with drones.

The wild west days of drone flight came to end earlier this year when the FAA began requiring that pilots register their aircraft with the agency. If you want to use your Unmanned Aircraft System (as the FAA calls them) for anything remotely commercial, you'll need to go a step further and pass a test. The registration is not particularly onerous, though there is a processing fee. The whole thing starts to feel a bit Kafkaesque when you get to the end and realize that you can "display" your registration number by writing it on the battery and then tucking that inside the aircraft. WAT? It's also unclear how often the regulations are going to be updated, or how the rules of flight are going to be enforced. For example, one rule states that a pilot has to maintain constant visual contact with his drone, but the signal range of some new models extends so far that it can fly up to two miles away from the operator.

Inside – Elon Musk and neural lace, prosthetics, ethics of transhumanism, IBM Watson creates a trailer, EU might request mandatory drone registry, robots at Haneda Airport, the taste of CRISPR-modified crops and more! Elon Musk is Looking to Kickstart Transhuman Evolution With "Brain Hacking" Tech Elon Musk has recently hinted that he may be working on a "neural lace," a mesh of electronics that will allow AI and the brain to work together. This could help human brains keep up with future enhancements in AI. The story of Nicholas Huchet, founder of Bionicohand and amputee, who designed an affordable 3D printed prosthetic hand. From defeating death and aging to merging with machines to gene editing, transhumanist movement is going to challenge our current worldview and ask some serious ethical questions. Will gene editing allow rich to be better, healthier and smarter than everyone else?