Whether or not it's a realistic or practical or good idea, urban commercial drone delivery is grinding remorselessly toward a thing that is going to happen. For many companies, "grind" is the right word, especially if they're trying to do research and development in the United States, where regulations tend to be overly cumbersome and inflexible. To help move things along a bit, Amazon has decided to take its next phase of delivery drone testing to the United Kingdom. Here's the stuff worth caring about from the press release, which amounts to about a third of the press release. In other words, it's relatively informative, as press releases go: Amazon has today announced a partnership with the UK Government to explore the steps needed to make the delivery of parcels by small drones a reality, allowing Amazon to trial new methods of testing its delivery systems.

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your soft-bodied Automaton bloggers. We'll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next two months; here's what we have so far (send us your events!): Let us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today's videos. He is currently a visiting researcher in the Morphology, Evolution & Cognition Lab (Vermont Complex Systems Center, University of Vermont, USA) under the supervision of Prof. Josh Bongard. He wrote in to share some of his latest publications and videos, and it's fascinating.

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your baby-loving Automaton bloggers. We'll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next two months; here's what we have so far (send us your events!): Let us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today's videos. We got a teaser about the Omnicopter during Raff D'Andrea's most recent TED Talk, but this dedicated video shows it off much better: Like all the coolest robots, the things it can do look like CGI, right? On July 27, 2016, Michigan-based Vayu, Inc., in collaboration with the Stony Brook University Global Health Institute completed the first ever series of long-range, fully autonomous drone delivery flights with blood and stool samples, setting records in the process.

Ask Tyler "RaceDayQuads" Brennan what first-person-view drone racing feels like, and his eyes light up. "This is like the first week of having a brand new video game--except it lasts forever," says the 22-year-old drone pilot from Colorado. He says he's hooked, addicted. "There's nothing else like it," says Ken "Flying Bear" Loo, another avid drone racer. At the 2016 U.S. National Drone Racing Championships on Governor's Island in New York City early this month, drone pilots gathered to test their racing chops.

Some of the best lessons come from the school of hard knocks. But some kit is too delicate or expensive to be subjected to this. So researchers have instead taught cheap, expendable drones to pass on their hard-won knowledge to their more precious peers. Getting robots to learn and share general concepts in this way could also make them better at independent decision-making. Teaching an artificial intelligence to fly an expensive vehicle is risky, since it needs to know what both success and failure look like.

Amazon and Google might be focused on delivering packages in the sky, but one UK firm has set its sights on the ground. Starship Technologies has developed a fleet of six-wheeled'ground drones' that travel at four miles per hour and are capable of carrying 20 to 25 pounds of cargo. Deemed the first autonomous delivery robot, the technology is currently being tested in London and is now set to invade Austin, Texas in the United States. Starship Technologies has developed six-wheeled bots that travel at four miles per hour and capable of carrying 20 to 25 pounds of cargo. Unlike robots designed to resemble humans, the Starship's bot is purely functional with a large compartment to hold deliveries, the equivalent size of two grocery bags.

China has allocated 199 million yuan ( 29.76 million) to spend on its weather modification programme as part of efforts to combat drought and reduce the impact of natural disasters. The finance ministry revealed the project earlier this month, as state media reported flooding this year caused at least 237 deaths. The Ministry of Finance said the additional funding had been made available in order to help China's regions respond to the large number of'extreme weather events' this year, including heavy flooding in south and central regions as well as drought in the northwest. The Ministry of Finance said the additional funding had been made available in order to help China's regions respond to the large number of'extreme weather events' this year, including heavy flooding in south and central regions as well as drought in the northwest. Microscopic particles of silver iodide are shot into existing clouds using land based generators or aircraft.

Amazon plans to test its delivery drones in Britain, meaning customers in the UK could soon receive their packages from the internet giant by air, rather than post. The move is the result of a deal with the British government and could see customers in the UK trial the new service before those in the US. But experts have expressed fear that dangers drones could be hijacked and cause'disasters' if the proper controls are not put into place. Amazon plans to test its delivery drones in Britain, meaning customers in Britain could soon receive their packages from the internet giant by air, rather than post. One of the company's prototype drones is pictured Colin Bull, a consultant at Software Quality Systems, said despite the obvious benefits of drones, they ' must be embraced and feared in equal measures'.

The race between Alphabet Inc. and Amazon to unleash the first fleet of delivery drones is now neck and neck. The White House has given Alphabet Inc.'s delivery drone service the greenlight to start testing its unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) at a US site. This initiative is part of The White House's project to understand this technology and what safety measures need to be implemented before unleashing flocks into the open skies. The race between Alphabet Inc. and Amazon to unleash the first fleet of delivery drones is now neck and neck. The White House has given Alphabet Inc.'s delivery drone (pictured) service the greenlight to start testing its unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) at a US site Alphabet Inc. first unveiled its secret two-year drone delivery project in 2014.

Drones have proven their capabilities across a versatile range of tasks, from flying and scaling walls, to swimming – and now, they can even paint murals. Researchers have programmed a palm-sized quadcopter to create ink portraits using the'stippling' technique, which requires the precise application of thousands of small dots. As the work continues, the researchers say drones could one day be used for much larger applications, helping artists to paint murals in hard-to-reach outdoor areas and on irregular surfaces. Pictured on left is the'target image,' while the drone's rendition is shown right The researchers developed complex algorithms to plot the drone's flight plan and adjust for positioning errors. The quadcopter was equipped with a miniature arm and a small ink-soaked sponge.