The Dallas PD's actions appear to mark the first time in US history authorities have used a robot or drone armed with a bomb to kill a civilian. This comes at a time when police forces across the nation are being criticized and scrutinized for using military-style tools. After a police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, an 18-year-old black man, in Ferguson, Missouri, last year, riots broke out in the area and police responded with weapons, vehicles and gear intended for military use. Images of Ferguson police in military-style body armor holding assault rifles sparked a debate about the militarization of police forces across the United States. Armed robots are the latest tool to transition from the battlefield to civilian life.

Negotiators had been talking for hours with the hunkered-down killer of five police officers in downtown Dallas when the man suddenly resumed firing with an assault rifle. Fearing additional casualties, the officers deployed a small, remote-controlled robot to carry an explosive device near shooter Micah Xavier Johnson, which they then detonated, killing him. "We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was," Police Chief David Brown said at a news conference Friday morning. "Other options would have exposed our officers to grave danger .… We have confirmed that he's been deceased because of the detonation of the bomb."

Your Amazon deliveries may be delivered by drone sooner than you think - if rumours that the retail giant have just begun testing UAVs in a top secret field UK location are to be believed. An air traffic alert for UAV testing near Amazon's HQ in Cambridge today sparked speculation that the retail giant is already testing its delivery drones in the UK. The revelation comes as the race between Google and Amazon to use the technology for 30 minute deliveries intensified. Google announced it will begin using the devices by next year, putting the heat on tech rival Amazon to roll out its technology as soon as possible. Amazon claims it will be ready to start using drones by the middle of next year.

The following is a guest post authored by David Pitman (@edavepitman), co-founder of Converge (@converge_co). I was told Fred was the man to talk to about inspecting buildings. But I don't know that he's ever used email," my reference said, advising that I call his phone. Surprisingly though, Fred has a website. The sole image on the site shows him standing on a roof in a ten-gallon hat staring jauntily down at the steep angle.

The winners of this year's aerial photography competition run by online site Dronestagram have been announced. The winning pictures taken using drone cameras were selected from thousands of entries by the judges, including National Geographic Deputy Director Patrick Witty and Emanuela Ascoli, photo editor of National Geographic, France. Here we present the winning images from three categories.

A fleet of drones could soon send M&M-sized peanut butter-flavoured treats raining down on the Montana grasslands, in efforts to save North America's endangered black-footed ferrets. The plan offers an unusual ray of hope for these rare predators, administering baited plague vaccines across a 1,200 acre habitat to preserve their main food source – prairie dogs. Outbreaks of sylvatic plague have wiped out prairie dogs by the masses, reducing their numbers by more than 95 percent, and thus killing off the ferrets who depend on them for survival. A fleet of drones could soon send M&M-sized peanut butter-flavoured treats raining down on the Montana grasslands, to save the endangered black-footed ferrets. Black-footed ferrets rely on prairie dogs for survival, but outbreaks of sylvatic plague have wiped out their prey by the masses.

In a project that sounds like something from a sci-fi movie, defense specialist BAE Systems plans to chemically'grow' drones in large vats. The U.K.-based defense company is working with the University of Glasgow on the concept, which aims to'grow' Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in large-scale labs using chemistry. The project could help create specially-designed aircraft in weeks, rather than years. At the heart of the initiative is a "Chemputer" machine that would use advanced chemical processes to grow aircraft and some of their electronic systems. Very much a future project, scant details are available on how the Chemputer will work, although BAE systems says the machine could conceivably "grow" the drones from a molecular level.

Airborne drone delivery is still more PR than public reality, but wheeled, self-driving delivery bots could be trundling down a sidewalk near you sooner than you think. London-based Starship Technologies, which counts Skype co-founders Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis among its founding team, is launching a broad testing phase of its autonomous delivery bots in parts of the UK, Germany and Switzerland starting this month. Starship's relatively small wheeled delivery bots have been in testing in select cities in 12 countries during the last nine months already, but this expansion of the trial will mark the first time the robots are being tested in actual delivery scenarios. That means they're bringing on partners to provide the delivery inventory, including food delivery players Just Eat, and London-based Pronto.co.uk. German retailer Metro Group and parcel delivery company Hermes will also take part in the pilot, which will span five cities providing deliveries to actual paying customers.

A judge in Connecticut Wednesday said he planned to rule within a week in a father and son's case against the Federal Aviation Administration over YouTube videos of gun-toting, flame-throwing drones. Austin Haughwout, 19, of Clinton, and his father, Bret Haughwout, produced the videos. They've refused to comply with subpoenas issued by the U.S. attorney's office on behalf of the FAA, saying the subpoenas violate their constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures and questioning the agency's authority to regulate recreational drones. U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Meyer gave both sides a deadline of Monday, July 11 to file any additional documents. One of the Haughwouts' videos, viewed more than 3.7 million times, shows a flying drone equipped with a handgun firing rounds.

Self-driving robots will soon start delivering food and groceries. This month Starship Technologies is rolling out its six-wheeled delivery robots in London, Dusseldorf, Bern, and Hamburg, Quartz reports.