Kurt "CyberGuy" Knutsson discusses a craft that can fly autonomously without any human intervention. Imagine a helicopter that can take off, fly and land without a human pilot. CLICK TO GET KURT'S FREE CYBERGUY NEWSLETTER WITH SECURITY ALERTS, QUICK VIDEO TIPS, TECH REVIEWS, AND EASY HOW-TO'S TO MAKE YOU SMARTER The R550X is a revolutionary helicopter from Rotor Technologies. It is special because it is the first of its kind to be designed for civilian use, not military or law enforcement. It can perform a variety of missions, such as crop spraying, cargo delivery, firefighting, surveillance, inspection, mapping, surveying, research, exploration, entertainment, and more.

This article was published as a part of the Data Science Blogathon. Nowadays, people around the world think about drones -- and not just how fun they are to fly, but how much drones have improved our modern life. From delivering packages on demand to surveying disaster zones, drones are crucial to many businesses and civilians' daily lives. But all this technology comes with significant overhead: as drones get more complex and sophisticated, so does the amount of work that goes into developing them and integrating their features properly. Drones are becoming increasingly popular for a variety of uses, including photography, videography, and delivery.

You might soon see DJI's drones flying in particularly rough conditions. DJI has unveiled the Matrice 30 (aka M30), an enterprise-class drone with IP55 dust and water resistance that lets it fly in heavy rain, strong wind and even icy situations. It can fly to altitudes as high as 22,965ft above sea level (with the right propellers) and survive temperatures between -4F and 122F, too. Even the included RC Plus controller can handle a downpour thanks to an IP54-rated body. The M30 can also fold with a button press.

Adam Shelly (left), an Xwing software engineer, stands with CEO and founder Marc Piette (center) and ... [ ] CTO Maxime Gariel in front of a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan the startup has retrofitted to fly autonomously. Scores of companies are working to develop pilotless robot aircraft that are electrically powered and takeoff and land vertically. That's an awful lot of change to pull off at once. Xwing is among a handful of aviation startups that are aiming to get to market sooner by taking on just one piece of that puzzle, in its case, making aircraft fly autonomously. The San Francisco-based company claims to have pulled off the first fully autonomous flight of a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, a small workhorse cargo plane, and it's hoping to win approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to launch commercial cargo deliveries with unmanned Grand Caravans over unpopulated areas in 2022.

Thanks to the Artificial Intelligence (AI) software drones are able to perform flights without a human pilot. The new software was introduced by a start-up Exyn Technologies and allows drone navigation through dark, indoor and off-grid environments. The sensor fusion and AI provide drones with a situational awareness. Multiple sensors enable drone to create a 3D map and update it after take-off. Human engagement during the flight is limited only to giving drone a goal and starting location.

A startup called Exyn Technologies Inc. today revealed AI software that enables drones to fly autonomously, even in dark, obstacle-filled environments or beyond the reaches of GPS. A spin out of the University of Pennsylvania's GRASP Labs, Exyn uses sensor fusion to give drones situational awareness much like a human's. In a demo video shared by the company with TechCrunch, a drone using Exyn's AI can be seen waking up and taking in its surroundings. It then navigates from a launch point in a populated office to the nearest identified exit without human intervention. The route is not pre-programmed, and pilots did not manipulate controls to influence the path that the drone takes.

From striking aerial photography to monitoring hard to reach areas as part of search and rescue missions, the list of tasks that drones can do is ever growing. While most drones require a driver to control their movements from the ground, one new model can fly itself unaided. The Teal quad drone contains a supercomputer which allows it to fly autonomously as well as recognise images. The Teal quad is the brainchild of founder George Matus, who at only 18 years old, wanted to create a device that was'fast, versatile, smart and break the limits of what drones could do.' Mr Matus told MailOnline: 'In regards to flight speed, it depends on the environment, altitude, wind, and battery life, so we say 70 mph to cover all of that.' While this high speed could be seen as dangerous, on its website Teal states: 'Teal is built on both the hardware side and software side to make it as safe and easy as possible to fly, while still allowing mind-blowing manoeuvrability and speed.'