Technology
Pokémon Go Scans Quietly Trained the Navigation Tech Now Headed Into Military Drones
Pokémon Go players' 30 billion scans trained navigation tech now bound for military drones, via Niantic Spatial's defense partnership with Vantor.
Robotics
News, deep dives, and analysis — every Robotics story, newest first.
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DJI
The New York Times Spent 10 Minutes On AI Farming And Forgot The Drones Spraying The Fields
The New York Times Magazine published a feature on June 5 about the technology rewiring American agriculture, and the one machine actually flying over these fields barely made the cut. Robotic milkers, laser weeders, and driverless tractors each got a farmer, a photo essay, and a few hundred words. Spray drones got a single clause:…
Zipline
Zipline Bets Nigeria Becomes Its Biggest African Market With 12 New Drone Hubs By 2028
Zipline plans 12 new Nigeria drone hubs by 2028 to reach 100 million people, but its paused Kaduna operation shows the political risk underneath.
Drone Research
Bat-Inspired Drone Navigates Smoke, Snow, Darkness
A team at Worcester Polytechnic Institute just pulled off something that sounds simple until you actually think about what cameras and lidar can’t do. They built a palm-sized quadrotor that flies by listening, the same way a bat does, and they got it to dodge obstacles in fog, snow, and pitch darkness with a success…
Department of Homeland Security
HOVERAir AQUA Launches In 50+ Countries Today, US Buyers Locked Out By FCC Foreign Drone Ban
HOVERAir AQUA, the waterproof self-flying camera, launches globally today in 50+ countries. US buyers excluded due to the December 2025 FCC drone ban.
DJI
MIT and Penn Open-Source MIGHTY, a Drone Motion Planner That Cuts Out Six-Figure Commercial Software
Researchers at MIT and the University of Pennsylvania have released MIGHTY, an open-source motion planner that lets drones react to obstacles in milliseconds using only onboard sensors and compute. The system, detailed in a paper accepted to IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters and announced by MIT, jointly optimizes flight path and travel time in a…
Autel Robotics
Autel Tells FCC The Drone Ban Rests On Secret Evidence And Borrowed Allegations Aimed At DJI
Autel Robotics filed a reply at the Federal Communications Commission arguing the agency added the company to its Covered List on the basis of classified material Autel was never allowed to see and technical complaints originally aimed at DJI. The reply landed in ET Docket 26-23 for the May 11, 2026 deadline, and it sharpens…
Department of Transportation
Drone Security Is The FCC’s Job, Not DOT’s: Owen Morgan Tells XPONENTIAL Robotics Panel
At XPONENTIAL, former DJI policy VP Brendan Schulman moderates robotics panel; DOT's Owen Morgan confirms adversary drone security belongs to FCC, not DOT.
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