Autonomous

Airbus innovation division UpNext is testing its next-gen autonomous systems for air-to-air in-flight refueling, which could be a revolutionary leap forward for a variety of military and civil aircraft, safely extending range and endurance.

Building a wall by stacking randomly shaped boulders could almost be the definition of hard work – both physically and mentally. It's the sort of thing we might want robots to do, so it should come as no surprise that one has in fact just done it.

Huge props to these two helicopter test pilots, who have white-knuckled it through one of the most harrowing experiences in rotorcraft flight – an unpowered autorotation emergency landing – allowing an autonomous system to take the controls.

Lexus won't be needing conveyor belts once the "gigacast" chassis of its next-gen electric cars is put together; the company has announced it's introducing a "self-driving assembly line," where cars will autonomously move between stations.

There are numerous situations in which a robot doesn't need to move quickly, but it does need to cover long distances without having to recharge its batteries. The minuscule energy-harvesting MilliMobile robot was designed for just such scenarios.

Callboats has become the first company in the world to offer autonomous water taxi rides between the Finnish city of Helsinki and a nearby archipelago. These solar-charged electric boats aim to drastically cut prices and address a captain shortage.

The US Deputy Secretary of Defense has officially kicked off the AI drone wars, announcing a radical "Replicator" plan to put many thousands of intelligent autonomous war drones into service within 18-24 months, to deter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

It can really get us down watching as AIs learn to write music, poetry and technology news, but watching this clever autonomous toilet-bot mop up the bogs somehow makes it all worthwhile. It's good to know robots are coming for the crappy jobs too.

Keeping panels clear of dust in large solar farms can be a time-consuming, wasteful and costly business. A startup called the Reiwa Engine has developed an autonomous robot called SandStorm to reduce maintenance and cleaning costs by as much as 80%.

Grass utterly dominates humanity as a species. We carried it with us from Africa tens of thousands of years ago, and now we dedicate insane mounts of time – and brilliant robotics like this giant autonomous mower – to its care and grooming.

On frequently travelled waterways, it's essential for vessel operators and local authorities to have maps of both bottom and shoreline features. A newly adapted autonomous watercraft could soon make the creation of such maps easier than ever before.

While farmers have to perform a number of difficult tasks, tending to the grain stored inside grain bins (aka granaries) is particularly arduous – not to mention dangerous. That's where the Grain Weevil grain bin management robot is made to come in.