In open air, drones navigate autonomously using GPS, which doesn’t penetrate deep underground. So robot spelunkers require human pilots. A Swedish company, Inkonova, is developing an alternative positioning method. Using laser scanners and SLAM, a technology that calculates the distance between the drone and nearby objects, it quickly builds a map of its environment. The firm’s new autonomous drone combines the map with sensor input to position and move itself. When it encounters unusually shaped space, it uses wheels to move along the ground and tilt to fly or roll at an angle.

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A team at Johns Hopkins University created a drone, UAAV – an unmanned aerial-aquatic vehicle, that can travel underwater. The Flying Fish is propelled in the air and under the water by a single motor and propeller. The Flying Fish could fly autonomously at 48 km/h to land in the water, dive in to collect environmental data, then fly back to its base.

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Australian energy retailer Origin has partnered with Perth-based blockchain startup Power Ledger to trial an energy sharing platform that uses blockchain technology to create an immutable record of energy generation and consumption. The trial will investigate the viability of consumers buying and selling energy to and from their neighbors.

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The transformation of the transportation sector over the next 8 years will cause the bankruptcy of blue-chip companies like Exxon Mobil and General Motors, and directly impact over $10 trillion in economic output. The fundamental reason is that the drive-train for an internal combustion engine has about 2,000 parts, while that for an electric engine is only about 20. The average life comparison will be 150,000 miles to 500,000 miles, which will be less than the life of the electric car’s battery! And then the advent of self-driving cars, projected to occur in less than 5 years, will make personal car ownership far too expensive! The demand for oil will be restricted to the heavy oil needed for tarring roads and powering ships.

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The growth of automation and other labour-saving efficiencies could hold back many jobs from returning if the economic recovers. For example, shale drilling used to require 30 rig hands operating diesel pumps, using headsets to synchronize the throttle and pressure needed to break apart the rock formations and free the trapped crude. Now that job is done by two people sitting inside a control van.

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