“Drone autonomy is getting more and more impressive, but we’re starting to get to the point where it’s getting significantly more difficult to improve on existing capabilities. Companies like Skydio are selling (for cheap!) commercial drones that have no problem dynamically path planning around obstacles at high speeds while tracking you, which is pretty amazing, and it can also autonomously create 3D maps of structures. In both of these cases, there’s a human indirectly in the loop, either saying “follow me” or “map this specific thing.” In other words, the level of autonomous flight is very high, but there’s still some reliance on a human for high-level planning. Which, for what Skydio is doing, is totally fine and the right way to do it.” reports IEEE Spectrum.

“This could be really helpful,” said un-named henchman number 4.  “Since the drone can relay video and take voice commands we can rig up a communications system with the guts from a cell-phone so we can send drones out in multiple directions.  Or say I get a collar, with a little C4 charge, and it’s all metal, and where the clasp is we put a pin switch in there, and I can just put in a skeleton key to lock it…You take that key out it’s like pulling a pin in a grenade so you can’t take it off without blowing your head off, so there’s no way they’re taking that collar off even if they do escape.  Plus we can put a little transponder in there for the drone to follow until it’s got you within visual range, and then it’s all over! Seriously, this is like some Siberian KGB prison kind of shit!”