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by AUVSI News 

Catch up on all the noteworthy news you may have missed this week in the unmanned systems and robotics world. This week’s news includes 29 more commercial UAS exemptions including Amazon Prime Air, low-cost smartphone controlled prosthetics and a robot that headed into the core of the melted-down Fukushima nuclear reactor to help with decommissioning the plant.



Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration approved 29 more commercial UAS operations, including AUVSI member Amazon for outdoor testing, research and development of its Prime Air drone delivery platform. (Time) 



The FAA has now granted 59 exemptions in about a week’s time, nearly doubling total approved operations to 128.



These expedited exemptions come as a result of a policy change for the FAA regarding Section 333 exemptions for commercial UAS use. The FAA is now granting approvals based on a “summary grant” process that will group similar petitions and allow approvals for new petitions that align closely with previously granted exemptions. 



For more information on the latest FAA policy changes regarding commercial UAS use, click here.



Engineers at the University of California Los Angeles are developing robotic hands that use algorithms to process and record what sensors on the hand feel. They are using a database to create a robotic language of touch. (Medgadget)



Exiii has created a low-cost, 3-D printed myoelectric prosthetic arm that is controlled by a smartphone that interprets signals from a remaining limb and converts them to movement of the robotic arm. (TechRepublic)



As part of the Green Brain Project, which aims to recreate the brain of a European Honey Bee on a computer, scientists are using the reconstruction of the bee’s visual system to pilot a drone. (BBC News)



Tokyo Electric Power sent a robot into the dangerous, highly radioactive heart of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, which was heavily damaged by an earthquake in 2011, to determine the state of the melted-down reactor as an integral part of decommissioning the plant. (PC World)