'*SELF-FLYING DRONES* : RISE AND RISE'

IT'S 2035, the Second American Civil War has been won by the other side, and you find yourself in a heap of trouble with Attorney General  Logan Paul.

[The future is very troubling].

He has dispatched an all-seeing eye-in-the sky  to tail you, an agile flying machines equipped with  13 cameras and a top speed of  25 miles per hour.

The drone knows your face, your gait and your clothing. It hoovers persistently behind your back, moving when you move, stopping when you stop, resisting every effort to shake it. You run into the woods, but you still can't loose it.

So now what? Clip this article and save it as a guide for surviving our airborne future. In a woodsy park in San Francisco last week, I had an encounter with just such a self-flying drone, and I found only one trick for escape:

Hint : It involved the indignity of repeatedly running around a tree.

As the hapless chump in its cross hairs, I will tell you this : Being tailed by a 13-eyed flying machine has a way of focusing the mind.

The drone chasing me, the  R1, was created by a start-up called Skydio; it sells for $2,499 and will begin shipping to customers in two to tree weeks, the company says. It is the closest thing to fully autonomous drone you can buy today.

Autonomous drones have long been hyped, but until recently they've been a little more than that.

The technology in Skydio's machine suggests a new turn. Drones that fly themselves -nwhether following people for self-photography , which is  Skydio's  intended use, or for longer - range applications like delivery, monitoring and surveillance  are coming faster than you think.

They're  likely to get much cheaper, smaller and more capable. They're going to be everywhere, probably sooner than we can all adjust to them.

Most consumer Drones rely on some degree of automation in flight.

DJI, the Chinese Drone Company that commands much of the market, makes several drones that can avoid obstacles and track subjects.

But these features tend to be less than perfect, working best in mostly open areas. Just about every drone on the market requires a pilot.

''Our view is that almost all of the use cases for  drones  would be better with autonomy,'' said Adam Bry , Skydio's chief executive.

The Honor and Serving of the latest Operational Research on Drones continues to Part 2. !WOW!  thanks author and researcher,  Farhad Manjoo  for  State  Of The Art.