02/01/2016 Click - Short Edition

Two special compilations of the best bits of Click,

with stories from Asia, Africa and the US.

We start with a range of stories that show just how many ways we

If you thought they were only good for racing, think again.

The Aerial GP is an opportunity for drone enthusiasts

to pilot ultralight drones across specially-made racing circuits.

The drones are fitted with cameras and pilots are using monitors to see

They have to complete several circuits of the course

Try flying a few feet from the ground at 60mph.

Most people get into it because they want to be a pilot

You end up flying between trees at your house.

Skills have been honed, and victorious racers have

The Aerial GP's organisers have plans to take

Robotic airborne races are here to stay.

We have seen them used for classy photography, gratuitous

selfies, and for deliveries, with Amazon in the US and Alibaba

in China considering them for getting packages about the place.

But in the UAE, they have started looking

for other uses for drones, and that has led to the competition going

There is $1 million up for grabs for the winners

in the international category, so this is a serious business.

You would not believe the number of issues that can be solved with

a drone, at least when there is so much money up for grabs.

I did not know fog was an issue in Dubai - that was until a team

from Khalifa University invented a drone that gets rid of it.

We have a lot of car pile-up accidents

and disasters happening because of the fog.

We are doing an extraordinary experiment

Using a concept similar to cloud seeding,

which causes rain, this drone can carry 40kg of a salty solution it

sprays over the fog, breaking it up and dissipating the mist.

You need about seven of these to clear a runway within 20 minutes,

allowing pilots to take off and land safely.

One thing I did know about Dubai was its preference

With this high-rise glass about, you do need something to keep it clean.

It has a washer, it has a squeegee, and with this drone,

we can clean up a maximum of 40 square metres.

I am nervous about flying drones close to buildings,

but the sponges protect the blades, so it is less likely to crash when

And crash protection is something being taken to

an entirely new level by Team Flyability.

I have never seen a drone like this before.

If the drone collides against obstacles, only the cage will rotate

That is what they strap astronauts into to spin them around.

Where can you see this drone being used?

This drone can go anywhere where other drones cannot go,

like inside collapsed buildings, anywhere there is a lot of trash

and you can't have perfect control of the robot.

I don't think there is any other drone here that can handle hitting

The pilot is flying the robot inside the house, so he does not see

He only uses the video link from the drone.

They have $1 million to invest into their bright idea.

Now, I like to have a bit of fun on the show, but without

the risk of making myself ill, so we sent LJ Rich to Germany last summer

to try out rollercoasters, and to give her the ride of her life.

What better place to test the new rollercoaster technology

than here at a park where people know their coasters?

One company thinks it has cracked a huge conundrum.

You have to keep very tightly to the real movement, and what we are

doing is measuring the actual position on the track with

a special sensor that is attached to the wheel of one of the cars.

That flashing light counts rotations and synchronises with

That means if the speed varies a little with each ride, the programme

In fact, VR could be the key to giving a new lease

I think my uncle got a similar effect using a different

We finish our 2015 round up in Japan, with two different kinds of

Japan is in a hurry to make cars differently.

So, why are Japanese carmakers assembly-lining up to make what

in the past has proven to be an expensive, impractical,

The answer is as much political as it is about technology.

Ahead of the 2020 Olympics, they are thinking big.

Traditionally, hydrogen has been produced using

fossil fuels, but Japan doesn't have any of those, so Honda has created

Ideally produced from renewable resources, and it has

designed stations that don't just store hydrogen, they make it.

It may take a while to produce, but the beauty of hydrogen is

its only waste product is pure water emitted through the exhaust.

Japan has set its sights on being the leading exporter of these super

Toyota recently delivered the first of its new fuel cell cars

to buyers in Japan, the US, Denmark, Germany and here in the UK.

This is the first mass produced hydrogen car, designed

from the ground up, which means they haven't just taken an existing model

They put the tanks in the back, and effectively the engine with all

the chemical reactions going on between the two front seats,

It is a little bit heavier than a normal car, but it is statistics

There is one statistic that might concern you.

It is a safe, if slow, start to Japan's waterpowered revolution.

Not just any DeLorean, that would be impressive enough, this is

We have the drive circuits here, the plutonium chamber measurements,

the time bank with current date and target date.

Speedometer, that has to get to 88 mph.

And back here, the all-important flux capacitor.

30 years ago I watched Back to the Future and I thought, yes,

in 30 years you will be able to drive a car using rubbish.

Ten years ago I realised I hadn't seen it happen yet, so I decided to

start researching bio ethanol and succeeded in making the gas.

One day, he hopes that one day just like in the film will be

able to put rubbish and even clothes straight into our cars.

For the moment, this uses large processing plants to extract sugar

from the cotton in used clothes and turn it into bio ethanol.

I thought that was brilliant, brilliant enough to miss my flight

Never mind, I think I have found an alternative means of transport

That is it for the short cut of 2015. The longer version is online,

and includes the time we tried to shoot an entire TV programme on our

mobile phones. Don't remind me. See you soon.