Imagine a drone that can drill for oil and operate continuously for six weeks at a time. It doesn't exist yet, but France's equivalent of DARPA wants to pay you handsomely to build it.

The French oil company Total is offering a €3.5 million (nearly $5 million) budget and a €500,000 (about $680,000) prize for the winning team. The National Research Agency's website describes the so-called ARGOS challenge:
The goal of the ARGOS Challenge is to foster the development of advanced robotic capabilities in oil & gas environments. The programme is based on robot systems which can safely operate in complete or supervised autonomy over the entire onshore or offshore production site, potentially in hazardous explosive atmospheres. The overall objective is to enhance the safety of operators in isolated production sites.
An unmanned vehicle would make the job of drilling for oil much safer, and not only will they inevitably save lives, it'll also maximize profits! Till the day that sort of tech arrives..[Digital Energy Journal Image of Sentinel from the Matrix via]