University of Nebraska researchers are taking unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, to new heights.The lab is located in the same place Husker football players used to breakdown opponents: the south part of Memorial Stadium, which used to be the football team's auditorium. The area is now the Nebraska Intelligent Mobile Unmanned Systems (NIMBUS) lab."What we are working in the lab are the drones of the future," assistant professor Carrick Detweiler said.The lab tests flying robots that can perform tasks like drawing water samples from streams and rivers, picking up objects and dropping fireballs to help farmers or fire crews in prescribed burns."The idea of sending them up high and taking pictures isn't the focus anymore," assistant professor Brittany Duncan said. "Now, the focus is how to get low and how to interact with people."The lab started five years ago through the computer science program, but since it also includes mechanical engineering and aeroscience, it encompasses design to application. The goal, according to one of its founding members, is to make drones more powerful, safer and smarter."We want these vehicles to be more autonomous, more able to do things on their own," professor Sebastian Elbaum explained.The lab brought in some of the top researchers in the country: newly recruited Justin Bradley is from Michigan's aerospace engineering program."This is one of the premiere labs, I think, in the nation for developing this type of technology," Bradley said.It also attracts some of the brightest students, including some from international countries."It's really cool that there's a lab in Nebraska that is doing projects like this," graduate student Evan Beachly said.The lab has already been awarded millions of dollars in research grants from the USDA, U.S. Air Force and National Science Foundation.While KETV NewsWatch 7 toured the facility, a retired vice admiral and retired general were also there touring. They were with the National Strategic Research Institute at the University of Nebraska, a group that works as a liaison with the military department and strategic air command."(We're) gaining ideas and identifying potential opportunities that the university might fill for the department," Carl Mauney, the retired vice admiral, said."Robots are even cooler than you think and flying robots are the best of the best," graduate student John-Paul Ore said.The fire-starting drones will begin testing on actual fields this spring.