Are you ready for the future? The U.S. Navy has developed tiny bug-like flying spies that have the capability to fly, photograph, video and attack on command. Called MAV’s (Micro Aerial Vehicles), these drones are the next generation robots designed to attack enemies without their knowledge.

Whether driving on the highway or walking down the street, we pick up on both deliberate signals and unconscious cues to predict what other people are going to do and act accordingly. But robots have trouble following each other around, for example, when a leader turns a corner and disappears from sight.

War casualties are typically kept behind tightly closed doors, but one company keeps the mangled pieces of its first casualty on display. This is no ordinary soldier, though — it is Packbot from the iRobot Corporation.

War casualties are typically kept behind tightly closed doors, but one company keeps the mangled pieces of its first casualty on display. This is no ordinary soldier, though — it is Packbot from iRobot Corporation.

The field of robotics could be poised for a breakthrough, leading to a new generation of intelligent machines capable of taking on multiple tasks and moving out of the factory into the home and general workplace.

WITH market analysts predicting a ten fold increase in the value of the organic light emitting display industry, from Ј1.5 billion to Ј15.5 billion, by 2014, it is no wonder that scientists and governments alike are keen to advance research into "plastic electronics".

A research team from the University of the Basque Country, led by Basilio Sierra, is devising a robot that can get around by itself. Tartalo is able to identify different places and ask permission before going through a doorway.

To save lives, search and rescue robots crawling through the rubble of a collapsed building or surveying a chemical spill area must be capable of beaming back clear, easily interpretable images of what they "see" to operators and emergency planners, working away from the immediate disaster site.

Scientists are diligently working to understand how and why the world’s ice shelves are melting. While most of the data they need (temperatures, wind speed, humidity, radiation) can be obtained by satellite, it isn’t as accurate as good old-fashioned, on-site measurement and static ground-based weather stations don’t allow scientists to collect info from as many locations as they’d like.

Researcher Daan Hobbelen of TU Delft has developed a new, highly-advanced walking robot: Flame. This type of research, for which Hobbelen will receive his PhD on Friday 30 May, is important as it provides insight into how people walk. This can in turn help people with walking difficulties through improved diagnoses, training and rehabilitation equipment.

The field of robotics is going through a transformation. As the technology steadily marches on, the practical side of what can be done with robots is evolving from automatic vacuums and human-operated devices toward much more complicated interactions between machines and human beings.

A research team from the Department of Electricity and Electronics at the University of the Basque Country’s Faculty of Science and Technology in Leioa, led by Victor Etxebarria, is investigating the characteristics of various types of materials for their use in the generation and measurement of precise movements.