Last week, US President Barak Obama was seen in Japan hanging out with robots! He took a break from the APEC Summit to be given a guided tour of some of the world’s newest robots.
Sadly, what he saw was pretty embarrassing: A talking female robot that had all the sophistication of a 1970s B-Movie, an irritating robotic ‘pet’ seal and a mobility chair that nearly collapsed on him! Rather than being a showcase for trailblazing technology, it was a farce that probably had Obama wishing he was back in a dull conference on economics…

This is a real shame because what he saw doesn’t reflect many exciting developments afoot in robotics.
In the UK, a team of scientists and engineers have been building robots that could be humankind’s best weapon at saving the planet from pollution. Nicknamed ‘Robo-fish’ these cutting-edge machines move and act just like the real thing but are equipped to detect and fight pollution. Read more