Gone are the days when we could look at cutting-edge robots and at least take some satisfaction in the fact that the human body was still superior. It seems like DARPA is getting closer and closer to outdoing Mother Nature, this time with its ARM-H robot hand that's as impressively dextrous as it is cheap and durable. Read More >>

DARPA, as you may know, is a cool US government research lab. They design cool shit like planes that can fly without one wing. But sometimes, apparently, the hive mind knows best -- like this 'crowdsourced' swimming tank, which has just won the designers a cool £700,000, and endless bragging rights. Read More >>

DARPA-funded DRS Technologies, Inc has developed a new 1280 x 720 night vision camera with pixels just five microns across—that's reportedly just one-twelfth the size of a human hair. So. Small. The new tech isn't just way more practical, it could save the government a bundle of money, too. Read More >>

Replacing fighter planes and reconnaissance aircraft with robotic drones turned out to be a far easier task for the military than replacing soldiers with bots. But DARPA remains determined to one day enlist robots for all military jobs, and among other research, it's working hard to develop a relatively low-cost set of artificial arms and hands that can perform everyday mundane tasks. Read More >>

There's nothing on the planet that's equal parts terrifying and spectacular quite like DARPA's LS3 "Big Dog" robot. It has the horrific realism of an actual dog, mixed with the horrific robot quality of... a robot. Now it's even more powerful. Read More >>

When it comes to handy features for UAVs, your mind probably doesn't jump to towering, phallic protuberances and grabby arms for gingerly setting things down before darting away. Well DARPA's does, which is why it funded and demonstrated this monstrosity. Read More >>

Say hello to Pet-Proto. Manufactured by Boston Dynamics, which makes robot versions of everything from fleas to horses, it's a humanoid robot that can run, jump and climb over objects—probably a damn site better than you're able. Read More >>

This is freaking scary. This is even scarier than Big Dog. It's the latest version of the Pentagons's newest Cheetah robot and it now runs faster than Usain Bolt. 0.5 miles per hour faster than the fastest man on Earth. And if it can catch Bolt, it can catch you too. And then kill you. Read More >>

The US Navy has a bit of a sub problem. While the US fleet has contracted over the past two decades, numerous nations that aren't exactly its BFFs have been expanding their own fleets of ultra-quiet diesel-electric subs. While this proliferation has grown into a very real national security threat, DARPA may soon have a solution — robotic submarine trackers. Read More >>

If you remember our Bots of War series from last year, than you are familiar with iRobot's hardcore military robot fleet. But just because they're awesome doesn't mean they're done evolving. The comping generations may have lightweight, inflatable arms. Read More >>

Darpa researchers at Sandia National Laboratory have developed a dextrous robotic hand made of modular components that can be produced cheaply. You see, the military wants to use these bots to defuse IEDs all over the world, but until now, comparable robotic abilities have costed about £160,000. Robotic hands need to be a lot be a lot cheaper if they're going be to widely distributed amongst the troops. The Sandia Hand might be the answer. Read More >>

Many wonderful things have come out of the US Military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency—or DARPA— including the internet. But none are as insanely awesome as its new CAAT (Captive Air Amphibious Transporter) which is essentially a tank that floats on water thanks to its oversized inflatable treads. Read More >>

The DARPA Tactical Technology Office wants swarms of small spacecraft that would go to space, attach to dead satellites, and use their components to create new working satellites. The idea is fascinating—although it seems too wild to become real anytime soon. Read More >>

You can put out a fire with nothing more than sound—and it doesn't even have to be eardrum-deadening, Marty McFly-flattening loud sound. This is Darpa's sonic fire extinguisher, and it sounds kinda like a foghorn. Read More >>

Last summer, the Pentagon's Falcon HTV-2 glider—which the Air Force says can fly from New York to LA in under 12 minutes, disappeared. Nobody knew why! Now we know why: it went so fast it ripped itself apart. Read More >>