At the Google I/O after-party the other night, there was one bartender in particular that stood out. It wasn't the drink he made, or the friendly chatter. It was more than he weighed several tons and could break you with the flick of the wrist. Meet the Makr Shakr. Read More >>

Skynet comes across as a resourceful artificial intelligence. After all, if it's clever enough to send someone back in time to wipe out an enemy before they're born, it's not hard to believe it could see the potential in Lego Technic when it comes to building an army. Particularly when we've just shown it how. Read More >>

In the not too distant future the world is going to be abuzz with quadrotors flying about making deliveries, monitoring traffic, and of course spying on everyone: a skill this gecko-like craft is particularly adept at. Thanks to a special dry adhesive it's able to stick and unstick from surfaces, letting it land and perch almost anywhere. Read More >>

Our hands are a pretty major feat of evolution (opposable thumbs! dexterity!), and it's hard to artificially replicate everything they can do. Especially when it comes to super fine motor skills like picking up very flat, thin or small objects. As part of DARPA's ARM program, iRobot and collaborators at Harvard and Yale are working on versatile robot "hands" that can bear significant weight while also producing subtler gestures. Read More >>

Whether you think it's our fault or not, the simple fact of the matter is that the Earth is heating up—so much so that last summer's heat caused surface melting along an unprecedented 97 percent of the Greenland ice sheet. Now, researchers are turning to an ever-ready solar rover to survey the damage. Read More >>

This little guy might not look much, but he's the world's smallest flying robotic insect — and he's taken 12 years to get into the air. Read More >>

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 >>

There's unfortunately no secret shortcut to building muscle and toning your body. But if you're just after the extra strength, not the six-pack abs, the TitanArm exoskeleton lets you cheat your way to impressive feats of heavy lifting. Read More >>

Wall-E has adorable droopy eyes and is totally compelling, but I have to remind everyone that he isn't real. If you need a minute to let that sink in take as much time as you need. We're gonna talk about Romibo and you can catch up later. Read More >>

There are plenty of robot arms out there, but what about robot skin to cover them in? A new kind of piezotronic transistor mesh could make for robotic skin as sensitive as your own is, covered in thousands of tiny mechanical hairs. Read More >>

You could use measuring tape to steal a can of soda from a vending machine but if you're a genius, why not just invent a freaking robot to do the dirty work for you? This guy did just that. He inserts his robot inside the vending machine and controls it to grab as many sodas as possible. Awesome. Read More >>

The Wheelbarrow EOD robot has dutifully served the British Army since Lt. Col. Peter Mille first put one to work disarming IRA bombs in 1972. But these days, the 400 or so units currently deployed in the UK and abroad are quickly becoming legacy hardware. The British Ministry of Defence's replacement: a state-of-the-art bomb-bot that can disable an IED four times faster than its predecessor. Read More >>

While creating an empathetic robot is a long-held dream, understanding whether humans genuinely empathise with robots should—in theory—be easier. Now, a team of scientists have analyzed fMRI brain scans to reveal that humans have similar brain function when shown affection and violence being inflicted on both humans and robots. Read More >>

Teotihuacan, an ancient, abandoned city about an hour north of Mexico City, was once one of the largest cities in the world. It collapsed in the centuries ago (thanks either to an internal uprising or foreign invaders, depending on who you ask), but it's never been completely deserted, since the ruins have always been a magnet for squatters, archeologists, and hordes of tourists. Read More >>

One of the biggest joys of owning a dog is that if you spill food on the floor, you can call them over and have it taken care of in no time. And that has to be what inspired the latest version of LG's RoboKing voice-activated vacuum cleaners. Read More >>