How Rendezvous of Heterogeneous Robots in Minimum Time - Theory and Experiments

Most robots are created to interact with human beings. Robovie-R2 can be used for studies in voice recognition and image processing.

Robot's have been developed to make life easier in old age. They are fitted with "assistance technology", a device to help the disabled to become more independent.

The adherent entry of robots in the workplace is also been made to assist librarians.

Robot's intrusion in medicine is magnificent. They have been designed to navigate the intravenous system in the human body and identify clots, ulcers, etc. A $1.4 million robot named Da Vinci can hold a camera in one hand while manipulating tiny laparoscopic surgical tools in its other hands

Another potential for the technology is for  surgery across distance - doctors in one city use the robot to perform an operation in another city.

Rehab robotics LTD, of England has built a robot that can help people eat, drink, shave, play games, brush their teeth and put on make up. Robots have been designed to switch on or dim the lights, adjusting the heat, checking out what is missing in the refrigerator and keeping an eye on the kids and the house.

They can be programmed to water the gardens. The visually impaired can now "read" with the help of computerized machines that speak aloud the printed words they scan. Unlike other robots, the Flexible robot does not have a body which moves on the floor. But, it changes a light bulb, which cannot be done by a person in a wheelchair. In short, these robots can live like members of the family.

Syracuse University researchers in the US have designed robotic sensors to better understand the environmental systems at work and assess whether the water is suitable for consumption, aquatic life and recreation by collecting water samples every 10 minutes. The underwater robots known as RUSS system - Remote Underwater Sampling Stations - help scientists track pollution and make on the spot decisions.

The US researchers have developed robots to ensure safety of rescuers. They wriggle into the rubble of a collapsed building after an earthquake or bombing, searching for survivors. Engineers have designed a robot that can crawl through six - inch piping and identify survivors deep in the rubble. The robot called Moccasin 2 can even navigate curves and bends and climb vertical heights. Small robots are sent inside pyramids to take photos for research.

And it never tires its human counterparts. With a human surgeon at the controls, Da Vinci filters out tremor, enhances precision, offers three-dimensional imaging and eliminates the inverted manipulation of instruments usually required in laparoscopic procedures. The first robotic surgery, performed in 1995, relieved the need for an assistant to hold the camera during laparoscopic procedures.

The robocop in Japan aims to develop a team of fully autonomous humanoid robot by 2050 that can win against the human soccer champion team. Wonder what Czech playwright Karl Capek - who coined the word 'robot' - would feel if he saw the gadget he named sing, dance, clean or perhaps jog past him!