A humanoid robot can receive an object handed to it by a person with something approaching natural, human-like motion thanks to a new method developed by scientists at Disney Research, Pittsburgh in a project partially funded by the International Center for Advanced Communication Technologies (interACT) at Carnegie Mellon University and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

The Arduino crew unveiled its Robot this past weekend at Maker Faire 2013 in San Mateo, California.

A typical robot may struggle to discover objects in its surroundings when it relies on computer vision alone. However, by taking advantage of all of the information available to it - such as an object's location, size, shape and even whether it can be lifted - a robot can continually discover and refine its understanding of objects.

Building or programming robots may sound like a lot of fun, but most people probably have no idea where to start. Well, all that is about to change, courtesy of Sparki.

There are a huge and varied number of uses for robots in the military, such as BigDog which is designed to carry food, gear, and other items for soldiers on the battlefield.

Last April, DARPA issued a challenge to researchers and educational institutions to create a robot that could be used to save lives in the event of a disaster.

One of the things that has always most impressed me about bartenders is that they  often remember all the components that go into the mixing of a specific drink off the top of their heads.

If you need help in snow and ice, who better to ask for help than a yeti?

It's usually the human that throws, and the dog that fetches. But Boston Dynamics' BigDog robot has now been demonstrated hurling cinder blocks across a room.

When a robot performs an action, it is typically scripted and very precise.

A team working with the iCub humanoid robot says it can now understand what is being said to it and even anticipate the end of a sentence.

Harvard researchers are currently devleoping "soft robots" that are capable of performing all sorts of functions robots made out of rigid materials, such as metal, are unable to do.

If you grew up in the 80's, odds are you probably remember the Rock Em' Sock Em' Robots - little red and blue plastic robots with manual handles and buttons.

Give a moth a robot car, and it'll use it to cruise the streets for a female, Japanese scientists have discovered. Using a small, two-wheeled robot, a male silkmoth was able to track down the sex pheromone usually given off by a female mate.

Michigan State University scientists say their latest robot fish can glide almost forever, using little to no energy, while gathering data on water quality.

For years, DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has heavily invested in the development of robots for various military missions.   

I'm sure I wasn't the only child growing up in the 80s who wished he could own an actual robot like one of the Transformers.

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created robots capable of deceptive behaviour based on distraction techniques observed in squirrels. 

Toshiba has developed a four-legged robot that - at some point - will be used to explore Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear reactor - still basically a no-go area more than a year and a half after the accident.