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Bot Vid: Jogging With A Drone Joggobot has been in development for a while, but is all

Bot Vid: Transformers, For Real Transformers may be robots in disguise, but the kids' toys that drive the franchise have never been really robotic. There's always been a lot of "pull that, twist this, flip the other" dextrous fingerwork required to get the plastic parts to actually transform. With that in mind (yes, stop being nostalgic about your childhood!) watch this , courtesy of Plastic Pals

Bot Vid: The Naval Robot That Fights Fires The Navy has a big plan to put smart gesture-controlled bipedla firebots onto ships. These droids are able to scramble through compartments designed for human access, so they'd be invaluable in a crisis, and they can handle fires that humans cannot. The plan needs much research, and the Octavia bot shows a step along the way.

Bot Vid: Robo Cheetah Boston Dynamics is behind many of the most astonishing robot advances at the moment, and its latest tech is splashed all over the web this week beacuse it's extra impressive: The robotics firm has pushed its cheetah-like robot quadruped up to a mind-boggling 18 miles an hour, a record for legged bots. It's a DARPA-funded project, like many BD efforts, to improve mobility and speed of ground robots for tasks like mine and IED detection.

Oribital gestures, child-like androids, robotic spacecraft--it's all in our robotic roundup.

Alpha Dog: Goes "Hi Ho," Romps Over Hills If you're any sort of fan of robotics, you'll know about Boston Dynamics' Big Dog and Alpha Dog--research prototype robots that will be used to inform the design of a genuine military support quadruped robot. Now DARPA has just taken Alpha Dog out into the wild to put it through some grueling tests: [youtube xY42w1w0TWk] The tests include hauling 400 pounds of cargo over 20 miles during a 24-hour window without needing refueling--exactly the sort of automated troop-following tasks that will make its military-grade offspring incredibly useful in what may be a surprisingly small number of years.

Quadrocopter Swarms Go Tiny If you're a fan of This Week In Bots you'll be exquisitely familiar with quadropters--the technology is blooming right now because the battery, motor, and control technology is ubiquitous and the stable flight platform offered by the design promises so much for the future of aerial robotics. That's why we've seen them dance, perform ridiculous aerobatics , and even build things .

France Has Self-Driving Cars Too Google doesn't have the monopoly on clever self-driving cars, and now France has joined the fray . Deveoped by research company IFSTTAR and engineers from the ESIGELEC school in Rouen, the machine is a Renault vehicle that's been heavily modified to turn its wheel and operate its pedal controls. The roof is peppered with sensors, including GPS, cameras to monitor around the car and the lanes in front of it and a LIDAR system on the nose to accurately determine the positions of other vehicles and unexpected alerts like a pedestrian.

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[youtube nNbj2G3GmAo] New Nao Nao, from young French firm Aldebaran Robotics, is one of the better known small humanoid education and research robots--but he's about to be replaced: By Nao Next Gen .

Plenty. When your connection to a mission or idea that is so strong that it inspires you to take risks, your company can soar, and your customers benefit.

Floppy Starfish Bot Soft-shelled robots have popped up from time to time, but none perhaps have been as amazing as this new innovation from Harvard . It's a super-floppy starfish-esque robot that can crawl, maneuver, and wiggle its way along the ground...and can also squirm its way into tight spaces and even through tiny holes. Just like the worms of your squirmiest nightmares! Enjoy! [youtube QpnLj-rzjIo] The robot is just five inches long, pneumatically powered and was designed to replicate the motions of a real sea creature

Robot Snake Tintanoboa was a real snake, a prehistoric serpent of biblical proportions--it was over 50 feet long and some of them could weigh over a ton. Thankfully he's long extinct, but to demonstrate the scale and scariness of the beast, artist group eatArt from Vancouver are building a robot version . [youtube Ocyhbij9JYQ] Yes, it really is that big--and eventually destined to have a saddle for a brave rider.

Asimo Gets An Upgrade For robot fans, Honda's Asimo has perhaps always been the biggest treasure: He's been in development for decades, and Honda just this week revealed a refresh that makes Asimo the most advanced yet. There's a host of improvements, from slicker and faster gaits, more sophisticated movements, individually articulated fingers (flexible enough to cope with sign language) to improved voice recognition that can discern commands even when three voices are talking at once. The best way to understand how advanced this child-sized bot is nowadays is to watch this video: [youtube eU93VmFyZbg] Asimo is, arguably, just one step away from being the science fiction robots we've been seeing for years

PETMAN Cometh Come on, Boston Dynamic! Who are you trying to kid? You tell us PETMAN is the latest evolution of your human-form android that uses similar tech to your military BigDog, and that he's a development from an earlier prototype that included just legs