Robot serves ice cream to Beijing Olympic visitors

Assembled from old household items, the Delta robot has been delivering food and cheer to residents in Surabaya, Indonesia.

At this cafe in Tokyo, robots are intended to be more than a gimmick, offering job opportunities to people with disabilities unable to work outside their homes.

These supermarket deliveries are not only contactless, but done by a robot. Robotics firm Starship are trialling these deliveries in the UK, with a US expansion already underway.

Singapore has trialled patrol robots that blast warnings at people engaging in "undesirable social behaviour", adding to an arsenal of surveillance technology in the tightly controlled city-state.

Caltech researchers have built a bipedal robot that combines walking with flying to create a new type of locomotion, which makes it more agile and capable of complex movements. Part walking robot, part flying drone, the LEONARDO (short for LEgs ONboARD drOne, or LEO for short) can walk on a tightrope like tightrope walkers, jump, and even skateboard. Developed by a team from Caltech’s Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies (CAST), LEO is the first robot to uses multi-jointed legs and propeller-based thrusters to achieve a good degree of control over its balance.

Researchers in California unveiled a bipedal robot on Wednesday that combines walking with flying to create a new type of locomotion, allowing it to jump, skateboard and walk on a slackline. The robot, named LEONARDO or LEO for short, was developed by a team at the California Institute of Technology's Center for Autonomous Systems and Technologies. Researchers said LEO is the first robot to use multi-joint legs and propeller-based thrusters to enable it to balance and carry out complex movements.

A robotic dog stole the limelight at the Milipol defence and security trade fair near Paris on Tuesday. The 22nd edition of Milipol Paris takes place from Oct. 19 to 22 and plays host to dozens of countries, including Israel, United States and Switzerland. The robotic dog costs "under $1 million", according to Ghost Robotics special projects head Tom Jacobs. He adds that the technology that has advanced in the past few years has enabled the robot dog to keep its balance in difficult terrain

The Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, is set to become the first state hospital in Africa to perform robotic-assisted surgery, following the launch of the state-of-the-art Da Vinci X-I surgical robot.⁣⁣ The four-armed robot will aid surgeons in carrying out complex surgeries on patients in a less invasive and shorter period of time.⁣⁣

Early visitors to the Main Press Centre at the Beijing Winter Olympics have been delighted to discover that ice cream is served to them by robots. To buy the ice cream, one must go to the cashier to pay first and get a receipt with a QR code, which you then scan on the machine and the robot will automatically kick into action.

A surgical team led by Dr Tim Forgan uses the da Vinci Xi robot to assist in removing a cancerous rectal tumour from a female patient at Tygerberg public hospital in Cape Town, South Africa. The robot, which has four 'arms' and is controlled in real time by Forgan via an immersive 3D consul, is the most advanced surgical robot in Africa.

Isah Barde's robot is made of recycled materials. The 17-year-old Nigerian believes it could help with jobs that are dangerous for humans.

Tesla's Elon Musk has often boasted about his plan to sell millions of affordable robots to mark a "future of abundance." Critics think that future is still far off.