The quadrupedal robots are well suited for repetitive tasks.

Amazon has signed an agreement to acquire iRobot, makers of Roomba robot vacuums. The deal is valued at approximately $1.7 billion, and Amazon will acquire iRobot for $61 per share in an all-cash transaction. “Customers love iRobot products — and I’m excited to work with the iRobot team to invent in ways that make customers’ lives easier and more enjoyable,” says Dave Limp, SVP of Amazon Devices. It’s not immediately clear how iRobot will be integrated into Amazon once the deal is finalized and cleared by regulators, but Amazon intends to keep Colin Angle as the CEO of iRobot.

Restaurants are looking to robotics to help solve staffing problems as well as alleviate repetitive tasks. It's becoming easier as the tech is now cheaper.

A video started circulating on Twitter Thursday of a Boston Dynamics-style robot dog firing a submachine gun into targets amid a snowy backdrop. This type of robot dog (it doesn’t seem like the robot in the video is a Boston Dynamics Spot, but just one that looks like it) is famous for dancing, but now appears to have fulfilled every warning given by journalists and analysts. It’s got a gun and it’s ready to kill.

Discovering how animals learn to walk and learn from stumbling was the goal of a study carried out by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS). They created a four-legged, canine-sized robot to aid them in comprehending the specifics.

As every athletic or fashion-conscious person knows, our body image is not always accurate or realistic, but it's an important piece of information that determines how we function in the world. When you get dressed or play ball, your brain is constantly planning ahead so that you can move your body without bumping, tripping, or falling over.

Hollywood has created a pantheon of iconic cyborgs, including the Six Million Dollar Man, RoboCop, and the Terminator. Depending on their objectives, these hybrids either strove to ruin or preserve civilization. The same thing that fascinates people about them is how they blurred the borders between humans and robots in ways that have never happened before but may happen in the future.

Amazon has unveiled its first fully autonomous mobile robot. While it looks very much like a robot vacuum, Proteus is designed for transportation not cleaning.

Tiny self-propelled robo-fish can swim around, latch on to free-floating microplastics and fix itself if it gets damaged

A fish-shaped robot that can collect tiny pieces of plastic waste has been developed by scientists at Sichuan University, China. The bot uses light from a laser to flap its tail side-to-side and has a body that can attract molecules found on microplastics, causing them to stick to it as it swims past.

The state of New York will distribute robot companions to the homes of more than 800 older adults. The robots are not able to help with physical tasks, but function as more proactive versions of digital assistants like Siri or Alexa — engaging users in small talk, helping contact love ones, and keeping track of health goals like exercise and medication.

Scientists have invented a "living" human-like skin for robots that is water-repellent, self-healing, and has a realistic fleshy appearance.

If you shook hands with a robot today, it would feel no different to grabbing a cold hunk of metal. But one day, it may not be much different from shaking hands with a fellow human.

Modern robots are becoming increasingly significant in security, agriculture, and manufacturing. Researchers are now attempting to imbue these robots with a human-like sense of touch.

Mimicking the human body, specifically the actuators that control muscle movement, is of immense interest around the globe. In recent years, it has led to many innovations to improve robotics, prosthetic limbs and more, but creating these actuators typically involves complex processes, with expensive and hard-to-find materials.

Billionaire says robots could be bigger business than electric cars

Creating a machine that can perform the delicate work of picking an apple is tricky – and farmworkers say it could be a benefit

Smaller than a flea, robot can walk, bend, twist, turn and jump

Trying to attach a million-dollar, 60-ton wind turbine blade to its base is challenging in any circumstance — getting the angle wrong by even a fraction of a degree could affect the machine’s ability to generate power. Now imagine trying to do it in the middle of the North Sea, one of the world’s windiest spots, with waves swelling around you. It’s like tying a thread to a kite at the beach and then trying to put it through the eye of a needle.

There’s a nightmarish scene in Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 movie Pan’s Labyrinth in which we are confronted by a sinister humanoid creature called the Pale Man. With no eyes in his monstrous, hairless head, the Pale Man, who resembles an eyeless Voldemort, sees with the aid of eyeballs embedded in the palms of his hands. Using these ocular-augmented appendages, which he holds up in front of his eyeless face like glasses, the Pale Man is able to visualize and move through his surroundings.