What can fly like a bird and hover like an insect? Your friendly neighborhood hummingbirds. If drones had this combo, they would be able to maneuver better through collapsed buildings and other cluttered spaces to find trapped victims. Purdue University researchers have engineered flying robots that behave like hummingbirds, trained by machine learning algorithms based on various techniques the bird uses naturally every day.

Next fall, as you browse the produce section at your local grocery store, pay close attention to the apples. You might be witnessing American history. For the first time, some of the apples sold in the U.S. will be picked by a robot rather than human hands.

These military bots that mimic snakes, birds, and insects have a "Black Mirror" vibe.

The U.S. Navy wants to find a way to create underwater robots that can stay submerged for longer. Their idea? Giving it special batteries that can be recharged by eating fish poop. Here's how it could work, and what a team of researchers have demonstrated so far with the project.

Listen: ‘Robots’ are not coming for your jobs. I hope we can be very clear here—at this particular point in time, ‘robots’ are not sentient agents capable of seeking out and applying for your job and then landing the gig on its comparatively superior merits. ‘Robots’ are not currently algorithmically scanning LinkedIn and Monster.com with an intent to displace you with their artificial intelligence. Nor are ‘robots’ gathered in the back of a warehouse somewhere conspiring to take human jobs en masse. A robot is not ‘coming for’, or ‘stealing’ or ‘killing’ or ‘threatening’ to take away your job. Management is.

The thing is robots don't (yet) autonomously arrange to show up at your workplace, uninvited, and take your job. Instead, your boss entertains sales calls (or solicits them!) from companies who want to see your work replaced with a robot, and then your boss makes a decision about whether that replacement will come with an equitable sharing of the fruits of automation (shorter hours and higher pay all around!) or whether they will be hoarded by the forces of capital ("sorry, the robot stole your job, nothing I can do about it").

Retail giants are increasingly turning over jobs and tasks performed in the past by human workers to a growing workforce of robots. A new report on this automation of jobs by Walmart says it’s led to a greater sense of tedium and unease among some human employees, even as the company insists that its robots are meant to benefit them.

Indoor farming company Plenty’s new, bigger operation wants to deliver fresh greens, any time of year. And its robot farm workers help it optimize growing conditions to make the most delicious produce.

The story of Jibo

It’s just a prototype for now.

Up to 20 million manufacturing jobs around the world could be replaced by robots by 2030, according to analysis firm Oxford Economics. People displaced from those jobs are likely to find that comparable roles in the services sector have also been squeezed by automation, the firm said. However, increasing automation will also boost jobs and economic growth, it added.

It’s not enough for robots to be functional. Now they need a sense of humor.

Tiny wings and tinier solar cells allow autonomous movement in a new robotic “bee.”

Many countries around the world have ageing populations and a growing prevalence of dementia. Japan, in particular, is a “super-ageing” society, with a population getting older faster than anywhere else in the world due to long life expectancy and low birth rates.

From delivering toothbrushes at hotels to acting as museum docents, robots are a big attraction—and you have a pretty good chance of interacting with a real one this summer.

Engineers have developed a vegetable-picking robot that can autonomously harvest iceberg lettuce, a manually demanding crop for human pickers. Vegebot was trained using a machine-learning algorithm that helped it distinguish healthy lettuces ready for harvest, in a variety of weather conditions.

Made In Space will show how well robotics can 3D-print parts for in-space construction.

Our sense of touch lets us know how hard or soft something is, how solid or pliable it is to handle. That's an important skill if you want robots to handle things safely.

Boston Dynamics’ robots get ready to walk the walk

If you do a quick Google search for ‘robot,’ you’ll be faced with a wall of white robots. According to a recent study called “Robots and Racism,” human’s tendency to stereotype racial bias is seeping into the world of robotics.