SpotMini Robot: Smart Dog Robot

Boston Dynamics has gone from the battlefield to the home with a smaller, quieter quadruped robot that can navigate around the house and even fetch you a drink – if you can get it to let go of the can. The focus of a new video released today, the SpotMini is a more compact and streamlined version of the Spot robot unveiled in 2015 and boasts an articulated arm with a manipulator that looks like a cross between a sheep's head and an oven mitt.

SwagBot Robot: The Shepherd Robot

SwagBot is able to keep tabs on cattle (and potentially sheep) on its own and navigate bumpy terrain with ease, helping to guide the cows towards pastures and away from potential hazards. The university’s Australian Centre for Field Robotics is only weeks into a two-year trial to test autonomous farming robots, and SwagBot has already impressed in its early testing, showing that it can get around obstacles and do the job without constant oversight.

Bert Robot: Smart Feeling Robot

Researchers from University College London and the University of Bristol created a humanoid named Bert to help users make an omelette. Bert has an expressive face with moveable eyes, eyebrows and a mouth, enabling it to appear happy and sad.

Einstein Robot: Personal Genius Robot

According to Albert Einstein, the sky’s the limit when imagination and knowledge are paired together! Now you can learn science through the whimsical and knowledgeable eyes of your own personal genius—Professor Einstein. Professor Einstein is the first robot with full facial expressions that can interact dynamically with you and your iPad or Android tablet to teach science and play learning games.

Sally Robot: Making Salad Robot

Sally will make you the most perfectly proportioned salad you’ve ever eaten: through science. Sally is a green-and-brown robot, a brand-new creation from Chowbotics Inc. (that’s a real name) and a major new player in a potential multi-billion market for food-service robots.

Ohmni Robot: Home Robot

Home robotics is an area of intense interest, with many large companies exploring how they might best address the potential market. Bosch subsidiary Mayfield Robotics has Kuri, and automakers including Toyota and Honda have their own approach, which a focus on independence for people continuing into our senior years. Startup OhmniLabs thinks that human connection is what will convince people to bring robots into their home, and their first robot, Ohmni, is built with bringing people together in mind.

Kaspar Robot: Help Autistic Children

It's a humanoid robot designed to help children with autism, is set to be trialled by the NHS. The child-sized robot was created by researchers at the University of Hertfordshire and is programmed to respond to touch. Kaspar is designed to play games with children, using a collection of skin sensors placed on various parts of its body to “encourage certain tactile behaviours” and discourage “inappropriate” ones.

SPT Robot: Seafloor Production Tools Robot

Nautilus Minerals is utilising proven technologies from the offshore oil and gas industries, dredging and onshore mining industries to realise the new deep seafloor resource production industry. The result is a system which has three main components: the Seafloor Production Tools (SPTs) the Riser and Lifting System (RALS) and the Production Support Vessel (PSV).

NUSwan Robot: To Monitor Water Quality

A team in Singapore is working on an alternative approach: GPS-guided robots that take measurements and wirelessly transmit results back to researchers—and look like swans to blend in with the environment. Called NUSwan, the project is led by researchers at the Environmental Research Institute and the Tropical Marine Science Institute, both part of the National University of Singapore.

VGo Robot: Telepresence Robot

It can easily drive over rugs, thresholds, and other changes in flooring, and even has headlights to help with visibility and attracting attention. In classroom settings students have used this to replicate raising their hand to get the teacher's attention. The VGo includes other unique features such as a high-resolution camera, zoom features, text-to-voice, and a tiltable head.