Research shows that liquid networks are better able to distinguish between the crucial and irrelevant aspects of the driving task and is much closer to how humans drive. This has the advantage of making the model, in theory, easier to understand and calibrate.

Similarly, Google's Alphabet X is working on an 'Everyday Robot Project', for robots to whizz around the office sorting through waste, to make sure that items are trashed in the correct recycling bins.

“All these cool things that we only dreamed of, we can now begin to realise,” says Rus. “Now we have to make sure that what we do with all these superpowers is good.”

For a complete picture of state-of-the-art humanoid robotics today and the companies competing to build the best bot, see this feature article by Spectrum

Close to catastrophe: Flying over southern Spain, photographer Aya Okawa saw starkly what toxic waste looks like. “I got a clear look at the dramatic views of toxic waste pools, byproducts of phosphate-based fertilizer production,” Okawa says.

When the manual brakes on the truck locked up, they also sparked, igniting some of the lumber. As you see in the video, Wilson weaves the truck back and forth to dump his cargo, almost hitting a school bus. Luckily, Wilson was caught without anyone getting hurt and he was later sentenced to 99 years in prison with the option of parole in 15 years.

Some startups aiming for human-like machines focused on improving the dexterity of robotic fingers before trying to get their robots to walk.

Of course, Covariant is currently hyper-focused on picking and Weird science placing. It’s frankly a big enough challenge to keep them occupied for a long time. But one of the promises systems like this offer is real-world training.

But after years of slow progress, researchers now appear to be on the cusp of the dramatic advances required to create a new generation of automatons.

” Below, a harvesting robot uses suction to pull apples off trees in an orchard in Grandview, Washington.

But what I mean more specifically is the systems have to be able to understand speech and they need to be able to convert the understanding of speech into action, which will satisfy job roles across the entire economy.”

Rus says we are starting to see the physical realisations in robotics of a lot of things previously thought impossible. But challenges remain in ensuring guardrails are in place, she says.

The snakebot puts an intelligent spin on hammers and drills and functions as an extension of the human. We can already pilot our eyes around corners and send them soaring off cliffs. But what if we could extend all of our senses to previously unreachable places? What if we could throw our sight, hearing, touch, and even sense of smell to distant locales and experience these places in a more visceral way? We could visit distant cities or far-off planets, and perhaps even infiltrate animal communities to learn more about their social organization and behavior.

Machines struggle with the complexities of the physical world — and dexterous chores are notoriously hard for them to crack.