Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of present‐day and anticipated future applications of robots in the food industry. Design/methodology/approach – The paper discusses the use of robots in the agriculture and farming, processing and packaging and retail sectors of...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of recent developments in miniaturised flying robots. Design/methodology/approach – Following a brief consideration of micro‐ and nano‐aerial vehicles, the paper discusses recent US and European research into the development of...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a technical insight into recent developments in brain‐computer interface (BCI) technology and its applications. Design/methodology/approach – Following an introduction to BCI, this paper considers the different means of detecting brain...

Purpose – The paper aims to provide a technical review of recent developments in microrobots, together with a less detailed consideration of nanorobotics. Design/methodology/approach – Following a brief introduction, this paper describes a number of recently reported microrobot development...

Purpose – The paper aims to provide a review of the uses of robots in non‐destructive testing (NDT). Design/methodology/approach – Following a brief introduction, this paper considers the uses of robotic NDT, with an emphasis on applications in certain key industries. While some...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the uses of robots in the nuclear power industry, with an emphasis on newer developments and applications. Design/methodology/approach – Following an introduction to the nuclear industry, this paper considers robotic applications...

Purpose – This paper aims to review of the use of robots in two healthcare applications: surgery and prosthetics. Design/methodology/approach – Following a brief introduction, this paper first considers robotic surgery and discusses a selection of commercial products, applications and recent...

Purpose – This paper aims to review the use of imaging technologies in robotics, with an emphasis on inspection applications and the control of autonomous robots. Design/methodology/approach – Following a brief introduction, this paper first considers vision‐based robotic inspection...

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the present‐day use of, and future prospects for, robots for detecting mines and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), with an emphasis on the key operational requirements. Design/methodology/approach – Following an introduction to the impact of mines...

Purpose – This paper aims to provide a review of the role of robots for monitoring the environment. Design/methodology/approach – Following a short introduction, this paper discusses developments in aquatic, terrestrial and airborne robots for monitoring the environment. Brief conclusions...