Purpose This paper aims to illustrate the growing importance of surgical robots by providing a short historical background and details of a selection of today’s products and their applications. Design/methodology/approach Following a short introduction, this first provides an historical...

Purpose This study aims to provide an insight into recent technological developments and applications that are driving growth and change in the automotive robotics sector. Design/methodology/approach Following a short introduction which provides a commercial perspective, this study discusses the...

Purpose – This paper aims to provide details of recent snake robot research, products and applications. Design/methodology/approach – Following a short introduction to snake robots, this paper considers a selection of key research activities and then describes a number of commercial...

Purpose This paper aims to provide details of European research projects and product developments involving robots that can assist the ageing population. Design/methodology/approach Following an introduction, the role of assistive robots and research into the nature of the human–robot...

Purpose This paper aims to provide details of the use of sensing skins by robots through reference to commercial products and recent research. Design/methodology/approach Following an introduction, this paper first summarises the commercial status of robotic sensing skins. It then provides...

Purpose This study aims to provide an insight into the role of robots in the entertainment industry. Design/methodology/approach Following a short introduction, this study first considers applications in amusement parks and robotic rides and highlights some current development activities. It...

Purpose – This article aims to provide details of recent developments in robots that can change shape and self-reconfigure. Design/methodology/approach – Following an introduction, this article first describes some recent developments in shape-changing materials and then considers a...

Purpose This paper aims to provide an overview of robots presently in use by the military and an insight into some that are under development. Design/methodology/approach Following a short introduction, this paper first considers existing applications of robots in the military field, including...

Purpose This paper aims to illustrate the growing role of drones in applications involving physical tasks. Design/methodology/approach Following a short introduction, this first provides a brief introduction to drone technology. It then describes and discusses products and applications involving...

Purpose – This paper aims to provide a background to the use of robots by the automotive industry and describe a number of applications which illustrate the capabilities and importance of robotic machine vision technology. Design/methodology/approach – Following an historical background to...