Segway to the Future,
Danna Voth DARPA's Segway Human Transporter carries sensors, manipulators, computers, and software packages to help researchers explore robotics problems on a human scale. DARPA gave modified Segway HTs to a dozen research groups and challenged them to create solutions for operating autonomous mobile robots in dynamic, unstructured environments. Many researchers have taken their experiments even further.
Mimicking Bat Echolocation, Benjamin Alfonsi
University of Maryland scientists are developing an advanced, integrative theory on brain behavior relations that they can apply to robotics. Their Microchipoptera project aims to create a flying bat robot that uses silicon analogs of bat neural circuits to mimic the nocturnal creature's unique echolocation system.