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"  ORLANDO, Fla \u2014 I&amp;#039;m being followed by a rolling keg. At the International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), such surveillance is considered normal. One isn&amp;#039;t supposed to curse or kick the keg. One isn&amp;#039;t supposed to flee. Conference chair Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos, director of the Center for Distributed Robotics at the University of Minnesota, knows a thing or two about automated surveillance. His lab created the remote-controlled, camera-equipped contraptions known as Scout Robots, which enable soldiers to suss out what lies around the corner\u2014or inside a building or cave\u2014without stepping directly in harm&amp;#039;s way. Less expensive than most military surveillance robots, Scouts look like soda cans with wheels. Titanium-housed, they can be thrown, shot from a gun, or dropped from a helicopter. They jump obstacles with the help of spring-loaded release arms and carry a grappling hook-and-winch system for climbing. MegaScouts, which can travel longer distances over rougher terrain, can even release fleets of original-size Scouts. Think robo-Trogan Horse. More than 20 Scouts have been deployed in Iraq. The military, in fact underwrites most robotics research, especially in the U.S., and monitoring\u2014&amp;quot;enhancing situational awareness,&amp;quot; in mil-speak\u2014is seen as a primary application. (Witness the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and bomb-sniffers regularly touted on cable news.)  The applications for remote-sensing robots extend beyond war, though, and ICRA is awash with creative ideas, from assessing biochemical disasters to monitoring elderly relatives. At ICRA, Robin Murphy, director of the University of Central Florida&amp;#039;s Center for Robot Assisted Search and Rescue, played a video of fixed- and rotary-wing UAVs searching for survivors in the wake of Katrina. Paul Oh, director of the Autonomous Systems Lab at Drexel University, discussed his work with the Hybrid Micro Air Vehicle, which covers long distances like a plane, then inverts to helicopter position for hovering and entering buildings and caves. And a team from Case Western Reserve University showcased work on the steerable, stoppable, wind-powered Tumbleweed Rovers that may one day help explore Mars. \u2014James Vlahos NEXT: The (Animal) Robotic Kingdom Earlier: Empty Saddles Nikolaos Papanikolopoulos, chair of ICRA, director of the Center for Distributed Robotics at the University of Minnesota, and the inventor of the Scouts. Photo by James Vlahos "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/robots/a687/2832321/>