Kinda creepy: You're badly injured, but don't worry, I look like a teddy bear.

Credit: VECNA TECHNOLOGIES

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SYDNEY: What will be the next frontier in technology? Bill Gates says robotics. The field today looks much like the computing industry did when he founded Microsoft 30 years ago, he adds. Here Cosmos takes you on a guided tour of ten robots that are the advance guard – and who knows what's over the horizon?

BEAR (battlefield extraction-assist robot): was announced by the U.S. Army in 2007 and is under development by Vecna Technologies. Towering 1.8 metres tall, BEAR is designed to retrieve injured soldiers from the battlefield. It's capable of carrying more than 135 kg with a single hydraulic arm, whilst manoeuvring deftly over complex terrain on wheels or tracks. Its curious teddy bear-shaped head is intended to calm and comfort casualties. We think it's a bit creepy.

ASIMO: An A-lister in the robot world, Honda's ASIMO ('advanced step in innovative mobility') looks like child-sized astronaut wearing a backpack. ASIMO can run, climb stairs, communicate, and recognize human faces and voices. ASIMO's joints are able to mirror the agility of human movement. He (it?) uses ultrasonic and infrared sensors to react to stimuli in its environment in real time.

Robonaut B: Still under development, NASA's Robonaut B may have a major role in future space exploration. A portable, wireless robot with human-like dexterity and video cameras for eyes, it is being developed to fill in for astronauts on space walks or assist on the surface of other worlds. Building on the experience of the space shuttle's existing robotic arm, Robonaut B will give astronauts a helping hand on dangerous missions, from space station repairs to scouting the surface of Mars.

Eurobot: In 2007 the European Space Agency announced their own answer to Robonaut B. The Eurobot will be able to climb around the International Space Station on three, seven-jointed arms, each equipped with a camera. Under development by aerospace firm Thales Alenia Space, based in France, the robot will have up to four different types of 'hands' that can be attached for different tasks.

Kismet: One of the first socially-interactive robots, MIT's Kismet excels at communicating with humans face to face. It is programmed to actively interact with people, and even appears to sulk if they refuse. The elements of Kismet's 'face' have 15 degrees of freedom and it has a wide repertoire of expressions. Researchers behind Kismet term it an 'open-ended learning device', a characteristic that will be useful for building smarter autonomous machines.

AIBO: Sony's AIBO (artificial intelligence robot) was once the cutting edge in autonomous robots; a pet pooch that learns and matures as it develops, based on feedback from its owner, the environment and even other AIBOs. Launched in 1999, the last one hopped off the production line in 2006. The RoboCup world robot soccer competition even has a 'Sony Four-Legged Robot League' where teams of AIBO are pitted against each other. Researchers hope it will help them develop smarter AI robots, capable of working together to solve problems.

Grace: This socially adept and autonomous robot, created in collaboration between Carnegie Mellon University and the U.S. Naval Research Labs, made the headlines when she completed a challenge to navigate her way through an Artificial Intelligence conference. Grace made small talk, and found her way to a lecture theatre where she gave a presentation on herself and attempted to answer questions.

QRIO: "Makes life fun, makes you happy" is the slogan of Sony's QRIO entertainment robot. More compact than ASIMO, this 60-centimetre-tall humanoid can perform complex dance routines, and has even starred in a rock video. It has face and voice recognition software, and can remember peoples' likes and dislikes. Meant to be the successor to AIBO, QRIO was never put into commercial production and was cancelled at the same time as AIBO in 2006.

K-Bot: Deemed the face of social robots to come, K-Bot is almost eerily human, with an sensitive polymer 'skin', and 24 artificial muscles to manipulate its face into 28 different expressions. The creators from the University of Texas say is a full repertoire of human expressions, including smiling, sneering and frowning.

Self-replicator: In 2005, Cornell University researchers created the first robots capable of 'cloning' their design. Though simplistic, and largely proof-of-concept, the design marked a milestone in robotics. The robots are stacks of 10 cm3 mechanical blocks, with magnets and sensors, pre-programmed with a blueprint for how they are stacked. They can use this blueprint to build another stack of robot blocks that mirrors themselves. They are the starting point for robots that may be able to recognise and repair faults based on internal blueprints.