Advancements in robotics are continually taking place in the fields of space exploration, health care, public safety, entertainment, defense, and more. These machines—some fully autonomous, some requiring human input—extend our grasp, enhance our capabilities, and travel as our surrogates to places too dangerous or difficult for us to go. Gathered here are recent images of robotic technology, including an animatronic dolphin, a virtual Olympic torchbearer, a Martian explorer, a fried-chicken deliverer, firefighting machines, a seabed-mining robot, and much more.
Robots Are Everywhere
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A robotic camera records Glenn Maxwell of Australia walking to the wicket during the 1st Royal London One-Day International Series cricket match between England and Australia at Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester, England, on September 11, 2020. #
Stu Forster / Getty for ECB / Getty -
Roger Holzberg, creative director for the animatronics program at Edge Innovations, stands in front of a tank containing an animatronic dolphin at the company's warehouse in Fremont, California, on September 30, 2020. The company's goals for the lifelike dolphins include possibly replacing real animals kept in captivity at aquariums and theme park shows. #
Nathan Frandino via Reuters -
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A port employee uses a remote to control a Jellyfishbot cleaning robot, to collect waste between boats docked in the port of Ajaccio on September 22, 2020, on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica. #
Pascal Pochard-Casabianca / AFP / Getty -
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This April 6, 2021, image shows NASA's Perseverance Mars rover, foreground, and the Ingenuity helicopter about 13 feet (3.9 meters) behind. This composite image was made by the WASTON camera on the rover's robotic arm on the 46th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. #
NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS via AP -
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A teacher loads a picture of a graduating student on a tablet attached to a robot during a "cyber graduation" ceremony in Taguig, Metro Manila, the Philippines, on May 22, 2020. Robots represented 179 graduating students of the Senator Rene Cayetano Science and Technology High School during a graduation ceremony that was streamed online, as mass gatherings were prohibited to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The robots were developed by alumni of the school's robotics club, and used tablets to display the faces of the graduating students as they "marched" onstage to receive their diploma. #
Ezra Acayan / Getty -
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A UnitreeRobotics A1 robot dog sits up in a display at the Velodyne Lidar booth during the 19th Shanghai International Automobile Industry Exhibition, also known as Auto Shanghai 2021, on April 23, 2021, in Shanghai, China. #
Zhe Ji / Getty -
Shunsuke Aoki, CEO of Yukai Engineering, hugs a robotic cushion Qoobo in a studio in Tokyo on December 8, 2020. Smart-home assistants such as Amazon's Alexa have found success worldwide, but tech firms in Japan are reporting huge demand for more humanlike alternatives as people seek solace during pandemic isolation. #
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A COVID-19 patient connects with a family member using an assistance robot as he receives a cake on his birthday, on December 5, 2020, in New Delhi, India. The Mitra robot can connect patients with their loved ones, and can assist health-care workers on the front lines of the pandemic by minimizing the risk of infections caused by close contact. #
Anindito Mukherjee / Getty -
Jamal Shakhtor, a 26-year-old Palestinian student in industrial automation, demonstrates the movements of a robotic hand that he built at his workshop in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, on February 5, 2021. #
Hazem Bader / AFP / Getty -
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A robot developed by the Swiss company UVeya, equipped with virus-killing ultraviolet lights, is seen during tests aboard an Embraer airplane belonging to Helvetic Airways, at Zurich Airport in Zurich, Switzerland, on March 31, 2021. #
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A Telexistence staff member checks the company's shelf-stocking avatar robot, designed to resemble a kangaroo and developed to work in a convenience store, during a photo opportunity ahead of its unveiling in Tokyo, Japan, on July 3, 2020. #
Issei Kato / Reuters -
Patania II, a 25-ton seabed-mining robot, is lowered into the Pacific Ocean to begin a descent to the seafloor, in the Clarion Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean, on April 2021. #
GSR via Reuters -
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An autonomous robot inspects equipment at a high-voltage electrical substation, after a snowfall, on January 6, 2021, in Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China. #
VCG via Getty
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