The robots are coming... to play chess with your granddad

Industrial robots get lots done, but they're expensive, dangerous and hard to program. That's why roboticists are turning to cobots - collaborative robots made to work alongside us and, perhaps one day, in our homes. "We are trying to make a support-service robot for people who can't support themselves or leave home," explains Simon Haddadin, co-founder of Munich-based Franka Emika. The lightweight, three-kilogram frames of Franka Emika's cobots mean they can safely work in the same building as humans, and will stop automatically if they come into close contact with one. "It basically means it has a sense of touch along the entire structure," Haddadin says.