What the rise of the robots means for BT

A "Festival of Robotics" conjured images of dancing androids and canape-serving cyborgs, or at least one of those Boston Dynamics monstrosities that resembles a fleshless Terminator but moves like a gymnast. Held on a wet day at BT's Adastral Park R&D facility, it did feature one of Boston Dynamics' mechanized dogs, which performed some lively robot dressage before it scampered off at pitbull speed, presumably on a kill mission. But there was not much festival atmosphere. "The rain has had a squashing impact on our ability to have a beer tent and open summer garden, but we will have dancing and other exciting things such as robot wars," said a spokesperson at a mid-morning presentation. Perhaps the robots came out to dance and fight in the evening, long after reporters had departed.