Analysing a mouse's brain activity tells scientists where the animal is located and the exact direction it is looking. With further research, the findings could one day help robots navigate autonomously. Mammalian brains use two main types of neurons for navigation: "head direction cells" show where an animal is facing and "grid cells" help provide a two-dimensional brain map of where it is located. To learn more about the firing of these neurons, Vasileios Maroulas at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and his colleagues – together with the US Army Research Laboratory – analysed data from a previous study. Revealed: What your thoughts look like and how they compare to others' In this experiment, probes were inserted into several mice's brains.

WALL-E may have roamed the earth alone 800 years in the future. But now a lookalike robot could be coming to the UK as early as 2023. And rather than just pick up litter like the Disney creation, this one is all-action. Aeolus Robotics claim their android can act as a security guard, a hospital cleaner and even take over the job of staff in care homes. Aeolus Robotics claim their android, named'Aeo', can act as a security guard, a hospital cleaner and even take over the job of staff in care homes Use pincher arm to open doors, operate lifts or close windows.

At the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory and the University of Texas at Austin, researchers designed an algorithm that allows an autonomous ground vehicle to improve its existing navigation systems by watching a human drive. The team tested its approach -- called adaptive planner parameter learning from demonstration, or APPLD -- on one of the Army's experimental autonomous ground vehicles. "Using approaches like APPLD, current Soldiers in existing training facilities will be able to contribute to improvements in autonomous systems simply by operating their vehicles as normal," said Army researcher Dr. Garrett Warnell. "Techniques like these will be an important contribution to the Army's plans to design and field next-generation combat vehicles that are equipped to navigate autonomously in off-road deployment environments." Rather than replacing a classical system altogether, APPLD learns how to tune the existing system to behave more like the human demonstration.

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your Automaton bloggers. We'll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next two months; here's what we have so far (send us your events!): Let us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today's videos. Two Cassies give you a tour of Agility Robotics, where they mostly don't believe in furniture: Final assembly can be done in just over a minute and a half, as long as you're willing to be sped up a little bit: Speaking of Cassies (and we do like speaking of Cassies), Michigan Robotics just got theirs (No. 001!) and we're expecting GREAT THINGS: My question now is whether all the robots are going to be called "Cassie," or whether each will (eventually) be renamed when it arrives at its destination. My other question now is whether the first Cassie was "000" or "001," and also why don't they think they'll be making more than a thousand Cassies, because that seems pessimistic.

Metallica's European WorldWired tour, which opened to an ecstatic crowd of 15,000 in Copenhagen's sold-out Royal Arena this Saturday, features a swarm of micro drones flying above the band. Shortly after the band breaks into their hit single "Moth Into Flame", dozens of micro drones start emerging from the stage, forming a large rotating circle above the stage. As the music builds, more and more drones emerge and join the formation, creating increasingly complex patterns, culminating in a choreography of three interlocking rings that rotate in position. This show's debut marks the world's first autonomous drone swarm performance in a major touring act. Unlike previous drone shows, this performance features indoor drones, flying above performers and right next to throngs of concert viewers in a live event setting.

For the first time on Broadway human and drone performances fuse to create a new form of artistic expression. The magic happened in Cirque du Soleil's first musical on Broadway: 'Paramour' at the Lyric Theatre. The show is themed on the Golden Age of Hollywood and follows the life of a poet who is forced to choose between love and art. The contributions of the technology firm Verity Studios include the choreography of the drone show segment, the frame and lighting design of the drone costumes, and all underlying drone technologies. The system was operated by the show's automation team, with Verity Studios providing maintenance services twice per year.