A barely visible fog hangs in the air in a California laboratory, illuminated by a laser. And through it flies a parrot, outfitted with a pair of tiny, red-tinted goggles to protect its eyes. As the bird flaps its way through the water particles, its wings generate disruptive waves, tracing patterns that help scientists understand how animals fly. In a new study, a team of scientists measured and analyzed the particle trails that were produced by the goggle-wearing parrot's test flights, and showed that previous computer models of wing movement aren't as accurate as they once thought. This new perspective on flight dynamics could inform future wing designs in autonomous flying robots, according to the study authors.

Obi is looking fly in his custom eyewear. The orange safety goggles, adorned with tiny reflectors, fit securely over his little feathered head. But Obi the parrotlet isn't wearing these goggles to make a fashion statement. He's part of an experiment where he flies through a sheet of lasers so that researchers can see how the air around him behaves as he moves. In a paper published in Bioinspiration and Biomimetics, researchers tried to observe the wake of a bird in flight.

Humanoid robots were out of fashion at this year's RoboBusiness, the annual exhibition in San Jose, California, that pegs itself as "the most important robotics event in the world". Make your robot look and sound too much like C3P0, explained Ty Jaegerson of Savioke, and people's "expectations of intelligence go up". The exception to the non-anthropomorphic, however, was the iPal, a child-size robot designed to take on distinctly adult responsibilities. The 3ft tall iPal has wide eyes, working fingers, pastel trimming, and a touchscreen tablet on its chest. It can sing, dance, and play rock paper scissors.

Consumer robots out in the market today are normally confined to personal assistants that remind you of things or help you with basic household work. Enter Obi, a consumer robot that could do exactly that. Obi is designed to allow people with disabilities to get back the dignity of feeding themselves. Having some health factor which diminishes any aspect of autonomy is an understandable source of frustration. "Every day, millions of people must be fed by caregivers, and they find the experience to be conspicuous and frustrating," says Jon Dekar, creator of Obi.