Robots are great for exploring places that are hard to reach. We've sent them to explore the surface of Mars and the depths of the oceans. Soon they could be crawling over the outside of your body. SkinBot is a palm-sized bipedal robot with suction-cup feet inspired by leeches and the suckers of cephalopods. Artem Dementyev at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab is interested in developing small helper robots that live on our bodies.

On a visit to one Harvard robotics lab, the sewing machines stand out, while the head of another explains how and why lab members are studying termites in Namibia. Welcome to the new age of machines, in which scientists with seemingly disparate talents are using cutting-edge materials, cheap sensors, 3-D printing, and powerful computers to accelerate advances in robotics. Prior innovations transformed the factory and warehouse, but those robots work best in controlled environments, usually out of public view. For researchers at Harvard and elsewhere, one new target is Main Street. "We were promised these things by sci-fi for 50 years," said Robert Wood, Charles River Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences.