Robots can already mimic surgeons to a certain degree, but training them to do so often involves complex programming and time-consuming trial-and-error. Now, for the first time, a machine successfully learned to replicate fundamental operation tasks after simply analyzing video footage of medical experts. But before it gets to work on human patients, the tiny robotic arms practiced on a pork loin. Doctors have increasingly integrated the da Vinci Surgical System into an array of procedures since the device's debut in 2000. The small pair of robotic arms ending in tweezer-like graspers are already used in prostatectomies, cardiac valve repairs, as well as renal and gynecologic operations.

Manual, back-breaking jobs will go away (this is good only if replaced by better gigs). Far less time will be spent doing menial tasks like driving or cleaning. And your ability to get more of what you want, when you want it, will be greatly enhanced. Health care will be more precise and sophisticated: Medical robots could make surgery more precise, and micro-bots will target the delivery of drugs within the body. Empathetic ones could help care for us as we age.

The autonomous robots are designed to climb scaffolding and buildings by wrapping around a poll or beam and then rolling upward via an oscillating joint motion. Using built-in sensors and cameras, the robots would then inspect the structures or handle other dangerous tasks now done by humans, said Dennis Hong, director of Virginia Tech's Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory and the faculty adviser on the project. The robots are each roughly three feet in length and use a movement unique even in nature. "These are really wicked cool robots," he added. The need for autonomous tools in the construction field is great.