GOING WHERE NO HUMAN CAN GO

 Thousands of military and police robots have been deployed successfully to do work that is too dangerous for humans. Robots can clear away land mines in war zones, inspect suspicious packages on city streets, and provide 3-D imaging of unstable buildings. Real-life robots can scout potentially hostile environments and keep soldiers safe, like the PackBot made by iRobot, which is used to identify explosives, chemical weapons, and radioactive materials. 

In March 2011 a tsunami devastated parts of Japan and severely damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The radiation release resulted in the evacuation of 300,000 people, and the the develop-ment of a cleanup plan that will span decades. In that unsafe environment,  humans turned to robots for damage analysis, radiation monitoring, and debris removal.