This robot by Sanyo is meant to roam underneath your floors in order to inspect the leakage of piping and general corrosion and deterioration of housing infrastructure. The robot measures 420 x 260 x 200mm and weighs as light as 9.6kg and runs on a lithium ion rechargeable battery, and can be operated continuously up to 140 minutes. It seems as if something like this should ideally be re-engineered to find people in building collapses or rescue people from avalanches, etc…

Robot checks your house for leaks and corrosion: [Via] – [Link]

The CardioArm is operated using a computer and a joystick. It has 102 degrees of freedom, three of which can be activated at once. This allows it to enter through a single point in the chest and wrap around the heart until it reaches the right spot to, say, remove problematic tissue. “The nice thing about [the] design is that each joint follows where you went in space. That’s not always possible in other designs,” says Webster. This kind of control prevents the probe from bumping into sensitive tissue. The disadvantage of a jointed robot, however, is that it’s harder to miniaturize.

CardioArm Surgical Snake Robot: [Via] – [Cardiorobotics]