The New Best Friend of Autistic Children

KOMPAS.com - Robots from around Europe are flocking to London this week - but, thankfully, we won't need to call Doctor Who to fend off this particular onslaught.

More than 20 cutting-edge robots from around Europe will be on display at the Science Museum's Robotville exhibition this week - including a robot designed to help autistic children, and a robot that can (sometimes) catch a ball.

Naturally, many of the robots look like slightly spooky human beings - but other fields of robotics will be represented instead, including 'swarm' robotics, where tiny robots work together, a relatively new idea being pioneered in industry and on the battlefield.

Many of the robots on display are meant to 'mimic' - or respond to - human behaviours. The research is largely from university institutes rather than from defence companies, who are often leaders in 'autonomous' vehicles and other fields of robotics.

One robot is designed simply to ask directions: the idea being that the robot will eventually be able to find its way around town simply by asking people. Given how difficult human-machine interaction is, one might have thought it was easier for the machine just to use GPS, but there is presumably SOME point to the idea.