Wired has a small article about the U.S. Navy's armed robot labs. Even though on some level it makes no sense to say this: This is good inspiration for sci-fi settings.

The Navy's MDARS-E is an armed robot that can track anything that moves. Told that I was the target, the unmanned vehicle trained its guns on me and ordered, "Stay where you are," in an intimidating robot voice. And yes, it was frightening.

I found it striking, although not truly surprising, that development in robotics has mirrored development in game AI, at least in the sense that having a robot navigate through a space was solved a while ago, and now people are trying to make robots that cooperate with humans. (The games industry still has the edge in making robots that act against humans.)

(Via Boing Boing.)