The latest issue of Popular Mechanics has a great article on the Lockheed Martin MULE robot which is currently in development. The MULE is an impressive 2.5 ton unmanned ground vehicle with six wheels each independently powered with in hub motors - providing tremendous resilience to damage.
Interestingly it is currently driven using a standard XBox 360 controller! There are at least two Pentium III computers in there (which seem rather dated!!) And I love Erik Sofge closing remarks regarding 'The Last Starfighter' where an arcade game was the practice simulator for an alien space fighter. Having commented to an engineer how easy the MULE was to drive the engineer responds 'Yeah, we based the controls on Project Gotham Racing'....
You can read Popular Mechanics now by using the Zinio digital reader and purchasing this issue or any other - including a full year long subscription - here. I do still have paper magazines but with my laptop or UMPC never far from my side I much prefer Zinio's automated digital delivery system and reader.
Lockheed Martin MULE