The latest in robotics: hummingbird drones, origami robots, cheetah-like prototypes

The latest in robotics:

The Black Hornet Nano UAV fits into the palm of your hand.
It may be the size of a hummingbird, but it sure lives up to its name.
The Black Hornet offers intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support to armed forces in mission critical operations.
This little bug has already seen action in Afghanistan.

Meet the miniature origami robot – it self-folds, walks, swims, and degrades!
Popular Science reports this tiny robot made by researchers at MIT and TU Munich, will fold itself into a robot, roll away, do figure eight around two columns, crawl up an arm, push a foam block into a bin, swim, carry a load that twice its weight, climb a slope, dig through a pile of loose foam cubes, and then, dissolved when dropped into a jar of acetone
Here’s how it works: it’s made of PVC, with lines that fold around a magnet.
It has four electromagnetic coils which turn on and off and makes the robot move forward.
Nanoscale version can be developed for medical use – for putting under the skin or into the body.

Researchers and developers at MIT develop a robot that acts like a cheetah.
It looks, runs, and jumps like a cheetah.
Robots that run and jump aren’t new, but it’s the first time in robotics that the four-legged prototype can detect obstacles and jumps over hurdles as it runs. – Rappler.com