Robot photos: AI androids to footballing humanoids

Aila can recognise an object's characteristics such as its size.

Other information about an object, such as its weight, needs to be stored in an RFID chip embedded in the object so it can be accessed by Aila's RFID reader.

The information about the object, such as this carton of orange juice, helps Aila decide the best way to pick it up and grasp it with her hands.

Aila has 18 joints in her arms and body, whose movements must be co-ordinated to allow her to grasp objects in both hands.

Her designers are aiming to make her movements resemble those of a human being.

Aila moves using six wheels and can turn in any direction.

This robot can send a virtual 'you' to the office on the days you can't make it in.

The Gostai Jazz telepresence robot allows people to see colleagues and chat with them without being there in person.

The robot's user can see and hear what's going on with the robot's camera and microphone, and can talk using the speakers and the optional LCD screen built into its head.

The robot has a maximum speed of 4km/h and is controlled via a web browser interface over the internet.

Showing off its soccer skills was this footballing robot run by students from the University of Leipzig in Germany.

The humanoid robot is capable of moving around the pitch and chasing the ball using its image-recognition and motion-engine software.

The robot and its team-mates have competed in two RoboCup Soccer World Championships, where autonomous robots compete in a game of football.

The first international RoboCup competition took place in 1997, with the goal of creating a team of fully autonomous humanoid robots that, by about 2050, will be able to win a game of football against the latest human Fifa World Cup championship team.

The robot seen here competes in the Standard Platform League of the RoboCup, which is a contest between identical robots where teams compete to develop software that will allow their bot to win the match.

Here's another robo-footballer - this time part of a team run by students from the Ostfalia University of Applied Sciences in Germany.

The team has competed in the Humanoid Robot League of the RoboCup competition since 2009.

Robots competing in the humanoid league must be similar to humans, in that they must walk on two legs and are restricted to using sensors equivalent to man's senses, such as cameras.

Each robot in the team is powered by two 500MHz Blackfin processors and a 50MHz ARM processor, with a 1,600 x 1,200-pixel camera for vision.

MSI's Funrobot iCleaner M810 is a robotic vacuum cleaner that will hoover a room all on its own.

The robot can navigate around a room, vacuuming as it goes, avoiding furniture and walls using three ultrasonic sensors.

When the robot is running low on power, it can find its way back to a charging station, plug itself in and recharge its batteries.

Built-in sensors will also stop the robot from damaging itself by driving off ledges or down steps.