Your first robot will probably have whiskers. That's our recklessly optimistic conclusion after learning that researchers are using carbon nanotubes to give robots a heightened, cat-like sense of pressure recognition.
They're going to need it - being able to sense and respond to our surroundings is one of the things humans are really quite good at, compared to robots. And if the ServoBot 5000 you eventually buy from Currys is going to be able to do anything useful, it will have to get better at knowing what's around it, and how to react.
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Check out the latest breakthrough in robotics below.