Ok, so robotic personal assistants for each and everyone of us is far, far, far off in the future (perhaps a fictional one), but here is a robot item for the here and now (via Laramie Boomerang):

Swarms of small robots created by University of Wyoming scientists could someday save lives during a terrorist attack or a toxic spill ...

[The scientists] envision a team of robots that communicate with each other as they move toward the source of a chemical plume.

The robots could relay the information back to humans so the hazard could be contained. Or they could call on a larger robot to take care of the problem ...

A swarm of small roborts is more useful than a single robot because they can cover a larger area more quickly, and if one of the members runs into trouble, the others can take up the slack.

Each robot will be configured with a sensor to detect the chemical's density and an anemometer to determine wind speed and direction. The robots will use the information, combined with mathematical formulas, to pinpoint the source of the problem.

The technology could also be adapted to find biological toxins.

Let's hope that they don't start self-replicating in a pool of toxic nastiness.

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