Clearing a path to the market soon will be the Winbot 7, a compact machine billed by manufacturer Ecovacs Robotics as the first full-service window-washing robot.
Since RRM operations began in 2011, Dextre has performed three series of tests to show how a robot could service satellites, which were designed never to be opened in space.
In 2008, the total world robot population including service and industrial robots was 8.6 million ande xpected to grow to 13 million by the end of 2012.
In addition, the web-based service is able to do complicated computation on behalf of a robot - for example if it needs to work out how to navigate a room, fold an item of clothing or understand human speech.