The two-wheeled bot is equipped with a low-resolution monochrome camera that feeds images back to the Operator Control Unit, and since it weighs just a single pound and fits in most cargo pockets, the whole platoon could carry their own in order to really scope out the next bend.

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MidAmerican Energy is the operator of a 1600 megawatt four unit coal-fired power plant in Council Bluffs, Iowa, commonly known as Walter Scott, Jr.

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As it turns out, the crux of the invention was head-slappingly simple: though a patent-pending idea Smith calls "get out of the way control, " the unit measures the load on each joint as its operator moves about, and figures out the direction it needs to move in 3-D space to literally move out of the way.

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Vodafone, a mobile-phone operator, has just set up a mobile health unit in Britain.

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