Our sons introduced us to the Roomba, a home robot, which vacuums the floor. What fascinated me about this gadget is that it was (reportedly) first created to help in military defense. Specifically it was used to clear land mines!
From Irobot.com, I quote: "More than 5,000 of the company's defense and security robots have been delivered to researchers, military and civil defense forces worldwide, performing thousands of dangerous search, reconnaissance and bomb-disposal missions while protecting those in harm's way."
