According to Popular Science a German industrial design studio is working on walking robots that will either bury themselves until they detect heat or roam around scouting for trouble. With a brother who is a firefighter out West I’d be happy to know these creatures are detecting and extinguishing fires before they get out of control. They look like a cross between a hard hat and what we used to call Rollie-Pollies (Pill Bug of the genus Armadillidium) because they can roll into a ball to protect themselves in their ceramic body. They’re much bigger than their inspiration. These bugs are the size of a large dog and will weigh as much as 200 pounds. They are equipped to operate without remote assistance with GPS, feelers, infrared and heat sensors. Hope we see these soon in the U.S. especially after last year’s wild fires in California.