DALLAS, March 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) (NASDAQ: TXN) and iRobot Corp.

NEW YORK, Aug. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- S&P will make the following changes to the S&P SmallCap 600 Index: iRobot Corp. (NASD: IRBT) will replace EMS Technologies Inc. (NASD: ELMG) after the close of trading on Friday, August 19.

Design techniques honed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif, for Mars rovers were used to create the rover currently examining the inside of Japan's nuclear reactors, in areas not yet deemed safe for human crews.

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said on Sunday that it will send two remote-controlled robots into a reactor building damaged by a hydrogen explosion in order to gauge radiation and temperature levels.

The human hand is an amazing machine that can pick up, move and place objects easily, but for a robot, this "gripping" mechanism is a vexing challenge.