The US defence agency DARPA decided last year that it needed "Chemical Robots" (ChemBots) that could change shape in order to squeeze through small gaps. It's now chosen the people to provide them - US firm iRobot. The company makes the Roomba robot vacuum cleaner (video) and the 'Packbot' used for bomb disposal.
The DARPA programme manager overseeing the project gave a hint at what the robots could be used for:
"During military operations it can be important to gain covert access to denied or hostile space... We believe that a new class of soft, flexible, meso-scale mobile objects that can identify and maneuver through openings smaller than their dimensions to perform various tasks will be quite valuable in many missions."
But as...