In Pictures: The year in madly cool robots

Toshiba Corp's four-legged robot, which the company says is capable of carrying out investigative and recovery work at tsunami-crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, climbs a staircase during a demonstration at Toshiba's Yokohama complex in Yokohama, south of Tokyo. The new tetrapod robot, which is able to walk on uneven surfaces, avoid obstacles and climb stairs, integrates a camera and dosimeter and is able to investigate the condition of nuclear power plants by remote-controlled operation, according to the company.