In 2024, robots exhibited greater ingenuity, utility

Robots are no longer science fiction, they are part of our every day.

In 2024, developers have made them more ingenious than ever.

Brave Robotics’ humanoid ‘Firebarion’ has the air of a character from the Hollywood Transformers movies.

And in China, a humanoid robot has been made to look like Su Shi, one of the country's greatest and most revered poets.

South Korean tech giant LG even developed an AI-powered robot that can make up an original story based on pictures the user draws on a tablet.

But robots have performed some more serious functions this year too.

A team of surgeons carried out pioneering robot-assisted surgery on a child for the first time in the UK.

Southampton Children's Hospital in England is leading a UK trial of the use of an advanced pioneering robot-assisted device called the Versius Surgical Robotic System.

Seven year-old Reece had an accident at the park and was then diagnosed with having an obstruction which inhibited the flow of urine from his kidney.

Surgeons used a remote controlled robotic arm for a procedure known as laparoscopic pyeloplasty.

"On the outside instead of a straight handle you've got something that looks more like a joystick. So, still fully surgeon controlled. Robotic assisted might sound like it's automated in some way, but actually it's still surgeon controlled," said Ewan Brownlee, consultant paediatric urologist at University Hospital Southampton.

In Edinburgh, the National Robotorium trialled robots to help stroke recovery.

A brain computer interface (BCI) is attached to the patient's head which detects brain activity.

The robot responds in real time, mimicking the action the person is trying to perform.

The hope is that it could provide a cheaper form of physiotherapy.

"What we've found is that once the patient realizes that they are in fact controlling the robot, it gives them a sense of control. But it also gives them a sense that the robot is exercising along with them, as if you were exercising with a partner. You see they start to move, you start to move in conjunction with them," says Professor Lynne Baillie, professor of computer science at Heriot-Watt University.

In a swanky Nairobi suburb, a new dining experience pulled in the crowds.

Robots helped the staff serve customers at the Robot Cafe - the first of its kind in East Africa.

Three of the bots worked alongside human waiters.

The owners of the cafe said the tech was too expensive to replace people - the machines are to draw crowds rather than save on wages.

"We believe that customers deserve to have the technology that is also available in developed countries so that they also experience a few things that are not available in the country. So we incorporated the robots basically for entertainment because that is what our target customers want," explained John Kariuki, manager at Robot Cafe.

The use of robotic waiters in restaurants is not new; they have been in use in China, Japan and the United States among others.