National Robotics Week (April 9-17) is a celebration of the science and technology behind automatons, unmanned vehicles and all things robotic.  Across the United States, scientists, local robotics clubs, schools and hobbyists are invited to share their projects in nationwide competitions and open house events.  
As well as providing a forum for enthusiasts, National Robotics Week is a chance to raise the profile of this growing high-tech industry. The diversity of tasks executed by robots include many that are now critical to medical and healthcare fields. A browse of the articles published in BioMedical Engineering OnLine reveals robotic innovations that would have seemed implausible only a generation ago.  For example, the collection of signals from muscle movement by surface electromyography (sEMG) can be used to fine tune the control of an artificial wrist. The more risky operation of controlling a robotic walker, needs a navigation system that obeys the user’s commands, whilst reducing interference from background noise and movement. From robotic limbs to Artificial Intelligence, biomedical engineers have even devised a system of neural networks that can recognize mood from human facial patterns.
We hope that National Robotics Week inspires you to explore the extremes of robot invention. Virtual participation is also possible, with events from The IEEE Computer Society hosted inside Second Life including gaming, learning resources and an online robot building competition.