Taurus

MENLO PARK, Calif.--At SRI International, innovation has long been the goal. This is the place where the computer mouse was born, where the first Internet connection happened, and where the first wireless communications were initiated. It's also home to wall-climbing robots and much more.

So it should come as no surprise that it is a place where research in one area evolves into products in others.

Shown here is Taurus, a miniature remote-controlled robot designed to disarm bombs for the military and police departments. The technology behind it was originally developed for large-scale remote surgical robots. But over the years SRI's researchers have steadily reduced the size of that robotic technology, and today Taurus is just 14 inches shoulder to shoulder. Now it allows those who dismantel bombs to remotely, and without risk to themselves, take apart explosives.