In the not-so-distant future, intelligent machines will make the surface of Mars habitable for living organisms. Tiny robots may enter the human bloodstream to cure disease. These technological leaps may not be as far in the future as we think. Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico has spent $33 million for the new Robotic Manufacturing Science and Engineering Laboratory, which will contain Sandia's Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center that is already working to create robots for manufacturing, materials handling, clean-up of contaminated areas and battlefield use. This laboratory is also gaining ground in the area of microbiotics which will likely be used to build micro machines, which are just like the toy, but serve a practical use.

Technological leaps in medicine will be accomplished because of these robots. In the laboratory, microscopic robots will be made and tested, which could enter the human body. This laboratory now has the tools needed to build robots of this nature. With deadlier viruses, these little robots could be the invention of a lifetime.

Researchers are also working to create miniature robots which can be used for military purposes of reconnaissance, target verification and bomb-damage assessment. Also being developed in this lab are standoff sensors which attach to a robot's arm. The sensor allows the arm to maintain a constant distance between it and the object the robot is working with. This sensor can be used on robots that paint, cut or dismantle nuclear weapons.

This new lab can and will make technological advances in space research and medical procedures. u