GM builds space robots

Take a look at a real Transformer, because that weight-lifting thing you see above could very well morph into something inside the new Camaro. Or Astra.

General Motors has gone into partnership with NASA - they of Cosmic-Ray-investigating-fame - to build Robonaut 2: a totally awesome humanoid assistant to help in space.

But R2 will debut cool safety stuff which might eventually find its way into the next generation of road cars. Oh, and stuff which could help stop factory-working humans from being dead.

The R2 is modelled on a human and is designed to work like one, using its two ultra-strong arms to help mend broken things in dangerous situations and take extensive tea breaks while moaning about pay and EastEnders.

R2 will launch in September in the space shuttle Discovery, but be warned however - this thing will take us over one day, and send like, really powerful frickin' laser beams from space and rule the cosmos. But then, being a GM product, will inevitably be outclassed by something from ze Germans.

Plus it's not as cool as Asimo.

Vijay Pattni