Practical Robots for Nuclear Accidents

iRobot, maker of the home task Roomba robot, gets considerable buzz in a Washington Post article.  Their military, police and emergency robots seem to have value for nuclear emergencies.  Meanwhile the Japanese have been working on and funding impressive, but less practical autonomous and humanoid robots.   It makes for an interesting lesson.  Fit the technology to clear, currently important and solvable tasks rather than trying to fit them with human intelligence and even charm.   That is until you know you can.  Fooling the eye may not solve the physical problem. Update: There is no clear evidence yet that Japan has used the iRobot devices.  Please let me know if you have a link that says otherwise.