Anti-theft designs relating to mobile phones are reviewed. The physical and electronic design of handsets includes visual deterrents, owner-identification, and handset tracking options. The systems design of phone networks includes the blacklisting of stolen phones. Other measures include biometric-locking of handsets, and designs that encourage 'safe' phone use and transportation. Characteristics that promote anti-theft designs are proposed and form the acronym 'IN SAFE HANDS': identifiable, neutral, seen, attached, findable, executable, hidden, automatic, necessary, detectable, and secure. The set of characteristics is presented as a heuristic device to aid designing-out crime from frequently stolen electronic goods.

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There are many unanswered questions regarding the construction and purpose of the Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt. A climbing robot called “Djedi” has been designed, constructed, and deployed to explore shafts of the queen's chamber within the Great Pyramid. The Djedi robot is based on the concept of inchworm motion and is capable of carrying a long reach drill or snake camera. The robot successfully climbed the southern shaft of the Great Pyramid, deployed its snake camera, and revealed writing not seen for thousands of years. This paper details the design of the robot, including climbing steps in the shaft and lessons learned from experimental deployment. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The manufacture and assembly of small-scale robotics can be expensive and time-consuming using traditional methods; especially when complex mechanisms are involved. By refining current additive manufacturing techniques a micro-scale walking robot can be 3D printed without the need for any complex mechanical assembly. The robot requires only the addition of simple circuitry and 2 motors, one for each of the 1 degree of freedom walking mechanisms before it is capable of being driven wirelessly. Once fully assembled, differential drive of the parallel leg sets allows for locomotion in any direction on a 2-D plane. The robot's compact size; just 62mm (x) x 38mm (y) x 88mm (z), and leg curvature makes travel possible through borehole/pipe diameters as low as 65mm. By pushing printer tolerances to the limit, complex mechanisms can work in Non-Assembly at a small scale. Through the application of these Non-Assembly techniques to field robots such as those intended for use in the Pipebots project could allow for the production of large swarms of robots quickly and affordably.

Reprogramming involves hacking the software of a mobile phone to change its identity. A handset ' s international mobile equipment identity number (equivalent to a car ' s vehicle identification number) is altered to enable illegal re-sale, thus facilitating theft and robbery of mobiles. The extent of the problem has not been adequately measured