NASA recently upgraded their Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) with Nexus S smartphones running Android. The upgrade add the intelligence and hardware needed for units to become remotely operated robots. [via NASA]

By connecting a smartphone, we can immediately make SPHERES more intelligent. With the smartphone, the SPHERES will have a built-in camera to take pictures and video, sensors to help conduct inspections, a powerful computing unit to make calculations, and a Wi-Fi connection that we will use to transfer data in real-time to the space station and mission control.