In February, U.S. President Joe Biden announced federal assistance programs to help companies mine and process lithium and other rare metals. Similar efforts were announced in other countries, including Britain and Germany. In addition, major automakers said they were seeking new EV engine designs that are less dependent on rare earth minerals. EV market leader Tesla said it plans to remove rare earths from its next-generation EVs. Other automakers said they are in the process of researching or developing EV motors that use little or no rare earth minerals. These include General Motors, Jaguar Land Rover, and BMW.

Robotic developments We covered several developments involving robotic systems. A team of American researchers announced it had built a human-like robot that can play soccer at a high level. The robot, named ARTEMIS, is one of only a few humanoid robots that can run. It also can walk and jump on different kinds of surfaces without losing its balance. The robot also can kick a ball and remain standing even when kicked or hit, the team said. This photo shows a picture of the ARTEMIS robot, developed by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles' Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory. (Photo Credit: RoMeLa at UCLA)

In Germany, many companies large and small turned to robots to fill jobs as the country faced a severe labor shortage. The International Federation of Robotics estimated that about 26,000 robotic machines were put into use in Germany last year. Experts say increasing robotic operations are a sign that robots have become easier to use, with no special skills required. However, the risks of using machines in the workplace were demonstrated in South Korea, where an industrial robot crushed a worker to death at a vegetable processing center. Police said the victim was an employee of a company that deploys industrial robots to businesses.

NASA even tested a snake-like explorer designed to search for signs of life in hard-to-reach places. The American space agency said the robot is equipped to move in ways that traditional explorer vehicles, called rovers, cannot. In the future, NASA plans to send the robot to space to search for signs of life in an underground ocean on Saturns moon Enceladus.