Last week, a parking garage collapsed in New York City.
That's a dangerous situation - not just for the five people who were injured and the one who was killed but for the first responders as well.
By sending firefighters into a situation like that you could just end up adding to the casualties.
So they sent a dog instead.
A robot one.
"Digidog" was one of several robots deployed by the city to scour the rubble for people who may have been injured or trapped.
He's one of two such robots now being employed by the city.
Additionally, two other security robots have been deployed to patrol the city's bustling subway stations.
Generally, their policing is passive in nature, but they could really come in handy in high-stakes situations.
For example, in the event of a bomb threat, a robot could be used to reveal the location and nature of any explosives.
And last year, police in Florida used a robot dog to surveil (and ultimately apprehend) a hostage-taker - a man who locked himself in a truck holding a pair of scissors to the neck of his 3-year-old son.
"It was a tremendous asset. It allowed us to get a video feedback to make these decisions, so we can be safe not only for them but for us," St. Petersburg Assistant Police Chief Mike Kovacsev said following the incident. "The fact is that all that matters is the child is safe."
Private companies like Lowe's are deploying robots like these too, to patrol parking lots and facilities.
And that's not all.
More and more robots are being dispatched to perform tasks and services for the public good and private profits.
German scientists have built a robot jellyfish that scours the ocean floor for plastic pollutants.
In the Czech Republic, brewers are now using tiny robots packed with yeast to speed up the fermentation of beer and eliminate the need to filter it before bottling.