A recent patent for a 'Mobile Robot System', reveals plans for an iPad-headed robot that utilises Apple's iOS, and is controlled by a remote user through the cloud. 

The iRobot filing, which shows what looks like a dalek with an iPad for a head, running a FaceTime video conferencing app, surfaced recently on the internet via Patently Apple,

The patent abstract describes how the 'iRobot' would be controlled: "A robot system includes a mobile robot having a controller executing a control system for controlling operation of the robot, a cloud computing service in communication with the controller of the robot, and a remote computing device in communication with the cloud computing service. The remote computing device communicates with the robot through the cloud computing service."

One of the perceived uses for iRobot, as seen in the patent diagrams, is in the medical field, having say, a specialist who is far away communicating and interacting through the iRobot.

No doubt the military would find a use for the fellows too; the US already uses drones to carry out remote controlled attacks of course, but maybe a smiling face on an iPad would make this modern method of warfare a bit less cold and impersonal!

While revelations of the latest patents from Apple and others make good reading on technology websites, it should be pointed out that only a small proportion of these will actually be integrated in Apple devices at some stage. So don't necessarily expect the Mobile Robot System to be compatible with devices like iPad 3 or iPhone 5 that Apple has scheduled for 2012.