At the recent GDGT SF event, Sprint was demonstrating how it could connect an mBed platform reference design (basically a small computer) to their wireless network using a simple USB modem. The mBed microcontroller is connected to, and controls an iRobot development device.
This setup opens the opportunity to control and monitor robots (and other devices) from a remote location. For instance, the robot does no longer need to be completely autonomous, and a user can send commands depending on the situation, which can potentially be “fluid”. Given that robots are often not smart enough to take good decisions on their own, the ability to send a simple command without being physically around saves a lot of time to the operator.
For developers who may be interested to play around with this, Sprint says that this setup is using an Open Source SDK, and that the main programming language is C++.