Starbugs is an ongoing R&D project at the AAO to develop parallel fibre positioning technology to feed multi-object spectrographs. Starbugs are miniaturized robotic devices that can accurately ‘discrete step’ over large area focal surfaces to position payloads. Starbugs are the leading candidates for future based fibre positioning instrument concepts developed by the AAO, such as TAIPAN, HECTOR and MANIFEST. Starbugs are also suitable for positioning a diverse range of compact payloads to utilize the focal surface efficiently over wide-fields. Examples of these payloads include multiple integral field units, coherent imaging bundles for field acquisition and guiding, wavefront sensors and correctors for multi-object adaptive optics and liquid atmospheric dispersion corrector. We describe these applications and technologies enabled by Starbugs that provide new and exciting scientific capabilities.