Robot Hall of Fame

Carnegie Mellon University will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its Robotics Institute with an event to explore and discuss the impact and future of robotics.

The event begins on October 11 with the second annual Robot Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

The "Robot Hall of Fame" honors both real and fictional robots and their creators in recognition of the increasing benefits robots are bringing to society.

This year, the robots selected are:

- ASIMO, the humanoid robot developed by Honda,

- Shakey the Robot, the first mobile robot to reason about its actions was created in 1969 at the Stanford Research Institute's Artificial Intelligence Center. Shakey sported a full planning system, a wireless video system and visual interpretation of its scene, visual obstacle avoidance, and the ability to manipulate the world via pushing. It even had a multi-level, tiered control architecture very similar to what many have settled upon today. In other words, it was way ahead of its time, and set a standard for a great many years.

- Astroboy was selected because because of its impact on Japanese culture, especially on the socialization of generations to a future in which robotics are a part of every day life,

- C3PO who along with R2-D2, C3PO is one of the most memorable characters from the Star Wars series,

- and Robby the Robot from 1956 sci-fi epic Forbidden Planet (Amazon.) Robby became the iconic image of sci-fi robots in the 1950s and beyond. "It was the first robot with a 'personality' conveyed through motion and timing."