Robot Hall of Fame Inductees Announced

Carnegie Mellon University has announced the 2006 inductees into its Robot Hall of Fame. This year's class includes Maria, the art deco star of Fritz Lang's 1927 film "Metropolis"; Gort, the metallic giant from an alien world in the 1951 sci-fi thriller "The Day the Earth Stood Still"; David, the boy-like android that stole his adoptive mother's heart in Steven Spielberg's "Artificial Intelligence: AI"; AIBO, Sony's dog-like robot pet that is also a robust research and teaching tool; and the Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (SCARA), a widely used type of industrial arm with motions especially suited to assembling consumer products. The five robots will be formally inducted at a June 21 ceremony during the third annual RoboBusiness Conference and Exposition.

The hall of fame was founded in 2003 by James H. Morris, former dean of Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science. Past inductees include the Mars Pathfinder rover, Honda's ASIMO walking robot and the "Star Wars" duo of R2-D2 and C-3PO. Inductees are selected by an international jury.

Posted by Jon Erickson at 09:44 AM  Permalink