Back in August (2012) Carnegie Mellon University unveiled that this year the inductee’s to the Robot Hall of Fame would be chosen by popular vote from the general public. After months of deliberation and tallying the voting (from over 17,000 of you), the tallies are finally in. Out of 12 nominees’ (chosen by a group of 107 ‘robotics experts’) the winner for the Education and Consumer category went to Aldebaran Robotics’ NAO robot (over iRobot’s Create and the VEX Robotics Design System), which is an adaptable platform that can be configured for education, research and developers.
WALL-E took the win for the Entertainment category (over Rosie from The Jetsons cartoon and Johnny 5 from the movie Short Circuit) and starred in Disney/Pixar’s 2008 movie of the same name where he was responsible for the fate of all mankind.
The category for Industrial and Service went to iRobot’s PackBot (over Kiva Systems Autonomous Warehouse Robots and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Jason ROV) that was designed for military use and has been battle-proven in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The PackBot is mainly used by first-responders and EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) units for bomb disposal.
The final inductee into the Robot Hall of Fame went to Boston Dynamic’s BigDog (AlphaDog is the big brother) robot (over NASA’s Robonaut and the PR2 mobile robot from Willow Garage), which is another military robot that’s actually a ‘quadruped’ bot that looks similar to a mechanical donkey. The robot was designed to haul heavy loads (up to 340lbs.) at 4mph up steep 350 rough-terrain inclines.
The ceremony also paid tribute to 5 robots from the 2010 induction winners and included NASA’s rovers Spirit and Opportunity, iRobot’s Roomba smart vacuum, Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci Surgical System, cartoon characters Huey, Dewey and Louie from the 1971 animated film ‘Silent Running’ and the T-800 cyborg (played by Schwarzenegger) from the original Terminator movie.
See more at the Robot Hall of Fame.
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