Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)’s Robot Hall of Fame “recognizes excellence in robotics technology worldwide and honors the fictional and real robots that have inspired and made breakthrough accomplishments in robotics. The Robot Hall of Fame was created by CMU in April 2003 to call attention to the increasing contributions from robots to human society.”
This year’s four inductees are:
Lieutenant Commander Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation: Portrayed by actor Brent Spiner, Data possessed both super-strength and an encyclopedic memory. “Data played a pivotal role on questions of robot ‘right to life’ matters and human/machine philosophies,” said juror Ray Jarvis, director of the Intelligent Robotics Research Centre at the Australian National University.
Raibert Hopper: When roboticist Marc Raibert established the Leg Laboratory at CMU in 1980 (moving it to the MIT in 1986), he believed robots, just like humans, needed to rely on motion for stability—the principle of dynamic balance—if they were ever to become speedy. The one-legged Hopper was ideal for studying dynamic balance because it could not stand still, but had to keep moving to stay upright. “The Raibert Hopper was the visionary effort that set the entire field of robotic locomotion in motion,” said Matt Mason, director of CMU’s Robotics Institute. The lessons learned with the Hopper proved central for biped, quadruped, and even hexapod running. Raibert is now president of the robotics firm he founded, Boston Dynamics.
NavLab 5: One of a series of autonomous vehicles developed at CMU, NavLab 5 looked much like a standard GM minivan, but computers and video sensors made it capable of steering itself at legal speeds on everyday roads and highways. NavLab 5’s crowning achievement was “No Hands Across America,” a 1995 cross-country tour on which it did 98 percent of the driving. “This was the first time that any autonomous vehicle had traversed so much different terrain,” said juror Chuck Thorpe, a NavLab pioneer who is now dean of CMU’s Qatar campus. “It’s not just a matter of purple mountains majesties. It’s a matter of painted lines on asphalt vs.reddish concrete vs. Botts’ dots reflective markers in California—all of which make a big difference in how the road looks to a robot.”
LEGO Mindstorms: This building set combined programmable bricks with electric motors, sensors, and structural parts to create robots and other interactive systems. It went on sale in 1998. “This kit did more to take creative robotics to the masses than just about any other retail product,” said juror Illah Nourbakhsh, associate professor in CMU’s Robotics Institute.
“This is the first time since we established the Robot Hall of Fame in 2003 that most of the inductees are real robots rather than those of science fiction,” Mason said. “As much as we love fictional robots such as Data, those of us in the robotics field take heart when the real accomplishments of our colleagues get this well-deserved recognition.”
Robot Hall of Fame inductees are chosen by an international jury of leading thinkers and technology developers. Some members of the first three induction classes include the Mars Pathfinder Rover; Honda’s ASIMO robot; the HAL 9000 computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey; the Star Wars duo of R2-D2 and C-3PO; and Gort, the metallic giant from The Day the Earth Stood Still.
“The great robots of science fiction, such as Gort, have a powerful hold on people’s imaginations, which is why we honor them and their creators,” said Don Marinelli, executive producer of CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center. “It’s precisely because Data was not confined by real-world limitations that he could address philosophical questions, such as whether a machine can have rights.”