Robots on T-shirts are one thing. Robots that actually walk the earth? Such is the madness that can only lead to the human race enslaved by its own mechanical creations. It begins innocuously enough with amazing robots with cutesy exteriors. Next thing you know, it's all up to Neo. Beware these machines!
 

ASIMO
(asimo.honda.com for more info)
Earlier this year at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, yours truly and many others gawked at this short astronaut-looking robot walk up and down stairs and kick a soccer ball. Like the astronaut it resembles, ASIMO could very well dominate in space as it does on solid ground. Or it could just blow a gasket and snap.

PLEO
($349.95 at sharperimage.com)
The cuteness of Dino with the terror potential of Godzilla — so stands Pleo, a wee robotic Camarasaurus that responds to the world around him. Pleo can learn and develop his own personality based on how you interact with him, so do be nice to this robo dinosaur. He comes with a color camera, more than 100 custom-designed gears and a sensory network that includes two infrared sensors, eight skin sensors and more.

BIOLOID HUMANOID ROBOTICS KIT
($899.99 at thinkgeek.com)
With this pricey Bioloid kit, you can build a bot in an intimidating default human form (13.4-inches high!) or as one of many other robo critters. Bioloid has 18 servos for full range of motion and a special motion editor for all sorts of robo moves. Its sensor module has an IrDA receiver to chat with other robots by infrared and three proximity sensors as well as a microphone to catch sounds and a piezo-electric speaker to give them. And to think it only takes a screwdriver to put it all together.

René A. Guzman | 210SA Contributor