Moi, Robot

Courtesy of Dave Young comes this promotional footage of an awesome wee chap; I'm a sucker for a wind-up tin robot but this, the Nao robot from Aldebaran Robotics, is really something else.

While the practical school of thought dictates that the form of a robot should do no more than express its function, there's still an enormous human urge to make a machine that reminds us of us.

Of course, when they eventually look like Tricia Helfer and start killing us, then we'll be sorry.



Click here for the Singularity Hub's roundup of the best robots of 2008. They include Toyota's spooky violin-playing humanoid and the Big Dog, a stable four-legged platform that... well, just watch what happens when someone tries to kick it over.