Time Magazine Picks Cutest Robots

Posted 30 Jun 2008 at 20:09 UTC by steve

Michelle writes, "Time.com has just put up a photo gallery of some of the world’s most awesome (and cutest, natch) robots". Many of the robots will be familiar including the Sommelier Robot, the Fujitsu HOAP-3, the Shadow robot hand (who knew a hand by itself could be cute?!), Toyota's musical instrument playing robots, and Wall-e. It's always interesting to see what mainstream media thinks about robots. In this case they make no distinction between real robots, fictional robots; between research projects and commercial gadgets. What's your pick for cutest robot ever?

Cute?, posted 1 Jul 2008 at 00:42 UTC by Rog-a-matic » (Master)

I'm a guy and don't speak cute and adorable very well, but the closest is probably Iron Giant. It's a fantastic animated flick that doesn't slap me too bad with an underlying political or environmental message like so many others. A close second would be Rodney from Robots, and third/fourth/fifth: Huey, Dewey and Louie from Silent Running.

My Picks for Cutest Robot, posted 1 Jul 2008 at 12:47 UTC by jlin » (Master)

I'm always partial to Sony and CMU (my alma mater), so QRIO and Keepon top my personal list with AIBO close behind; to me, they are cute in both looks and personality.

As for fictional robots, I like R2-D2's personality the best. Fictional robot looks, maybe David from AI or Sonny from I, Robot are best but I find it interesting that I had the hardest time coming up with that one. Even WALL·E is cuter in personality than looks; EVE, designed by Apple's Jonathan Ive, may be one of the few fictional robots designed to look sleek and cute as opposed to mechanical, chunky, or rigid.