By Dan Satherley
Voting is underway for this year's inductees into the Robot Hall of Fame, and for the first time the public will have a say.
Founded in 2003, the Robot Hall of Fame "honours the fictional and real robots that have inspired and made breakthrough accomplishments in robotics", according to its website.
Every two years, four or five robots are inducted into the Hall of Fame. In 2010, inductees included the T-800 Terminator from the original Terminator film and the real-life robotic vacuum cleaner, Roomba.
"The technology and art of robotics are advancing at an increasingly rapid rate and so the Robot Hall of Fame also must evolve," director Shirley Saldamarco told paper The Sacramento Bee.
"As more students, workers and consumers become accustomed to robots, it seems like a natural step to give the public a voice in selecting inductees."
There are four categories: Education and Consumer; Entertainment; Industrial and Service; and Research. The polls close on September 30.
Nominees this year include Pixar's rubbish-collecting WALL-E; Johnny 5 from the 1980s film Short Circuit; Rosie the maid from The Jetsons; a programmable vacuum cleaner known as Create; and BigDog, a walking robot developed by the US Defence Advanced Research Project Agency.
The full list of nominees – and voting forms – can be found on the Robot Hall of Fame website.
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