Roboticists have been churning out "baby" robots for the past several years, and now engineering magazine IEEE Spectrum breaks down the recent crop of techno-infants with this handy chart.
Click image to embiggen!
Says IEEE Spectrum editor Erico Guizzo:
Did you notice there's been a proliferation of robot infants, robot toddlers, and robot children in the past few years? It seems roboticists enjoy becoming parents to bionic babies. They build them for a good reason: These bots help researchers not only learn more about robotics but also investigate human cognition, language acquisition, and motor development. Some Japanese researchers even say robot babies could help introduce young people to the wonders of parenthood and boost birth rates. Yes, robot babies help make real babies!
Check out our reality matrix below, where we rated each robot according to its similarity to humans and its technical capabilities.
via IEEE Spectrum's Automaton blog