By Lisa Fary
There’s nothing I love quite like a robot. Except maybe cheesecake. And Hugh Laurie. Oh, and dresses that twirl. But still, robots are pretty cool just because modern robots are the jumping off point to all of my sci-fi, lunar living, jet pack wearing dreams. Yes, I’d still like to live in a lunar colony even though it would be disturbingly similar to camping.
The International Robot Exhibition was held in Tokyo last week. A surprising number of companies brought their bots serving all purposes from eldercare to ping pong partnership. These are my favorites.
The world’s most expensive ping pong partner.
A step toward Cylons.
This one is an eco-friendly bot constructed of cardboard over metal joints.
My inner 6 year old wants Paro, the therapy robot. And a tiara.
A line of sword-wielding robots just looks like a Michael Bay (or Roland Emmerich or Uwe Boll) movie waiting to happen.
Actroid is actually a bit creepy, skipping down the road to Stepford. She reportedly has a variety of realistic facial expressions and hand gestures.
Now how about a Hugh Laurie shaped robot that makes and serves cheesecake?
Lisa Fary is a graduate of the creative writing program at Florida State University and holds an advanced degree in Special Education. Her earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She’s angry that it’s almost 2010 and she still doesn’t have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram.
Photos 1, 3 and 4 via Reuters/ Kim Kyung-Hoon. Remaining photos via Pink Tentacle.
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Lisa Fary's earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She's angry that it's 2011 and she still doesn't have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram. 
I love that stuffed animal robot. That'd be my inner 5 year old's dream come true, if my stuffed animals could get up and move around. (It also might be a borderline nightmare.)
The baby seal bot reminds me of Pleo the baby dino bot (not to be confused with the Dinobots, natch.). And, dude, Japan always has the coolest robots.
scary. want to go to Japan now please!