I, Robot

©Yves Gellie

Professor Zou Renti and his android, China, 2008: Professor Zou is working on robots’ human characteristics. His android can blink its eyes, move its arms and shake its head. Prof Zou is on the left

©Yves Gellie

Kobian, Japan, 2009: Kobian is an emotional humanoid robot. Its eyebrows, jaw and lips all move, allowing it to change its facial expression, and it has a biped foot so it can mimic human walking gait

©Yves Gellie

Johnnie and Lola, Germany, 2009: Johnnie can walk at more than 2kph; the goal for Lola, part of a project on biological and technical aspects of intelligent locomotion, is that she will be able to run

©Yves Gellie

Humanoid robots Wakamaru and Eveliee P1, with Professor Ishiguro’s android wife and daughter, Japan, 2007: Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro’s work recognises the importance of appearance – people forget that a human-like android is a robot

©Yves Gellie

RoboThespian, Great Britain, 2012: RoboThespian is a life-sized, programmable humanoid robot designed to be used for entertainment and communication. It can talk, sing, dance – and recite Shakespeare

©Yves Gellie

HRP2, Japan, 2009: Their cantilever hip joints allow these robots to lie down, get up, recover after a fall and walk on uneven surfaces. They can also work with a human to carry objects together

©Yves Gellie

Lucy, Belgium, 2008: Lucy is a robot with articulated legs powered by pneumatic artificial muscles. The goal of the project is to create a lightweight biped that walks in a dynamic, stable way