Robots: The Good, the Rad and the Plain Ol’ Scary

Known for: Freakish looks and ability to learn

Despite CB2’s creepy looks, it is one of Japan’s most sophisticated robots. Created to help Japanese researchers study childhood learning, the child bot is currently learning to recognize facial expressions and cluster them into categories such as happiness. It has already taught itself to walk with the help of a human, and can recognize human touch, such as head stroking.

Known for: Fighting pollution

A school of robotic carp—equipped with chemical sensors and artificial intelligence—will be unleashed into a Spanish port to search for water pollutants. Developed by British scientists, these five-foot-long robotic fish will monitor oxygen levels and detect potentially hazardous leaks. The fish will communicate with each other using ultrasonics, and information will be wirelessly sent to the “charging hub” (where fish will charge their batteries). The port’s authorities can use this data to track the source and scale of the pollution. If this robotic pollution monitoring system is successful, researchers hope to use it globally.

Known for: Restoring ability

As the first-to-market prosthetic hand with five individually powered digits, the bionic i-Limb is giving amputees a new life. Awarded an innovation in engineering award, the i-Limb simulates natural touch and sensitivity: It gives the ability to pick up a Styrofoam cup without crushing it, for example. Each finger has motor, which means each is independently driven and can articulate, and the thumb is rotatable through 90 degrees.

Known for: Relying on the kindness of strangers

Unlike many robots, Tweenbots are aimed more at answering questions about humanity’s softer side than they are at testing the boundaries of technology. Traveling in a straight line, the tiny robots were unleashed into the streets of New York with a destination displayed on a flag. The purpose? To see if people would help this little cutey get where it was going. To a large extent folks did help, rescuing the little Tweenbot when became trapped in a pothole or caught under a park bench.