Penbo, from Bossa Nova Robotics ($79.99 list), is an adorable interactive robotic penguin created just for kids. It's recommended for children ages four and up, so my four-year-old daughter qualifies; she and I tried it out.

After fighting through the standard packaging with its multitude of wire-ties, I was finally able to hand Penbo to my daughter. Her immediate reaction: "She's cute, and I like her bow. It looks pretty on her." Happily, batteries are included with Penbo, so as soon as we got her out of the package we were playing with her.

Penbo also comes with a baby penguin, named Bebe, who you'll find in an egg stored in Penbo's tummy. Once you open the egg, you can use Bebe to interact and control Penbo, via infrared signals. Penbo can also interact with you through the sensors on its head and tail, and the microphone hidden in its neck. Push the hidden buttons in Penbo's head and right wing, for example, and it plays a mimic game. Press Bebe's right wing, and Penbo plays a peek-a-boo game.

He's landed on our strange planet, and he's ready for any task you have. No, I don't mean Lance Ulanoff—I'm talking about the Disney Ultimate Buzz Lightyear ($199.99 direct, $129.99 to $149.99 street). This programmable robot toy is remarkably lifelike and engaging, which is helped by 7 motors and 3 sensors.

Buzz responds to 6 voice commands and can walk, talk (over 100 sayings voiced by Tim Allen himself), blink, move his arms and legs, swivel his head, fire his "laser," and even high-five you. He comes with a 15-function remote control. And using what Disney calls "Puppeteering Programming," you can move his arms, legs, and head into a series of new positions and record the sequence for playback.

Check out our video to see more of what Buzz (and Lance) can do. Any Toy Story fan—really, anyone!—will get a kick out of this little guy.

Like the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, The Pleo robotic camosaur has reemerged, though without the help of dino-DNA. In a lengthy interview on Robotsrule, Ugobe founder and now COO of Innvo Labs Derek Dotson said Pleo is for sale again at Innvo's web site. What's more surprising is that Innvo's Pleo is not simply an inventory clear-out item. Dotson told Robotsrule that there are actually a number of improvements, including better paint, more durable skin, biodegradable packaging and better battery chargers. Innvo is also planning on improving future Pleos, making better use of its camera and opening up a processing bottleneck so the robot companion can do more with its existing sensors.

One thing that hasn't change, yet, is the pricing. The adorable bot is still $349. Innvo will want to get to work on lowering that price if they don't want to Pleo to fade into extinction.

Stanford University has teamed up with Volkswagen to build two driverless cars--an Audi TTS and a VW Passat Wagon--and hopes to break a few records along the way.

So far the Audi TTS has already achieved an unofficial speed record for an autonomous car at 130 miles per hour, as Engadget reports. Stanford is hoping that the car will soon complete the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, a nine mile race with 156 turns--all by itself.

Meanwhile, Stanford's Volkswagen Automotive Innovation Laboratory has developed a Volkswagen Passat "valet system" that handles tough parallel parking, as the report said. Videos of each after the break.

Considering the big fight to get augmented reality apps onto the iPhone, the concept of "Terminator-style" AR contact lenses seems little more than a pipedream, but that's exactly the technology laid out by Babak A. Parviz, a bionanotechnology expert at the University of Washington, in Seattle--references to killer robots from the future and all.

"These lenses don't give us the vision of an eagle or the benefit of running subtitles on our surroundings yet," writes Parviz. "But we have built a lens with one LED, which we've powered wirelessly with RF. What we've done so far barely hints at what will soon be possible with this technology."

Parviz goes on to detail the possibilities of such a technology, which, he points out, even in a simple state could be rather useful,

Even a lens with a single pixel could aid people with impaired hearing or be incorporated as an indicator into computer games. With more colors and resolution, the repertoire could be expanded to include displaying text, translating speech into captions in real time, or offering visual cues from a navigation system. With basic image processing and Internet access, a contact-lens display could unlock whole new worlds of visual information, unfettered by the constraints of a physical display.

Killer robots from the future rejoice.

An engaging mix of cute and bizarre, Bossa Nova Robotics' first two products--the aggressive, break-dancing Prime-8 and the super-cute Penbo--could fit neatly on any 4- to-12-year-old child's wish list this holiday season.

Prime-8 is a yellow-armor-wearing gorilla. Its massive arms are actually wheels that can spin in tandem or separately to steer, dance or just act crazy. Hidden inside its yellow body are two plastic feet that glide out when Prime-8 wants to stand up. This remote-controlled robot includes infrared sensors on its front and back that it uses to "see" other Prime-8s and navigate its environment and guard your home. If you attach its spring-loaded rubber dart guns, it'll shoot at anything that moves.

The robot, which runs on eight AA batteries, can even play laser tag with other Prime-8s. While Prime-8 is programmable (up to ten remote-driven items), it won't remember a thing once you turn it off. Prime-8 also has two modes: "Happy" (normal) and "Gone Bananas" (crazy), though in both cases, most of what the robot does seems pretty random and loony.

Whether you consider the idea of a house full of robots waiting to do your bidding a dream-come-true or a nightmare, there may be a bigger problem. Researchers now worry that the average human could be overwhelmed by the task of interacting with half-a-dozen or more automatons rolling and walking around the home. The novel solution: A core robot personality that jumps from device to device.

According to a report in New Scientist, researchers at University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield, UK, have created a single robot brain that can jump from robot-to-robot, and even computers scattered throughout the home. The benefit is that homeowners can communicate a task to the robo-butler in one interface and, even if that robot cannot accomplish the task, it can communicate with one that can, and even relay back to the owner that the task has been completed.

Other features the uni-bot-brain brings are the ability to recognize different people (I hate when they mistake me for a chair), respect personal space (no more robots goosing you) and other norms of social interaction (finally, my robots will stop picking their noses).

Trials are currently underway in two story home in the UK. You can see more in the video at New Scientist's site.

Movies can generate props and people that we can only imagine. But in Terminator Salvation, audiences can see how reality became fantasy.

The movie features a wide array of new and old robots, from the underwater Hydrobot to the gigantic Harvester. But one of the coolest bots by far is the Motobot--a fast-moving, hard-hitting, deadly Terminator model. Motobots are quick to get to their targets, and fast on the pickup if they fall.

Motobot Terminators are not merely someone's fantasy of a killer motorcycle, though: They're also someone's fantasy of a killer Ducati Hypermotard 1100. This sport bike was the model of choice to use in the MotoTerminator's deadly chase scenes.

One day, we'll all have armless, boxy, nagging robots in the home to remind us to take our meds and that it's time to watch Jeopardy! This is the dream behind GeckoSystems Intl. Corp.'s CareBot personal robot.

Under development for over a decade, the CareBot prototype is a mobile automaton that can easily, if very slowly, navigate among people and objects. It'll follow grandma around the house, let other families watch her from afar (via internet-based video teleconferencing) and contact someone on the outside if grandma falls down and can't get up. According to GeckoSystem company execs, it can also operate for up to 14 hours on a single charge.

For all the talk about robotic uprisings, man and machine have learned to coexist fairly peacefully--for the most part. Accidents do happen, and sometimes robots attack. Take, for example, the case of a worker tasked with repairing a rock-lifting machine in a Swedish factory.

The event occurred back in 2007, when the machine reportedly mistook the man's head for a rock, which was roughly the same size as those it was programmed to lift. The man managed to escape the "attack" with his life, but got fairly seriously injured in the process.

"The man was very lucky. He broke four ribs and came close to losing his life," prosecutor Leif Johansson told a local paper.

The man ultimately decided not to press charges, but the plant was fined 25,000 Kronor ($3,100). According to the witnesses, the robot told the victim, "I'll be back."

Pop open the champagne and pour your hardworking robot vacuum a glass--it's now a Robot Hall of Fame Inductee.

iRobot's seven-year-old Roomba is one of five in the class of 2010 inductees into the Robot Hall of Fame, along with NASA's Mars Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, the DaVinci Medical Robot System, Huey, Dewey and Louie from the 1971 Bruce Dern film "Silent Running and the T-800 Terminator from James Cameron's 1984 film "The Terminator". A brainchild of the Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science, the Hall of Fame, according to a university spokesman, "recognizes excellence in robotics technology worldwide and honors the fictional and real robots that have inspired and embodied breakthrough accomplishments in robotics."

Ugobe, the Idaho-based consumer robotics company that brought the world Pleo, the adorable robotic dinosaur, is extinct. The company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy this week, according to a report in the Idaho Statesman. Ugobe unveiled Pleo to great attention and acclaim almost three years ago, but delays and the lack of further development beyond the initial rollout of the robotic dinosaur may have hampered the business. In recent years, Ugobe changed leadership and moved from its California-based offices to Idaho. Pleo was always manufactured in Hong Kong.

Perhaps the most sophisticated consumer robot since Sony's AIBO robot dog (Sony stopped selling them in 2006), Pleo charmed reviewers and consumers when it finally arrived in stores in 2007. With cartoon looks, a puppy-like personality that developed over-time and a web site where you could download personality enhancements and interact with other Pleo owners, the Ugobe creation looked poised for success. At the time, Ugobe execs promised that Pleo would be just the first of many Life Forms. The product certainly had the pedigree for success: Furby creator Caleb Chung helped design it and was front and center during the product launch.

However unlike WowWee, which sells robot toys (that lack the ability to learn or change over time) for well under $200, Ugobe's Pleo listed for $349. That steep price and Pleo's painfully slow locomotion, lack of features like a camera, speaking voice (it could make sounds), and remote control may have hindered its adoption.

In the end, it's another promising consumer robot that failed to live up to and beyond expectations. With some companies pulling back on research and development, one has to wonder if we'll ever see another product like it.

We take a loving look back after the jump.

Honda was in town today showing off its recently announced Stride Management Assist and Bodyweight Support Assist prototypes. Designed by members of the team that brought the ASIMO Humanoid robot into the world, the two wearable devices are aimed at improving locomotion in users.

PCMag editor-in-chief Lance Ulanoff and myself had the opportunity to see the devices up close--and to try them out. After the jump, check out footage of Lance taking the Stride Management Assist and Bodyweight Support Assist prototypes for a spin around the W Hotel in midtown Manhattan.

And for a full-hands-on--well, legs-on--review of the new devices (and a slideshow), check out our story at PCMag.com.

Honda Motor is set to unveil two robotic walking and lifting assistant exoskeleton devices in New York tomorrow. The company preannounced the prototypes today, giving the world a glimpse in video and photos of these two wearable technologies.

The same company that brought the world the ASIMO Humanoid  robot, American Honda Motors, has used what it learned about human locomotion to build the Stride Management Assist and the Bodyweight Support Assist.

The first prototype is a lightweight, wearable device intended to help the elderly and those with weakened leg muscles walk. In photos, users wear the Stride Management apparatus around their waists, hips and thighs. An internal computer actually regulates the user's stride and walking pace to make it more consistent and, ultimately, effective.

The Bodyweight Support device is a more extensive apparatus. It extends from the waist and hips to the feet and even has a built-in seat that wearers straddle. That extra gear is necessary because the Bodyweight is not only intended to help those who have difficulty walking, but to assist the able in strenuous tasks, such as lifting heavy weights.

Honda plans on showing off these intelligent exoskeleton prototypes later this month at the  Automotive Engineers (SAE) World Congress at Detroit's Cobo Center (April 20 - 23). However, Gearlog should have a hands-on report sometime tomorrow.

More photos of the prototypes after the jump.