The first four inductees – two real and two fictional – are inducted into the Robot Hall Of Fame created by Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science.
- Unimate (1961, General Motors) – the first robotic arm used in car assembly
- HAL-9000 (1968, from 2001: a space odyssey)
- R2-D2 (1977, from Star Wars)
- Sojourner (1996, NASA) – the first successful Mars rover
The panel of judges in future years will pare down the number of nominations awarded to fictional creations. R2-D2 actor Kenny Baker and Douglas Rains, the voice actor behind HAL, are in attendance.