Streetwise Robots: a night of robotic revelry at the Science Museum : Tech Digest

Whether you like it or not, robots are coming. It's easy to be freaked out by an AI future from any number of Hollywood films or with each and every trick that Honda's Asimo learns, but Streetwise Robots at the Science Museum is here to calm our nerves.

On Tuesday evening, 6th May, at the Dana Centre, it's our chance to meet these automated creatures, to hear from robotics engineers about what they have on the drawing board and, most importantly, for the designers to listen to us about what we want and don't want from these machines of the future.

The event will be facilitated by Robot Wars judge and Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics at Sheffield University, Noel Sharkey and will feature the country's leading 4D robotics designers.

Among the bots on display will be Merlin Avatar, a computer simulation capable of recognising facial expressions and speech, and Shadow Robot's Dextrous Robot Hand - a hand capable of 24 movements and regarded as the most advanced robot hands in the world. You will even have the opportunity to dance a duet with a two-metre-high robotic snake.

It's free, it's a brief hour and a half, and it sounds like an excellent way to spend a Tuesday evening.

Streetwise Robots