Robots Featured In Film and Television

Since 1939 the film industry has been overwhelmed in creating virtual personalities in the big screen. Over a hundred robots have been given distinct and unique personalities. Rol oh was the very first robot to be introduced in a movie fair, it was the most advanced of its kind and it was designed to take over household chores like cleaning, cooking, and answering the door. Here are some of the notable mechanical guys who made it to the box office.

• In 1984, we were introduced to the Terminator, a killer machine who stalks the mother of the future leader of the resistance pact. It was a sci fi thriller, with advanced stunts, lighting and special effects. Set in 2029, the terror stricken Los Angeles was torn between the super intelligent humanoids and the surviving humanity. Several installment of the film was made due to its impact in box office.

• The 1968 Space Odyssey movie, introduced HAl, a supercomputer who assumes the 6th crew member of the space exploration team to Jupiter. HAl, saw a defect in the computer system, but his two human companion claims no defect in the system, hence they conspire that Hal, is not reliable and thus may lead them to crash their spaceship, so they connive to disconnect him. Hal, figured this out and maliciously took it out against the 5 crew members. The movie presents a conflict between humans and robots as to who is the most capable.

• KITTS, the Knight Industries Two Thousand was a supercar that beats up bad guys and runs at a maximum speed. Made famous in the 1980’s TV series knight rider, it was the most advanced of its kind, and several spin off has been made after. In 2008, an artificially intelligent Knight Industries Three Thousand was introduced in the new Knight Rider TV series.

• Sci fi movie Robocop was themed on police brutality and murder, and the collapse of a crime corrupted city. Robocop was a cyborg with superhuman capacity commissioned to bring back peace and order in the city. There were three sequels but the first one grossed the highest.

• Judge Dredd was a UK based comic character. As a law enforcer in the Mega City, he and his fellow judges have the power to arrest and execute law offenders. He has a motorbike equipped with supersensory skills and artificial intelligence that can transmit video images to and from the Justice department. It was believed to be the basis for the character of Robocop.

• In the latest humanoid flick I –Robot, the laws of robotics was broken. Sonny, the featured robot here is a reactive , instinctive and emotional one. He claims to have dreams. He even lied and killed his creator Lanning. Sonny has not only one but two positronic brain, and the second positronic brain in his chest was claimed to be as the reason why he had emotions.

• R2-D2 is the droid in the Star wars sci fi installment. He served Skywalker for many years as a starship mechanic and its in-house computer programmer. He was a three legged droid with many concealed gadgets. He starred in all 6 Star Wars sequels and he was inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame in 2003. R2-D2 also had appearances in Sesame Street, The Muppet Show and the 50th Academy awards to name few. GP