Intelligent Humanoid robot (very cool!!)

Hello C-3PO! This fidgety fella from a galaxy far, far away has become the poster bot for our dreams of the humanoid robot (personally, I always get the image of a rampaging Terminator, but then, I'm a perverse sort). Humanoid robots are bipedal, have heads, usually arms, & are often human height (or at least human proportions). These robots tend to be the most complex, have the biggest "brains" (& aspirations of higher intelligence), & spend much of their lives on workbenches with people in white coats cursing over them. These same people in lab coats assure us that this will one day change.The figure above shows the SDR-4X (Sony Dream Robot), Sony's diminutive answer to Honda's Asimo. The SDR looks human-sized in many pictures, but it's actually tiny (23 inches tall).

For robots of this type, brainpower is key. Articulated movement & walking is a huge challenge, as is a robotic vision system that allows such robots to interact effectively with people & their environment. Also, getting all of the hardware required to mimic their makers inside of a human-sized/human-shaped body is a real problem.