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I got this news from the "Gizmorama" mailing list of which I am a subscriber. I didn't know there was a Robot Hall of Fame, but I thought C3PO and R2D2 would have been shoo-ins when this started. Read on ...

Honda's ASIMO and C-3PO from "Star Wars" have been inducted into Pittsburgh's Robot Hall of Fame. In ceremonies Monday night at the Carnegie Science Center, ASIMO and C-3PO, the latter represented by actor Anthony Daniels who played the robot on the screen, were among five machines -- real and imagined -- inducted. ASIMO was honored for its ability to move gracefully.

Also in the science category was Shakey, referred in a news release to as "a pioneer in mobility and artificial intelligence." Other science fiction entries, along
with C-3PO, were Astro Boy, the animated star of Japanese films from the early 1950s; and Robby the Robot, who made his first appearance in 1956's "Forbidden Planet." Monday's ceremonies marked the second hall of fame class. Last year, C-3PO's "Star Wars" sidekick R2-D2 and the conflicted HAL 9000 from "2001: A
Space Odyssey" were honored from the world of fiction while the Mars Pathfinder Sojourner Rover and Unimate, the first industrial robot arm used on an assembly line, were inducted for the science aspect.

The Robot Hall of Fame was established by the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University to "honor landmark achievements in robotics technology an in the increasing contributions of robots to human endeavors."