Real-life robot joins BBC's 'I, Robot' adaptation
Android actor Stanley lends its voice to a BBC radio adaptation of Isaac Asimov's classic stories.
Stanley the robot can walk, talk, recognise faces and play golf -- but what he really wants to do is act.
The humanoid robot will lend his voicebox to a forthcoming BBC radio adaptation of Isaac Asimov's "I, Robot" stories. "Outcasts" and "Cold feet" star Hermione Norris leads the human cast as Stevie, a psychologist raised by an android, who encounters various rogue robots. In a shocking case of typecasting, Stanley voices an android extra.
The series of five 15-minute plays will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 10:45 a.m. each day throughout the week of 6 February, with an omnibus on Saturday 11 February.
Stanley Qubit -- to give him his full name -- is a Nao-25 humanoid robot built by Aldebaran Robotics. He's owned by technology journalist and author Chris Middleton, who will also appear in the radio show.
"I, Robot" is a 1950 collection of nine short stories that originally appeared in sci-fi magazines in the 1940s. It was in these stories that Asimov first coined his legendary Three Laws of Robotics outlining a moral code for artificial beings. Today, those laws influence thinking around real artificial intelligence, including Google's five laws of AI.
For more Nao robots branching out into new careers, check out these sporting automatons at the Robot World Cup:
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