Robots

This is a dazzling and thought- provoking exhibition – right from the queue to enter, where robotic eyes set in visored plastic faces follow you as you pass. These are what’s known as ‘social robots’ – and this is where much of the invention and research has been in the last decade. On entry, gaze at the incredibly arresting sight of a seemingly live baby, with realistic skin (actually silicone), in swaddling cloth, eyes opening and shutting, arms wriggling, breathing. Of course, there are wires and a hidden computer behind the illuminated mattress, but you can see why this animatronic child makes its living in movies when not on display here.

The word ‘robot’ conjures powerful mental images, and here we have around 100 of every conceivable variety, some of considerable antiquity, such as a medieval Italian spring- controlled animatronic monk that rolls its eyes and head. But a robot doesn’t have to look human; technically, it’s any machine that can carry out a set of actions automatically, such as Henry Vlll’s astronomical clock from Hampton Court Palace, or a 13th-century astrolabe measuring the heavens. Most amazing is a huge clockwork silver swan loaned by the Bowes Museum in County Durham, which, when its three clockwork mechanisms are wound up once a day, moves its head, preens its back and catches fish.

One disappointment of the exhibition is that many of the older objects are too fragile to be ‘in action’ and, on my second visit, some contemporary robots were also having teething problems. But most in this remarkable display were in action, astonishing the child in all of us, making this the perfect intergenerational day out.

In the 1920s and 1930s, robots were in the realm of science fiction, a genre they have continued to dominate, and we see examples here from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and The Terminator. But ever since the first robot walked upstairs, cutting-edge research has sought to emulate and exceed human capabilities with robots that can handle, assess and assemble objects, play music, speak in multiple languages, interact with children and help them learn. In this exhibition you can touch some, get them to look at you, and ask them questions.

Most are cables and wire but a few, such as Kodomoroid, are creepily lifelike. The exhibition tries to reassure us that robots won’t replace humans, but it makes you wonder.

Robots runs until 3 September at the Science Museum, Exhibition Road, London SW7: 0333-241 4000, www.sciencemuseum.org.uk