PITTSBURGH-A new class of robots has been inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame, an institution that honors both real and fictional robots and their creators in recognition of the increasing benefits robots are bringing to society. This year's inductees include Honda's humanoid robot ASIMO; Shakey, the first mobile robot with reasoning capability; Astro Boy, a Japanese cartoon robot with a soul; Robby the Robot, from MGM's 1956 science-fiction epic "Forbidden Planet"; and C-3PO, the gold-colored, multilingual robot from the "Star Wars" series.

The robots join previously inducted hall-of-famers the HAL-9000 computer from "2001:A Space Odyssey"; NASA's Mars Pathfinder "Sojourner"; Unimate, the first industrial robot; and R2-D2, C-3PO's vertically challenged sidekick.

The hall of fame was established in 2003 by Carnegie Mellon University in partnership with the Carnegie Science Center. This year's induction ceremony, held in October, also marked the 25th anniversary of the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute.

ASIMO, a humanoid robot whose name stands for Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility, drew juror support as one of the most successful humanoid robots ever made. Created in 2000, ASIMO was the world's first robot to walk dynamically, as humans do, both forward and backward, and up and down stairs.

Shakey was built in the late 1960s at the Stanford Research Institute's Artificial Intelligence Center in Menlo Park, CA. It was the first mobile robot that could claim to reason about its actions, with programs for seeing, reasoning and acting.