Learning to Love Our Robot Co-Workers - NYTimes.com

The robots were Joe McGillivray's idea. The first one arrived at Dynamic Group in Ramsey, Minn., by pickup truck in two cardboard boxes. With a mixture of excitement and trepidation, McGillivray watched as a vendor unpacked two silver tubes, assorted blue-and-gray joints and a touch screen and put them all together. When he was finished 10 minutes later, McGillivray beheld an arm that, had its segments not all been able to swivel 360 degrees, might have belonged to a very large N.B.A. player or a fairly small giant. Its "shoulder" was mounted to a waist-high pedestal on wheels. If it were to hail someone across the room, its "elbow" would reach eye level. Below its "wrist," which was triple-jointed for extra dexterity, there were sockets for various attachments. McGillivray, not sure yet if he wanted to keep the contraption, stuck a piece of clear tape to the wrist and drew a happy face on it, which made the arm look a bit as if it were putting on a puppet show. He hoped that this would help it look nonthreatening.