Anki, founded in 2010, creates robots with personalities and even feelings; robots that are more human. Vector, "The Good Robot," will be available to consumers in early October, and he can tell you the weather, take photos, answer questions, and even challenge you to a game of blackjack. He has three of the five human senses: sight, hearing, and touch, he can also react to his surroundings, learn your habits, and adapt to it all. In addition to answering questions, he responds to commands: you can tell him to go to sleep or give you a fist bump, for example. Vector even knows when it's time to charge his battery.

Grant Imahara visits Cyberdyne, a robotics company located near Tokyo, to see HAL in action. No, not that HAL--it stands for Hybrid Assistive Limb and works with the brain and the body to augment mobility. The process, called cybernic treatment, can help people recover lost bodily functions. Dr. Yoshiyuki Sankai, CEO and President of Cyberdyne speaks with Grant about what makes the technology unique, how it works, and its real-world results. During his visit, Grant gets a demonstration of HAL.

During his stay, Grant is surprised by the non-humanoid robot he meets at the check-in desk. Maybe he should have known--Henn Na Hotel loosely translates to "strange hotel" in Japanese. Naomi Tomita, the hotel's Chief Technology Officer, says that using non-humanoid robots can make the interactions less awkward. The hotel encourages guests to chat with the robots while they work. A robot checks Grant's coat, and a robotic trolley takes his luggage to his hotel room.

We often talk about robots working for us--even replacing our jobs, but what about robots as co-workers? At the KUKA development lab in Augsburg, Germany, scientists are building robots that can help professionals with tedious and dangerous tasks, leaving the humans to work on more complex problems in a safer environment. Grant Imahara traveled to Germany to learn more about the lab's collaborative robot. KUKA has developed the first robot approved for human-robot collaboration (HRC): the KUKA LBR iiwa. LBR stands for "Leichtbauroboter," German for lightweight robot, and iiwa is for "intelligent industrial work assistant."