CARLENE STEPHENS: "It looks like a figure of a monk and it rolls across the floor, simulating walking. All the while, he’s rolling across the floor his eyes are moving side to side."

BOB DOUGHTY: Worldwide, more than six million robots work in factories and perform military service. Among the robots in the Smithsonian’s collection is PackBot. It helps the United States military find and disarm mines in Afghanistan. Packbot can also gather intelligence.

The Smithsonian also has a driverless car named Stanley. It raced more than two hundred kilometers across southern California’s Mojave Desert to win the two million dollar DARPA Grand Challenge. The Department of Defense provided financial support for the competition.

CARLENE STEPHENS: "I had to take a chance that Stanley is going to represent a key moment in the history of American technology that indicates the future of driving. And already we have cars that park themselves, collision avoidance systems that the car tells you that you’re about to hit something or back into something. Stanley is in this stream of inventive outpouring."

FAITH LAPIDUS: Barry Spletzer formerly worked as a top scientist at the Sandia National Laboratories Intelligent Systems and Robotics Center in New Mexico. He was excited to have his robots in the Smithsonian.

BARRY SPLETZER: "It was just a project to see how small we could make robots."

FAITH LAPIDUS: Mr. Spletzer came to the museum with a gift box of mini-robots that include the Miniature Autonomous Robotic Vehicle or MARV.