It’s only a matter of time before robots do everything better than we can. Case in point: iCub, the cute-but-creepy RobotCub Consortium creation that just won the AAAI 2013 Shakey Award for Best Student Video. In the winning vid, PhD candidate Marijn Stollenga walks us through how iCub navigates the world. Unfortunately, he stops short of explaining just why the heck iCub is staring at us like that.

All joking aside, this little bot is impressive once you get past his unusual face. Sure, right now he picks up cans and buckets like a toddler might, all shaky and tentative — but read that phrase back to yourself and think it over a bit. He picks up things as well as a human baby does. Holy crap! It’s only a matter of time before his cognitive skills develop at a similarly rapid pace and he’s slamming the door of the Dalle Molle Institute for Artificial Intelligence shouting “YOU’RE NOT MY REAL DAD!” Ahh, robots. They grow up so fast.

Clearly he already knows how cool he is, too, because at one point in the video he’s positioned himself like this:

Yeah, he’s got some roboswag going on there. Or, as our own Glen Tickle put it:

Got something better? Feel free to create your own iCub macro here and post it in the comments. There are no prizes, but the creator of the best image macro gets to be the last against the wall when the revolution comes. Trust us, you’ll want that extra time to reevaluate your life.

(via IEEE Spectrum)

Meanwhile in related links

Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com