The Bandit robot is a robotic personal trainer developed by students at USC's Viterbi School of Engineering. Bandit will first model exercises for you. Bandit is able to watch your movements and then mimic them, hopefully encouraging to greater effort.
(Bandit personal trainer robot video)
Bandit is used in a USC study "Robot Motivator: Towards Adaptive Health Games for Productive Long-Term Interaction". Half of the participants will have a live, in person robot; the other half will watch the robot on video.
Manga enthusiasts have seen this idea before. In the 2001 series Chobits, Sumomo is a "mobile persocom", essentially an animated laptop computer. She leads Hideki in wakeup exercises every morning and dances in standby mode.
Drosophila Robotica, The Mechanical Fly
'... the Scarab [flying robot] buzzed into the great workroom as any intruding insect might...'- Raymond Z. Gallun, 1936.
Robo-Raven Flapping Wing Robot Bird
'When he had first built them, they had been crude indeed, flying mechanisms with little more than a reflex-response unit.'- Philip E. High, 1968.
Bartendro Robot Bartender
'He sipped the cognac that the robot bartender handed him...'- Alfred Bester, 1956.
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Sky City's 220 Stories Are Go
'It rested among green parklands and... stood in total isolation, a glittering block of whites and flashing windows dotted with colors.'
Robo-Raven Flapping Wing Robot Bird
'When he had first built them, they had been crude indeed, flying mechanisms with little more than a reflex-response unit.'