Right now our most advanced robots are not quite as smart as we would want them to be. One of the most popular—Honda’s humanoid robot, Asimo—is quite sophisticated but you won’t be seeing one in your home anytime soon. If you want to lease one however, simply make out a check to Honda for $150,000 -- per month!

According to Honda’s Web site, they added intelligence technology which is capable of interpreting the postures and gestures of humans and moving independently in response. ASIMO's ability to interact with humans has advanced significantly: it can greet approaching people, follow them, move in the direction they indicate, and even recognize their faces and address them by name. It can recognize faces of people, but only ones that have been pre-registered, and can recognize approximately ten different people.

Honda however is not the only game in town. You may not have heard of the others simply because Honda has better marketing—ASIMO has rung the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, walked the red carpet at the premier of "Robots: The Movie," Danced with Ellen on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and even got spoofed on an episode of "South Park" when Eric Cartman disguised himself as Awesome-O. But other humanoid robots are currently being developed all over the world and perform similar functions and on similar technological platforms. Kawada Industries for example has developed a few prototypes of their own including the HRP-3 “Promet MK-II” which was developed for the possibility of working in an actual environment. The Kawada Web site gives detailed explanations of it’s functions including a few movies of it in operation. These kinds of robots however usually only operate with pre-programmed functions and certainly cannot think on their own.

The Mars Rovers are actually true robots and are automatons—meaning they are self-operating, can think for themselves, and make their own decisions. The problem is that the decision-making process usually takes quite long, sometimes in the hours. The Mars Exploration Rovers essentially act as robot geologists by analyzing the Martian surface (rocks, soils, etc.) and also sending back thousands of photographs to Earth. We surprised ourselves with how long these rovers have actually lasted on the surface originally thinking they would only last for 90 days. In fact, the rovers have lasted just over 6 years for operation on the Martian surface which is an amazing feat in itself. Back on Earth, NASA is tirelessly working on much more advanced version of the rover named "Curiosity" with hopes of launching it sometime next year. Click here to listen to a short audio clip about the features of the new rover which is substainally more advanced than it's predecessors.

On another note, NASA is allowing you to send your name to Mars which will be included on a microchip along with others on the Mars Science Laboratory heading to Mars next year. Simply click here and fill out the form so your name can be included on the microchip.