Popular Science’s Best of What’s New in 2011, and a fan favorite at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, the Sphero rolls on down the avenue of robotic innovation. And that’s without a robot!

Sphero is a ball, about the size of a Magic 8-ball, that moves around through a (one time only) Bluetooth connection with a smartphone or tablet that serves as its remote control. The “Sphero” App is the brain of the device and can program it to adhere to the user’s voice commands that will get it to move, or even play dead.

There are many ways to drive the Sphero, and the “Sphero Golf” application allows an iPhone to act as a putter and club the ball, without actually touching it, toward any office garbage can or hole. There is also a Space Invaders-like game where the player holds and turns the Sphero ball to fight off the spaceships on the iPad screen’s starry backdrop.

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I know, I know, it’s like something out a dream. Finally, there’s a robot that can grab a beer out of the fridge. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the future.

Robots have been around for quite some time, but it isn’t until now that many people are beginning to really invest money and time into worthwhile causes. Steve Cousins, former Xerox veteran, believes that the usage of robots will become as prolific as the use of the home computer in the near future, and has created some of his own personal robots at  his startup firm Willow Garage.

Currently the star of the show is PR2, a robot that can be programmed to pretty much do anything. Bosch has turned around and programmed the robot to do everything from simple tasks like delivering mail to more complex jobs like woodworking and of course the all-important beer-fetching.

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Just when you thought it was safe to sleep worry-free of the robot apocalypse, Romo plugs into your iPhone, syncs up – gears moving – and runs rampant across the apartment!

This is no futuristic noir fiction; this is reality.

However, the Romotive creators have not implemented their smartphone robot to eliminate humanity, but rather they wish for us to have fun with them, the bots.

The Romo looks like a transparent toy tank, which is fun in and of itself, but the bot is so much more. And for a donation of just seventy-eight dollars consumers can revel in the revelatory possibilities of a robot made to be tinkered with.

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The NAO Next Gen is a humanoid robot from Aldebaran Robotics that can recognize your face!

That’s right, the NAO Next Gen bot will scan faces using two brains in order to correctly greet and interact with specific people that the NAO knows.

The future that Asimov foresaw (in the book iRobot) is starting here with a wave of revolutionary robotics. The Paris based Aldeberan engineers already boast that their NAO robots are the most widely used humanoid robot for academic purposes worldwide.

These robots learn as you teach them things, such as catching a ball or following someone (which is a little creepy, I know).

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As of this week, robotic prison warden automatons have been okay-ed to become prison guard staff in South Korean facilities in 2012.

This is not a joke, or at least not entirely.

The New Year will bring with it many “Rapture” and “end of days” conspiracy theories, many Mayan calendars, several dozen horrible movies, and many battery-free Incan sundials (not to be outdone by the Mayan theme).

But it is in South Korea that doom will certainly start to gain the upper hand, as three artificially intelligent robotic prison wardens are to be employed in March of 2012.

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The Bot is coming toward you; it stopped. You poke and prod the Bot with a dully-ended pencil; twist the tip in the heart of its gearbox gut.

The Pencil Sharpener Robot comes alive and walks!

Kikkerland Design has outdone themselves with the ultimate office gadget for the geek in need of sharp pencils at the school or workplace.

The fully functional (if by the Bot functioning you are only talking about walking and sharpening and looking bad-ass, folks) Pencil Sharpener Robot is 4.5 inches tall and invokes all of the lost art of the early twentieth century robot age in its square, technical, and mechanical looking design.

Robbie the Robot would be proud of this Bot!

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Unique airframe design? Check. Open Source hardware? Check. Open Source software? Check. The ability to hover like a Helicopter, but at the flick of a switch, fly like an airplane? Double check.

It seems that the Quadshot has it all and it sure would be hard to find something as cool as this before those Christmas lists are finished. However, don’t fret, The Quadshot team have just raised a whopping $84,000 on Kickstarter (of a $25,000) goal, so these puppies are going into production and soon you should be able to buy either a complete plane or a kit to put together yourself and maybe tinker with some of the software.

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Who doesn’t want the ability to case their own home while they’re away like a police officer on a big city bomb squad? Well, starting this fall, the Rovio personal surveillance robot from WowWee will allow anyone with an extra $299 lying around to do just that.

Destined to be the coolest three wheeled gadget in 08, the Rovio is a truly remotely controlled vehicle. This Wi-Fi enabled gadget is guided by a Northstar micro-GPS system which allows the Rovio to pinpoint its exact location in your home all while being controlled by any computer with internet access. The best part is that each unit comes equipped with a web camera capable of full audio and video streaming capability so you can keep a constant eye on your home or maybe just mess with the cat.

Don’t have time to man the controls all day long? Rovio can also be configured for predetermined patrolling missions with a few clicks of the mouse. All you have to do is mark specific way points in your home and tell Rovio which route you want it to take and once it’s finished or the batteries run low it will head home to the self charging base. I know…I want one too.

[WowWee via SlashGear]

Suddenly we’re one step closer to Jetson-era pneumatic transportation tubes and automated dressing machines. The Asahi Beerbot Robocco is angling to become your new best friend (when they’re back in stock, of course — the sudden product availability had enthusiasts far and wide flooding the site this week, so the company is currently scrambling to build more units). Your mom was right, though: anything great is worth waiting for.

The Beerbot is prepared to follow your full drinking cycle, from cooling cans, opening the flip top, and pouring perfectly into chilled glass mugs. But wait, there’s more! The R2-D2-esque bot stores and refrigerates up to six cans, comes with programmable voice controls, a child lock, 2 custom glass mugs, 6 foam cup bases, a plastic floor protector, and even has a self cleaning mode. It’s designed to work with Japanese sized cans (350ml), but has been tested with American-sized beer bullets (355ml) and worked just fine. No guarantee on other cans though, and no word yet on a glass bottle friendly version (fingers crossed).

When the Beerbot comes back in stock, be prepared to lay down a cool $800. Check out the official website for a video of the bot in action.

This is the best example of a smart kid with too much damn free time I have ever seen. If you have ever been sitting around and watching your favorite team in the big game and wanted a beer but didn’t want to wait for a break in the action, you are going to really appreciate this. Simply load up the mini fridge with 10 of your favorite frosty beverages, sit back, yell “beer me” (for effect), and watch the robotic launching arm toss you a beer with pinpoint accuracy.

The mastermind behind this gadget of every man’s dream is a recent graduate of Duke University named John Cornwell. His goal was never mass production but, it seems he is currently overwhelmed with email requests to purchase his machine which he is saying he can produce for no less than $1000.