Basil the robot makes a movie

You'll be reading all about Basil the amazing bot in this week's Westword cover story (which will be available online later today, December 17). But you can see him in action here. While the video above may not look all that exciting -- Basil's not slinging any beers or electrocuting intruders -- what he is doing is pretty darn impressive.

Watch as he uses his sonars and cybernetic brain to recognize objects in his path, like people and chairs, and then stores them in his mental model of his surroundings until he notices they've been removed. As we'd say back in Southie, he's wicked smaht.

Finally, just for kicks, the robot goes after the Gundersons' dog. Silly Basil. -- Joel Warner