It’s a proud day for us here at CSIRO. Excuse us if we get a bit emotional, but our Museum Robots have officially been named!

The two bots (pictured right) were designed to roam the halls of the National Museum of Australia, allowing remote visitors to experience the galleries for themselves.

Earlier this year we asked school kids to come up with their best robot names. And this week we announced the lucky winners at CeBIT.

And the winners are…

‘Chesster’ 

Isabelle Noble (year 1), Clare Primary School, Auburn SA – “I chose Chesster because it looks like a chess piece.”

‘Kasparov’

Philip Vels (year 12), Lake Tuggeranong College, Canberra ACT – “In 1999, one of the greatest chess games was played between Kasparov and Topalov. Sure, you hear of many great chess games, but this game stands out as it comes with a queen sacrifice.”

With so many other creative entries, we just had to share a few:

‘DUGIE’ – “DUGIE is an anagram of ‘GUIDE’ and that’s his job. I think it is a cute name.” – Monique Tebeck, Lock Area School, SA.

‘Spongebob’ and ‘Grubby’ – “I called the white one Spongebob because it looks like Spongebob and I like him a lot. The black one might be dirty so I think he should be called Grubby like my hands are when I play.” – Cadel Raymond Ambrose, Bittern Primary, VIC.

‘Lovebot’ – “I chose Lovebot because it loves stuff like showing people around and making new friends.” – Kegan-Brock Phillips, Hillcrest Primary School, WA.

‘Luke Skywalker’ and ‘Darth Vader’ – “I think these are absolutely amazing names that everyone will relate to. For some it may be the reason of going to see the robots, because everyone knows Star Wars is awesome.” – Tristan Allan Van Hoof, Warwick State High School, QLD.

Learn more about the Museum Robot project and view a demonstration.