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Stanford Kicks Off Annual 'Robot Block Party'

STANFORD (CBS13) - From dancing robots that move to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" to robots that can take photography to new limits, it is all here at Stanford's Third Annual "Robot Block Party." The event is part of "National Robotics Week."

"Well it is really, really cool," said 9-year-old Jeremy Baum.

We found Baum riveted by a robot that's designed to help around the house with simple tasks, such as picking up a water bottle.

"You get to see some of the really big and cool robots. Some of them have like game systems and stuff," said Baum.

A robot from a San Francisco company called "Bot and Dolly" can carry a wide variety of cameras and take hard-to-get images in hard-to-get places.

"So if you are doing product photography where you need to be very specific about your camera motion you would use a system like this," said Jeff Linnell, of "Bot and Dolly."

Some of the goals of the block party is to expose kids to the practical applications of science, technology, engineering and math. But some of the students here are already engineers.

High school freshman Mira Partha from Fremont built a robot called "Felix" to gather, lift and stack crates.

"By means of [its] arm it can pick up the crate, lift it on to the scissors lift, and raise [things] to about 80 inches tall," said Partha.

Organizers say all the young faces are just what they want to see.

"The block party is a great way to say 'come and see, come and try, get into robots!" said Andra Keay.

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