What sounds like a trailer for a science-fiction flick soon will become reality at the Carnegie Science Center on the North Shore.

Prepare for the future. Robots to invade Pittsburgh. Or as the science center might prefer saying, "Welcome to roboworld."

The science center held a preview tour yesterday of $3.4 million roboworld, which will open June 13 as "the world's largest and most comprehensive permanent robotics exhibition."

Name a famous robot -- Hal 9000, R2D2, Gort or C-3PO -- and a life-size replica likely will be on display in the 6,000-square-foot permanent exhibit. At the second-floor entrance stands Andy, the RoboThespian -- an interactive humanoid robot with dexterous metal fingers and high-energy monologue brimming with robot jokes.

Roboworld also will double as home of the Robot Hall of Fame and its 28 inductees.

During the preview, the science center featured Anthony Daniels, the British actor who played C-3PO in all six "Star Wars" movies and displayed the same fussy quirks, voice and personality as the golden robot he played.

"Robots will be as commonplace in the future as the Internet and computers are today," Mr. Daniels said in his famous King's English. "Get used to it."

Roboworld will display entertainment, industrial and household robots with the mission of exploring how robotic technology has changed our lives. The focus is the next wave of robotic breakthroughs with the hope that roboworld will inspire a whole new generation of roboticists and researchers who will create new technologies.

Science center co-directors Ann Metzger and Ron Baillie said roboworld also will inspire children to develop skills in science and mathematics and become roboticists of the future. The center is planning classes and outreach programs tied to roboworld.

Other features include games and demonstrations of how robots think, move and sense the world around them. Displays detail the many roles robots serve in the modern world. A Robot Workshop will provide companies and roboticists an opportunity to test their inventions while interacting with the public.

People also can compete against a robotic StarKick Foosbot soccer game and HOOPS, a skilled robotic arm that shoots foul shots. AARON the Cybernetic Artist will create daily works of art, while ROBOT-Rx, developed by McKesson, will display technology used by hospital pharmacies to ensure the safe storage, dispensing and accounting of medications.

A robotic obstacle course, a sketch robot and other displays will round out the exhibit.

Yesterday, the science center also announced the 2010 inductees into the Robot Hall of Fame, which the Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science created in 2003. The new inductees are the NASA Mars Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity; iRobot Roomba; the DaVinci Medical Robot System; Huey, Dewey and Louie, from the 1971 film, "Silent Running;" and T-800 Terminator, from the 1984 film, "The Terminator."

Ms. Metzger said local universities and high-tech companies have turned the region into a world center for robotics. "Pittsburgh is Roboburgh," she said. "So what better place to have roboworld?"

Or as Mr. Daniels said of this new world of robotics: "When I go home, I look at my appliances in a new way. Maybe they have a secret life."