Thanks to CMU for setting up this poll for the public, many tough decisions on the most historic robots.
IEEE Spectrum did a write-up of the featured robots.
I’d like to add to this by saying that if you are ever in the Pittsburgh area and have the time, do yourself a favor and check out Carnegie Science Center’s Roboworld display. It takes up the entire second level of the Science Center and is focused on pretty much all things robotics with tons of interactive displays (the air-hockey robot and the basket-ball shooting robot are always popular, you can play against them).
The best part is that the side wall has the Robot Hall of Fame, which showcases all the robots that have been inducted so far. It’s a great way to burn a couple of hours in the 'Burgh.
/plug
But seriously, I love that place and try to go down there as much as possible.
I remember going to this exhibit. They had a robotic pharmacist and a high speed manufacturing robot. They also had a version of CleverBot, but there was a line and I did not get to use it.