France's Robosoft has just announced a new bot model set to roll off of its assembly line, dubbed the RobuDog. The Windows XP-programmable canine was shown at RoboCup this year and will be made available for public consumption sometime this Fall. The little pup has a 500MHz onboard processor, 802.11b/g, 17 joints, 2 infrared sensors, an "intelligent" color camera, and floor-contact sensors on each foot. The dog also features articulated ankles, which make it easier for it to find its footing and allow the bot do things like kick soccer balls or dance (if you're interested in those sorts of activities). Additionally, the dog can interface with Microsoft's Robotics Studio 1.5, which allows you to create actions in virtual simulations which you can upload back to the bot. Available soon for 3,200 Euros, or about $4397.

[Via Gearlog]

Homegrown robotics have been sneaking around the scene for quite some time, and while we've seen instances of DIY kits coming in at (somewhat) reasonable prices, CoroWare is apparently hoping to nab a bit more of that untapped market. Hailed as an "affordable and flexible mobile robot for researchers, hobbyists, and developers in the industrial and service robot segments," the CoroBot indeed packs quite a punch. Judging by the 1.2GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 20GB hard drive, front and rear IR sensors, 640 x 480 resolution camera, and eight digital inputs / outputs that this thing sports, we don't envision it shipping out to many newbies regardless of the marketing. Furthermore, the device is compatible with Microsoft Robotics Studio, sports an option for a robotic arm capable of four degrees of freedom, and even boasts five pounds of base payload capacity. Unfortunately, for those of you still hoping to snap one up on the cheap, chances are you'll be sorely disappointed by CoroWare's definition of inexpensive, as the June-bound bots start at $2,499 and head north to $3,499 when tricked out.

It seems that Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Academy isn't the only organization working on multi-platform robotics software these days, as Microsoft has just revealed its own so-called Robotics Studio, which is intended to be a rich, scalable programming environment that can control anything from the simplest Lego Mindstorms creation to a highly-complex, car-assembling industrial bot. Unveiled at the RoboBusiness Conference and Exhibition in Pittsburgh, PA, the new software development kit will let users employ a visual programming tool for building command sets or debugging their applications, and also utilizes technology from PhysX manufacturer Aegia to enable realistic 3D simulations for determining how programs will execute in the real world. Not only does the platform support interaction with properly-formatted third-party languages, it will also allow outside developers to build their own commercial applications in the same way that software manufacturers create programs to run on Windows or Windows Mobile today. You can download a preview of the new toolkit-- which also enables web-based bot control -- by following the Read link, or if you just want to know a little more about its history and capabilities, Channel 9 has a great video featuring demos and interviews with the development team.

[Via Information Week]