Robofie

Well you probably know about Sony's sad attempt to replace the household pet with their evil robot dogs Aibo. But here is relief - we wont have to put up with Sony's crap because Volks, have brought out a robot to kick seven shades of crap out of Aibo - named Robofie. Robofie not only looks cooler better than those sad Aibo's, it can also push around blocks of (fake) concrete , throw (polystyrene) bricks and kick down (5cm tall) telephone pylons. Specs are...

• Comes as a DIY kit - when finished looks like the frame pictured below - the armor can be painted to your liking.
• Comes with electro magnets built into the feet - useful for erm walking on metal stuff.
• 300mm tall and weights 1kg.
• Pre programmed moves are..
  • Walk (really?)
  • Run
  • Spin
  • Spin and run
  • Grab items
  • Throw items
  • Kick (this is where kicking seven shades out of Aibo comes in handy
  • Dance
  • Fart

You can control Robofie with the remote and also use the CD that comes with the set to program intricate moves like "picking-nose", "adjusting-underpants" etc.

You are probably wondering what Robofie looks like in action - all I could find so far are the movies below.

• Robofie in action clip 1 (sorry its WMV)
• Robofie in action clip 1 (another WMV)

Robofie will cost a piffling 186,900 yen (about 1800 USD) and if you want one, get yourself along to the Volks site now.
Clips and some of these photos from Robot FanAbove: The guy on the right are the bones (frame) of Robofie. The guy on the left is actually the same guy - Robofie comes with plain armor which you can paint, dip in peanut butter or whatever tickles your fancy.Above: Some variations on the armor.Above: Robofie pushing around a chunk of concrete.