Tired of spending every morning walking Spot?  Well then, you may be one of the many that are leaping for joy that Luna the robot will soon be available for purchase later this year.

Human-sized with wonderful curves and a pretty adorable face, Luna runs on Linux and features her very own app store.  Using a touchscreen with cameras and microphones, Luna can react and respond to users as well as take commands over Wi-Fi if needed.  There goes kenneling the dog while you’re away!

From walking the pooch to turning on the oven, Luna is going to change the way you do housework. Creaters Schultze, say  that Luna “is the world’s first personal robot integrating three unique feature sets : Luna is (1) completely expandable via expansion ports, (2) fully programmable with open standards and, above all, (3) affordable.”

Wonder what else this sexy robot can do around the house….

The best thing about going to get your hair did, is the hair washing massage, isn’t it?  Well, how would you like the option to have that sort of luxury daily?  Then say hello to my little friend, the Panasonic Hair-Washing Robot.

This Panasonic gadget is meant for nursing homes to take some pressure off of orderlies dealing with the elderly.  Although some elderly are quite calm, others become very violent with age.  The sixteen robotic fingers wash hair after scanning the exact shape of the head.  The three motors use just the right amount of pressure for shampooing, rinsing and even giving a bit of a scalp massage.  It will even remember the person’s shape of the head for later usage.  Although it’s incredibly creepy thinking about a robot giving your head a rub down, I suppose it’s no more strange than the massage machines you find at the mall.

Although we feel that you don’t have to be in a home to enjoy this home gadget, we understand if some of the magic leaked out.

New bride Satoko Inoue works for the company behind the i-Fairy robot that usually is seen helping visitors at museums and exhibitions but this past weekend presided over her wedding.

Sporting a flowered hat, the i-Fairy wed Inoue and her new husband with the intention of  showing how “robots would become more integrated into people’s everyday lives.”

As Gizmodo reports, the reports of the robot getting a bit too friendly with the punch and whisking off a few of the bridesmaids are totally and utterly unfounded.

R-Learning will soon be making its way into classrooms across the country with robotic teaching assistants.  The country has pledged about $8.7 million to fund the program across 500 preschools.

Parents of the children will be able to watch and monitor their kids via R-Learning simply by hooking up to the robots.

What makes Neato, well, neato, is that it will clean your floors not like the sorta dumb Roomba, but by using an internal mapping system, a RPS, in your house.  This new vacuuming experience will leave you wondering why you ever gave into the Roomba hype in the first place.

A robotic suited called the HAL-5 (which was created by Tsukuba University professor Yoshiyuki Sankai) which was created a few year ago will be available for rent in Japan starting this Friday.

The suit will be available for $2,200 a month. The company who manufactures the suit, Cyberdyne (that’s right – the company has almost exactly the same name as the company that created the genocidal Skynet in the “Terminator” movies) hopes it will be useful to the elderly and people with disabilities.

WowWee has introduced a variety of robot toys. This latest offering appears to be targeted at a slightly different market, though.

The Rovio is a robotic sentry that can patrol your house, and use its 640×480 webcam to snap pictures back in to your computer. It can actually patrol a on a path, an dodge obstacles using its infrared sensor.

It’s going on sale next Friday for $299.95.

WowWee has been releasing a lot of programmable robots. From sapiens to dinosaurs, they have many, many little droids in training on the market. This holiday season, they’re going to take it one step further by introducing their very first female robot.

The Femisapien is pretty much like the Robosapien except its designed for girls, and has features like singing and dancing. What I find particularly disturbing is the gratuitous butt shot of the thing as its walking down the red carpet in the intro video on its official site.

This young robot that is surely part of a future invasion that will rule over us all will only set you back $99.

Designed by Tomataka Takahashi (big name on Japan), and made by Hanson Robotics, the Zeno is similar to an old Japanese television cartoon character called Astro Boy. For now there is only a prototype model, but in 2009 it is expected a mass-production mode of the robot that will be priced at $300.

So, what is Zeno capable of doing?

• Keep track of where people’s faces are
• turn around to make eye contact
• learn the names and voices of the people that interact with it

Thanks to the functions provided by Massive Software, the Zeno can make facial expressions taking in consideration the situation, and move its body taking into account the physical environment.

Remember the R2-D2 robot from Star Wars? I’m sure you do, and in case you are a real fan of the little blue character get ready to spend some money on a new gadget.

The good news is that NIKKO has used the shape of R2-D2 to create a multifunction robot that has the following features:

• play DVDs
• reads memory cards
• has an iPod dock
• and also a DLP projector

The 4-in-1 robot is a heavy one – 8Kg – and measures 341X328×519mm.

Price? 388,000Yen (close to $3,140)

[via: Akihabara]