Aldebaran Robotics AL-05 humanoid robot

CES was festooned with robots last week, like the R2-D2 entertainment-bot, the Spyke spybot, and Honda’s awesome Asimo. I didn’t manage to hook up with French firm Aldebaran Robotics, which has been working on its own humanoid robot for a couple of years now. The company says it’s aiming to create a robo-companion that’s more than just a novelty toy.

Anyway, Aldebaran’s AL-05 prototype has made a cheeky debut online, with four video clips released on the company’s website.

In truth, they don’t show much, with one clip showing the bot waving, another showing its flashing lights, a third showing the facial recognition capabilities, and a fourth that’s just about meeting the team behind it.

Still, from these quick glimpses, AL-05 looks cool, so hopefully we’ll be hearing (and seeing) more of it in 2007.

Aldebaran website