Update (September 2009):
We are sorry to announce that the new four-legged robot project
still is on hold for the following reasons.
A finetuning and improvement phase of the robot model is still
needed (including LEDs in the head, mics and loudspeakers,
feet design, outer design) before production and delivery can be started. Unfortunately, the required resources are currently not available in our group.
However, we are currently preparing to start up a new company with other robotics technologies. This company may later take up the production and delivery of the new four-legged robot also.
We would also like to announce that our autonomous humanoid robot model Bruno is available in a highly powerful, ready to program version. Bruno has won the Louis Vuitton Best Humanoid Award 2009. Bruno is also the basis of the Darmstadt Dribblers team which won the RoboCup Humanoid Robot Soccer World Championship 2009 in an outstanding manner. If you are interested purchasing Bruno please fill out the contact formular on the web page and mention the interest in purchasing Bruno in the comments.
The new four-legged robot will be available for purchase as a kit presumably for less than EUR 3.500 (w/o value added tax (VAT)). The robot comes with the ability to run either Linux or Windows CE as operating system and with a detailed tutorial how to assemble the robot as well as how to install, compile and execute the software.
Demo software in C++ will be provided for basic robot operation. As open API, we are providing the source code of the reprogrammable firmware for the microcontroller board, example code how to communicate with the controller board and example code how to access the camera and the mini display (running Linux and Windows CE). The firmware provides the possibility to set and read any of the provided values of the joint servo motors and parameters as well as to read the values of the gyros, accelerometer and IR distance sensors.
At extra cost an assembling service will be offered as well as a customization service for tailoring the robot to special needs.
The new robot will also comply with mandatory European safety requirements and will be certified with the 'CE' mark.
Information about how the robot can be ordered can be found on this web site. Sales and support will be worldwide.