Though TheCorpora is making the bodywork available for you, in the shape of a penguin-like robot with big eyes, a chubby frame and black and white finishing, they are leaving you do the programming on it, so that you can customize the robot experience to the maximum extent of your Linux knowledge.

This is a very cool concept indeed, especially because not all programmers have the DIY skills to build their own robot with a hammer and nails. Not to mention that building a robot is also quite time-consuming, even if it's one made out of cigarette packages stuck together. This little fellow called Qbo is 45.6 cm tall, 31.4 cm wide and weighs between 9 and 11 kilograms.

TheCorpora have built it with automatic recharging skills, via a provided dedicated dock station. It is also equipped with two omnidirectional microphones & an unidirectional one, while two high definition webcams are hiding under its eyelids. So, there will be filming through it, just like many other “domestic” robots we've seen here. However, Qbo's great bonus over other similar products is that it's capable of stereoscopic vision. There are 20 LEDs placed around Qbo's mouth area and one for the nose. It comes with its own Wi-Fi Pcb 802g/n, antenna and Bluetooth and between some of the APIs that are compatible with it there's also a web control panel.

Ultrasound sensors prevent Qbo from crashing or falling, with one of them being most likely placed in the front, egg-like free wheel. The hardware components which will power the robot are a Mini-ITX motherboard supporting an Intel Atom processor and a Nvidia ION graphic interface. Qbo is also capable of speech recognition and speech synthesis, which will make it as cute as any Japanese commercial robot you've seen so far. You can read more about Qbo on Slashgear.


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