Photos: Robots as toys, tools and teachers

RoboLab 80, from French company Robosoft, is a multipurpose mobile robot platform for home or commercial use that can be programmed using Microsoft Robotics Studio. It has Karto Robotics' map-generation software that allows it to be used as a security guard programmed to travel a specific path and monitor each location via a Web camera. This is the same company that designed the robot cleaner used to help maintain I.M. Pei's glass pyramid at the Louvre Museum in Paris.