Hot off the presses at robot-dreams (but dated 14 Aug :{ ), it seems a French-designed (see http://www.aldebaran-robotics.com/) humanoid bot has been selected as the "official" platform for future Robot Cups — replacing the defunct (but still kicking) Sony Aibo doggy.

(Here's a vid of the 2007 comp in Atlanta to see what prospective robot football players are up against .

What had been known as the "Four Legged League" has been re-dubbed the "Standard Platform League" in line with the new 25 dof platform that also features the usual slew of features: wifi, voice recog & synth, on-board Linux, gripping hands, camera and "emotional expression".

The unit, that started life on the design board in Apr 2005, stands a massive 58 cm tall.

Here's the std company pix:

And here's the company vid page:

http://www.aldebaran-robotics.com/eng/pageVideoRC02.php