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Robo-enthusiasts are a-buzz with giddiness lately, not just from solder-smoke. The next generation of Robosapien, aptly named the Robosapien V2, is now available. But apparently it's in very short supply in North America, and demand is growing with the holiday just around the corner.

So what's the hubbub surrounding this second generation toy robot?

Autonomous Behavior

Robosapien V2 was designed to pay attention to you very closely, whether you teach him to move his limbs to certain positions, activate a preset function, or program him from the remote control. But are you really interesting to warrant such attention all the time? Nope. Robosapien V2 is fully capable of taking in the environment around him and start doing his own thing.

For example, he may decide to explore his surroundings, identifying other humans and shaking their hands. Or, if you leave him alone in a room with a Robopet or Roboraptor, two robots, he can directly control himself (COOL!). You may come back to find him playing fetch with one of them using a brightly colored ball.

Way More Sapien

At 24 inches tall, this next generation Robosapien not only looks more humanoid, but brings his predecessor's fluid movement and biomechanical agility to a whole new level. The head can swivel on the neck, allowing him to recognize and track what's going on around him in a way that closely matches a human's. The flexible waist, with its three degrees of freedom, allows for very complex body movements such as bending, sitting, lying down, standing up, waving, and martial art maneuvers.

The Robosapien V2's hands are truly an evolutionary next step, with fully articulated fingers that give him advanced grasping ability. This precision gripping enables him to grab a ball and throw it a fair distance or simply wave non-menacingly at your household pets in a friendly gesture. Should your pet not be appreciative of this charming display, the bi-pedal V2 can walk over to it in one of multiple gaits to ask what its problem is?

Advanced Awareness

Robosapien V2 boasts a multi-sensory system unlike anything we've seen before, heightening the level of interactivity. His color recognition unit means he can visually recognize humans by their flesh tones, responding to movements. With a stereo sound detection system he can also hear and react to noise made by you, and really appreciate a 'pull my finger' joke.

He'll also have great sense of his environment through infra red vision, allowing him to avoid obstacles, table edges, and highly annoyed cats. The remote control is supplied with a 'laser' that you can use to trace a path for him to follow with which a mischievous user could certainly use to lead him toward any ill-tempered pets, if so desired. Robosapien V2's touch sensory system has also been highly developed, reacting to your handling of him along with a bump into anything.

Endless Possibilities

The large group of robot hobbyists that grew so enamored with the first Robosapien version, both for its ease of programming and openness to modifications, will really go nuts for this generation. There are over 100 pre-programmed functions, 4 demonstration modes, and a myriad of ways to program him to do what you want.

Through world renowned roboticist Mark Tilden's careful design, you can be sure the same attention has been given to keeping Robosapien V2 easily tinkerable. Surf the Internet to see what kind of mods people have been doing with the first one, and that should get you pretty excited with the possibilities to come.