A French start-up wants to take on the Japanese and Koreans in the humanoid robot space with the Nao.

Slated to go in production in 2007 Nao is a humanoid household service robot running Linux. Nao can walk, talk, surf the web via WiFi. The robot is 21.6 inches tall and will have 23 degrees of freedom.
There is no final design yet. Guess we will have to wait a little bit longer. Will Nao have a French accent? How about a female voice with French accent - I think I would like that. Aldebaran Robotics was founded in early 2005 by Bruno Maisonnier. The company employs about a dozen, is 5 percent employee-owned, and has 17 investors, led by Maisonnier, who holds a 58 percent stake.
More details on Linux Devices (Via Slashdot) and on the Aldebaran site.