Here’s an announcement I missed announcing Microsoft’s sponsorship of RoboCup 2007 and news that there will be a demonstration of new 4-legged league candidate robots in Atlanta.

Microsoft’s foray into this RoboCup is to show off their software package Robotics Studio. I haven’t read much about it but it sounds interesting. Also, Bill Gates has made some posturing talk towards robotics interest for Microsoft. Of course, Microsoft has sponsored Dortmund University’s team for many years and we saw lots of Microsoft representation and people at RoboCup 2006 in Germany.

As for the new 4-legged league announcement, it says that the “winning robot hardware platforms” will be showed off. Here’s hoping that the interest from robotics companies is high and the field (beyond of course the inevitably kick-ass NUBot platform) is formidable.