Photos: Robot doubles as PC

White Box Robotics uses off-the-shelf PC parts to build mobile robots that look a bit like R2D2. Unlike other robots that can clean floors, carry humans or simply entertain, White Box's products double as PCs.

The 914 PC-BOT, which costs $4,995, comes with all the PC basics: a 40GB hard drive, a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive, 1GB of RAM, two USB ports, an 802.11g wireless USB adapter, a Web cam and Microsoft Windows XP.

It is mobile. But at 21 inches tall and 55 pounds, you wouldn't exactly want to drag it to Starbucks with you.

The company is instead working on commercial applications, such as home security and asset tracking via RFID sensors. White Box is also developing curriculum for robotics programs from elementary through university level.