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Geckosystems International (GCKO.PK) and iRobot Corp. (NASDAQ:IRBT) listed as hottest robotics stocks to own

Robotic stocks to watch in the days ahead include iRobot Corp. (NASDAQ:IRBT), whose share price have already more than doubled in the past year.

On Monday, the company announced that Colin Angle, iRobot’s Chairman and CEO, will present at the FBR Capital Markets 2009 Fall Investor Conference being held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in New York on December 2, 2009. The CEO is expected to discuss some news regarding the strategic direction of the company and Wall Street will be monitoring his presentation closely given the recent news and attention that the robotic sector has been getting.

iRobot aims to "build robots that make a difference" and the company's consumer and military robots feature their AWARER robot intelligence systems, a proprietary technology which incorporates advanced concepts in navigation, mobility, manipulation and artificial intelligence.

If you feel you may have missed the bus with share prices for IRBT now at over $16 per share, then you may want to pick up shares of their $1.6 million penny stock competitor, Geckosystems International (GCKO.PK).

The Georgia based company is expected to announce that it will be moving its CareBot eldercare/health care robot prototype from current in-home trails to production. The company aims to compete with iRobot's new health care robot division with similar patented technologies designed to help the elderly.

At the IFA gadgets show in Berlin earlier this year, iRobot CEO Colin Angle told reporters that robotic telepresence devices, like GCKO's which would act like nurses in people's homes, could reduce the $2.2 trillion, or 17 percent of the U.S. GDP, currently spent on health care every year.

If news is announced by Geckosystems, shares may continue to rise well beyond their 52-week highs to at least the mid-dollar level.

New reports that the company may partner with a yet to be named, NASDAQ listed company on mass production of their robots in the coming days. Several outside contract manufacturers have been identified and the company aims to produce up to 1,000 CareBots per month within four to six months.

On Friday, institutional type buyers moved in on millions of blocks of the company's shares sending GCKO's stock up 600% from $.006 to $.04.

Shares re-traced when trading commenced on Monday, but gave back only 39% of those big gains, mostly to profit taking in the early part of the day.

In Japan, home to one of the world's most rapidly aging populations, the Japanese government has granted over $100M in R&D funding to the cause and there are currently two robots prototypes which aim to help the elderly. Unfortunately, investors do not have an opportunity to cash in on the trend there.

One project called Riba, short for Robot for Interactive Body Assistance, was developed by the state-run Riken research center. The "nurse bot" lifts elderly patients from wheelchairs and beds.

Another robot, Taizo, is a humanoid bot that leads Japanese seniors in calisthenics. That robot was developed by Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), a state-run research center, and a privately held spinoff company called General Robotix.

Unfortunately, while many perceive the Japanese are world leaders in personal robot development, no viable commercial products have been developed in the field of eldercare personal companion robots.