The KT-X bipedal robot is the latest robot from the creative labs of KumoTek Robotics and Vstone Corporation. It’s capable of walking, running, somersaulting and standing up from a face-up or face-down lying position. It can even be programmed to pull itself up autonomously after it has fallen over. It will only cost you $1,199.99.

[Audiocubes]

Researchers at DARPA and Nikolai Rulkov of Information Systems Laboratories in San Diego, Ayers, are working on a way to integrate a jelly fish like brain into robotic defense vehicles that will sniff out mines and other hazardous materials autonomously. The drone vehicles of today have problems, like getting stuck due to ignorable differences in its programming with relation to the environment. They hope to create The RoboLamprey using a new electronic nervous systems (ENS) controller, to create autonomous, biometric underwater robots that emulate the animals’ nervous systems.

The boffins are interested in comparing tactile sensing in the soft, bendable tentacles of jellyfish with that of the rigid antennae of lobsters. Then integrating it all into the new ENS controllers to make the vehicle more like a dog that can go fetch a stick without telling it what to do first.

Something like this would be ideal for neutralizing mines in the surf zone (there are about 100 million active mines deployed worldwide, many end up in waterways due to erosion). Plus, there is a real need for bots that can be useful in streams and rivers.

So if you see a strange creature emerge from the water one day, it’s probably a mashup of robot sea creatures, not the creature from the Black Lagoon.

[Physorg]

Crab Fu’s latest robot project is the Flapper Fish bot. All the goodness of Crab Fu in a creepy fish form. It’s like when you catch a fish and it flaps around on land and you feel all guilty and creeped out, but times 10, because this is an unholy robot that could easily evolve and rip your face off. It flaps and flaps and sends shivers down your spine.

[Crabfu] VIA [Engadget]

Mechanized Rock’s Guitar Hero Bot is pretty awesome. It’s dubbed DeepNote and it actually watches the on-screen action with “eyes” that that analyze notes, which the bot then plays in real-time, rocking your world. With photodiodes aimed at the screen, it picks up changes in light within eight nanoseconds, then converts that info to “rock your fuckin socks off” to qoute Tenacious D.

[Mechanizedrock]

It wasn’t all that long ago that I was bitching about the complete lack of robot USB drives. Now we are getting more then we can handle. Philips has regaled us with its Active Crystal collection for awhile. This time around it’s got Swarovski crystals into the 2008 range. The 2GB Robot Naughty Raymond, in black, is already available, and to give him some companionship, here comes the USB Happy Laura. It’s set in white with sparkling crystals for the body and features for the face. The cute girlly bot even has ruby lips! Happy Laura has a 2GB capacity and will be available in Europe for 150€ or $238.

[Philips]