For historical purposes, a collection of links and other tidbits posted to Newsbytes in August.

That's right, a hefty $51,500 of US federal stimulus funding is going to buy... fursuits. (Characters include "Bobber the Water Safety Dog" and are intended to teach childeren about swimming safety.)

In a North Carolina experiment, monkeys have successfully learned how to manipulate a robtic arm via brain implant. According to an article at this site, this is the first time in history that equipment has ever been operated in a three-dimensional environment via pure mental control.

Shades of Jurassic Park: Disney's first walk-around, interactive animatronic character, Lucky the dinosaur, is now strolling around Disney's California Adventure, but will probably move to Disney's Animal Kingdom in the coming weeks. It kinda walks on two legs, just as the rumors promised, but actually pulls a cart for additional balance (and to hide the computers). Videos can be found on the link above.

More photos, and a video of Lucky blowing his nose here.

Read on for direct links to the movies...

The field of robotics has long taken cues from the natural world in the goal to create a versatile, able machine, and has found it exceedingly difficult to match the functionality which we take for granted in living organisms.

Two of the more recent ventures into the field of biomimetics - the mimicry of biologicals - include BigDog, a dane-sized canine-copy slated to be born in 18 months. If the design pans out, the motorcycle-powered creation should be able to run at over 15 MPH, and jump over three feet high.

Even further removed from the consumer-friendly world of the likes of Asimo is RoboLobster, a clawed creature complete with hard shell, eight legs, and antennae, purpose built to hunt for mines in shallow water.

Both are designed with the military in mind, and recieve funding from DARPA and the Navy. If you're seeking more "human" robots, a list of the most ambitious projects is here.

Artist David Hanson has created a robotic talking head which mimics human emotional response. Named "K-Bot", the head has 24 facial "muscles", making it the most expressive of its kind to date.

An earlier article, here, has photos as well.

Totally interesting article talking about a Japanese researcher's work with how humans can be more comfortable with androids, and what that means for furry. I'm psyched!

The great pyramid of Cheops is the largest pyramid in Egypt, but in spite of contant study by experts and daily visits by tourists, it still contains mystery. Some of that mystery will hopefully be cleared up when a small roving robot is sent up up a vent shaft tonight to probe behind the door of an unexplored chamber. The event will be carried on live television in some places, hosted by the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Dr. Zahi Hawass.

This article in The Sun gives a glimpse into the cold harsh future of elderly care. Robot kitties in Japan are programmed to recieve and speak voice and text messages, and engage Gramma in clever word games. Sorta takes the guilt off of leaving them in a nursing home. We hope.

In the search for the perfect security robot in Japan, it's a dog eat dinosaur world.

The robotic pet has finally gotten... fuzzy. Necoro is the first robotic pet (a cat) with fur. Designed to resemble a real cat, it has moving ears, tail, eyes, mouth and limbs. It makes cat sounds. It has a cat like look. Essentially, it looks like someone brought a taxidermied cat to life. Oh well. Maybe model 2 will be an improvement in the realism department.

Aibo the robot dog now has a feline companion. Japan's Omron Corp., maker of Aibo, has added NeCoRo, a robotic cat, to their lineup. According to Omron officials, it can't walk, but "it does what is most important: purring contentedly when stroked, and otherwise giving cuddly emotional feedback to its owner with feline sounds and movements." There will be 5000 of the felines in the initial production run, which will cost 185,000 yen (about US$1530) and will only be available in Japan.

Click here for the story from Reuters/Yahoo!.

According to this story at wired, a prototype robot capable of hunting down over 100 slugs an hour and using their rotting bodies to generate electricity is being developed by engineers at the University of West England's Intelligent Autonomous Systems Laboratory.

This thing is a lot like the Klingon Engineered Tribble predator in he old Star Trek animated series. Soon to come a competeing French design "Escargot Bot!" ;)

AIBO, the first 'robopet', underwent a major facelift, and price drop, in hopes of catching a larger market. The cute robot is little more than a pedigree puppy in cost now (Down from $2500 US to only $850) and has a bunch of silly gadgets to amuse the technogeek-animal lover, such as a motion capture camera and a 'voicebox' which can be programmed to sing little tunes. In Japan, they will interact with a new TV show starring the robotic dogs.

For those with money to burn, the site is Aibo.com

At the recent RoboCup, Sony's AIBOs played soccer. Sort of a more civilized version of the Robot Wars program on TV. It's worth going to MSNBC just to see the pictures of the dogs splayed on the playing field. Anthropomorphics in its most literal form!