What you are about to see is real footage of a real event. From the 3rd annual Austrian Hexapod Championships, watch robots dance it off in extreme competition, surprisingly, without a single tongue-in-cheek reference to the dance known as the robot. If one of these entrants looks familiar, that's because he is. The...uhh...one in the hat does a routine to Mambo No. 5 that can be seen in full here. Otherwise, enjoy the freaky dance montage and the nightmares that will surely accompany it. [via MAKE]

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This six-legged, pimp-headed robot dancing to Lou Bega's "Mambo No. 5" is all sorts of freaky. It's been on YouTube for a few weeks, but I thought it was perfect for Halloween, as evidenced by that pins-and-needles feeling I get watching it. Remember that scene in Toy Story when the maltreated toys go after Buzz and Woody? Why the hell would someone want to replicate toys so scary? It's enough to make me go running and screaming like a girl—wait, I totally forgot, I am a girl. Maybe you guys should show your lady friends this clip, so you can magically morph into Prince Charmings to protect and console them. [Geekologie]

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I've seen quite a few R/C cars in my day, but I've never seen one that actually transforms the way Optimus Prime can. The RCRC (or Remote Controlled Robotic Car) offers four modes for your entertainment: robot, truck, sports car, and "hip-hop dance." Yes, you just read that correctly. And I definitely hope I don't meet whoever was controlling that RCRC out on the road someday. The RCRC also comes with a rechargeable battery, but unfortunately (or is that fortunately?) not Megan Fox. [Technabob]

Sometimes we forget that diggers are more than just utilitarian machines. Inside their steel body beats a heart filled with passion...and lust. Behold the grace and beauty of the 'Transports Exceptionnels' performed by one 5-ton digging machine and a crazy guy from a French dance group. It just goes to show you—when it comes to art, there is no such thing as "too stupid." [Reuters via Geekologie]

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Red Bull has teamed up with Canadian design company Cocoon to develop a functional DJ table that represents "Red Bull's sponsorship of an actual nightlife experience." The table features a backlit logo panel, ventilation for laptops and slots for vinyl records and large CD booklets. As you will see in the image after the break, it also features a curious cutout on the undercarriage where you feed your cords. I am shocked and appalled that a wholesome product like Red Bull could be the catalyst for such immaturity.

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Keepon has been robotically dancing his way into our souls for quite a while, though until now he's been pretty much a hand-crafted one-off. But now his creators have started a company—BeatBots—to manufacture clones of the little guy. Keepon Pro will be the first product, weighing in with a hefty price tag of about $US30,000, and it'll be aimed at research institutions for the purposes of investigating human-robot interactions. Fret not at that price, though: the company plans to simplify the mechanism and release a version with a cheaper price tag. And if you're wondering what kind of human-robot interactions Keepon can do, click below to see a vid of him in action.

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Incredible: what more's there to say? Incredible. Based on Judson Laipply's "Evolution of Dance Video," but way better. We get to see a robot doing Vanilla Ice's dance moves better than he did. A robot doing the "walk like an Egyptian" dance. The upcoming MechRC robot has been under development for three years and has 17 independently-controlled servos, and built-in audio. And if this video is anything to go by, when it goes on sale in the fall it should make quite a dent in the miniature robot world. [MechRC via RoboSavvy. —Thanks Limor]

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Making robots even more hardcore, British roboticists have designed machines that will only dance to punk rock music. Standing 2 metres tall, padded in leather and decked in various punk scene insignias, the pogoing robots wait until they hear the familiar strains of anti-establishment rock before they start dancing. Is it just me, or do these things sound like they'd be a minor threat in the mosh pit?

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As the clubbers in Britain's first-ever eco-nightclub rave their little hearts out in the coming months, they'll be doing their part to conserve energy. Well, their feet will be, because the energy that powers 60% of the club is going to be generated by the springy dance floor beneath them. The springs in the floor are connected to power generating blocks made of piezoelectric crystals. It's similar to what Enviu, a Netherlands-based research group, proposed for Holland-based clubs, but with a different accent. Like that system, the British club's crystals produce current when subjected to pressure created by the gyrating bodies above. But millionaire founder Andrew Charalambous didn't stop with spring-filled floors--he's taking the entire green thing very seriously.

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Move over WALL-E, take a hike Rolly, Automated Music Personality—from Hasbro's Tiger Electronics and Sega Toys—has come to claim the throne of dancing robot music speakers once and for all. Its Segway-esque legs dance to the beat of any MP3 player via 3.5mm jack, and its 49 LEDs stay shining like some kind of cybernetic Rhinestone Cowboy. The A.M.P. has touch-sensitive DJ scratching pads and 62 sound effects built in so you can spice up your songs with a little "wiki-wiki", and an IR sensor so he will follow you (and his remote) from room to room and keep the music playing in your direction. Too bad the A.M.P. costs 500-f'ing-dollars, which won't even buy you a Li-ion battery, since you either plug the knee-high bot into the wall (huh?) or fill it full of D cells. What's this thing made of? SOLID GOLD? It sure dances like it. Bring the price down to US$99, and I will buy it. Available in October. [A.M.P., Gearlog]

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