The past two weeks have been pretty crazy here in Japan. We had the CEATEC (our coverage here CEATEC 2008), then the Tokyo Game Show, more news will come later today and Monday (our coverage here Tokyo Game Show 2008). Today was the start of ROBO JAPAN 2008!

Let’s begin with Wakamaru. This little yellow autonomous robot can be controlled either by voice commands, or a suit that reproduces all user arm movements. (more photos in the gallery below)

Here’s the MANOI robot and his sister from Kyosho, that trys to mimic the way fashion models walks. 
 Also from Kyosho is the Evolta robot powered by Panasonic batteries. It’s only goal, perpetual rope climbing. (more photos in the gallery below.)

Asimo, Honda’s robot, was at the event and showed us a couple of new tricks, soccer play and dancing. (more photos in the gallery below, and one of our HD videos of the latest Asimo press conference: See more of the Honda Asimo robot demo! )

Bandai introduced this year’s coming best seller, the NetTansorWeb. It’s small robot that will be sold in Japan at the end of this year and controlled either by a PC with internet access, or on the go from a mobile phone. Through a small web-camera the user can see LIVE from the robots perspective. (more photo in the gallery below)

Takara Tomy and Sanyo’s excellent i-Sobot was also displayed with a lot of new colors. (more photos in the gallery below, also see our HD video of the i-Sobot dancing and moving around: i-SOBOT, TOMY’s super tiny robot! VIDEO inside!)

Futaba Robotics displayed their usual robots along with a very cute fembot lookalike. (More photo in the gallery below.)

A Flying Robot… I’m sorry I don’t remember who produced this thing, but as you can see it walks and flies… It reminds me this Terminator flying robot with two propeller on its side. (More photos in the gallery below.)

Once again I apologize for not knowing which company this system came from. This robotic arm is controlled via a glove worn by the user. For improved control, goggles can worn that provide the user with a view of the arm’s visual perspective. (more Photo in the Gallery below)

Crawling over the floor at ROBO JAPAN 2008 we encountered two animal lookalikes. One automatically puts itself in defense mode by forming a sphere like shape, while the other Scorpion model attacks if in danger. (More photo in the gallery below.)

Do you remember SegaToy’s creepy cat robot? Guess what, here’s its dog counterpart! We thought the cat was plain stupid when we played with it, but the dog is WAY cooler. It provides a lot of fun for those who hate walking dogs but desperately needs a companion at home… Why not get a girl/boyfriend… who are we to judge? (More photo in the gallery below.)

There were also several funky walking robots. One resembled a spider, another a square shaped magic carpet. There were also several walking assist robots/systems that help disabled people get around more freely. (More photos in the gallery below.)

It’s not a real robot show without a robot fight! Tomorrow (Sunday) will be the final day of this event, if you’re crazy about robot fights and around Yokohama… drop in and enjoy the show! (more photos in the gallery below.)

Enjoy our 90+ picture gallery!

81% Yes

6% Nope

13% Don’t care unless Fembot

(78 votes)