All Japanese train stations play a little tune to warn passengers when the doors are about to close. But out of the hundreds of commuter stations in Tokyo, only Takadanobaba, a busy neighborhood favored by university students in western Tokyo, has the privilege of playing the theme song from "Astro Boy," that cartoon boy-robot hero of the 1960s. Takadanobaba is home for Tezuka Productions, founded by the late and lionized father of animation, Osamu Tezuka. The beret-wearing Tezuka created Astro Boy and in the process inspired a generation of roboticists and helped cement Japan's abiding love affair with robots. As I write this blog, at my son's desk, I am distracted by his collection of manga comics, especially a pink and purple paperback - about a cute robotic cat named Doraemon.

To live in Japan is to be immersed in both fantasy, and robots (and arguably robot design requires a dose of the former as much as technical knowledge of the latter.) The toughest headache I had in producing NBR's "Robo Revolution" series was an embarrassment of riches - almost every day, without fail, brings word of still another funky android, another bizarre wrinkle, another new application. Today, for instance, we learn that students may opt to become officially certified robo-geeks: In June, the robot promotion association will begin offering a "robo-exam," a 90-minute multiple-choice test quizzing students on their grasp of robot history, electrical circuitry, math, and physics. Test-takers, rejoice!

Japan parts way with other industrialized nations not only in its unbridled passion for robots, but in its belief - true to the pacifist leanings of Tezuka - that 'bots are meant to be used strictly for benign ends. (And, as you will see during this series when I try to shake hands with a jumbo-robot, I'm personally relieved for that!) In the US, robot development is generously funded (to the envy of Japanese scientists) by the defense establishment. Japan's no-war constitution rules out robots for military use; and in any event, roboticists themselves have no interest in creating killing machines. Late last year, at a press conference featuring the "HAL" robotic assisted walking machine created to help disabled patients walk, the inventor unequivocally said the device would be sold for civilian use only.

I hope you enjoy this series (which begins May 5th) as much as I enjoyed producing it.