Robo Revolution

Read Lucy Craft's thoughts about reporting on the latest robot technology. Then post your comments. Image of Lucy Craft.

Everything is Go, Astro Boy...

posted by Lucy Craft

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... + More

A list of websites you can visit to learn more about the future of robots in Japan and elsewhere. Blue robot.

Honda Motor

Japan Robot Association (JARA)

OC Robotics

The University of Tokyo

An NBR Series - Premieres May 5, 2009

Robots, both of the practical and the fictional sort, have long fascinated the human population. But, nowhere have robots captured the imagination of a society as they have in Japan. The Japanese are robot-wild, and their love for these advanced machines has kept them on the cutting-edge of robot technology.

In the 3-part series "Robo Revolution," reporter Lucy Craft explores Japan's latest efforts to built smarter robots that could change the way the world works.