Reader Mike A. continues his robot tipping ways with an email requesting that I find another picture of this robot hoedown (because Yahoo pictures and stories quickly disappear). Clearly, I cannot, but the search did lead me to what would seem to be the best place in the entire world to be right now, Expo2005, going on through September in Aichi, Japan. Why is this first world's expo of the 21st century the best place in the world? First off, don't be fooled by the word expo, this is a world's fair, and world's fairs are always cool (well, unless they're in Knoxville, maybe). More importantly, this expo's theme is Nature's Wisdom, symbolized by two furry green forest monsters, and if there are two things which are tops in my book they are nature and Japanese mascots. And, naturally, the place is swarming with robots. Between Mike’s initial tip and the tips for further research found while browsing the Expo2005 site, I’ve also tracked down information on a wide variety of new robots which are quickly following in ASIMO’s mechanical footsteps. The first of these is QRIO (as in qriously lame) the smaller robots pictured in the link Mike sent in. The lameness I speak of results from what I view as two major design flaws. First, I don't really like the preoccupation these robotmakers have with creating humanoid robots which walk upright on two legs. The ASIMO site talked about how he was designed to do everything a human could do, like climb stairs, and thus they try to claim that he has to walk on two legs. Cannot a dog or a spider also traverse stairways and many other unflat terrains? Just make a nice little canister-vacuum sized robot on wheels with telescoping legs that it could use if it needed to climb something or just make itself taller, most of the literautre about these walking robots concerns the compicated systems they have to retain their balance or pick themselves back up after they fall down, and I see no good reason for it. The worse design flaw of QRIO, though, is that they've given him human-style eyeballs, with a non-functional white area around the pupils and everything - at least ASIMO has a nice Apollo-era astronaut look to him. If they are trying to make him cuter, they do not succeed. Success in the field of cute has been admirably achieved by what may be my new favorite robot, however: meet PaPeRo. "It checks your email, tunes the TV to your favorite channel, and dances with your children. This egg-shaped robot named PaPeRo knows your favorite football team and searches the Internet for the day's lineups and scores when you get home. It will also develop a personality depending on how you treat it. Speak to it nicely and stroke its head sensors and PaPeRo will learn to love you." Those links refer to the 2003 PaPeRo model, but he has recently been upgraded to PaPeRo2005, which looks the same but has a faster processor, more microphones (in order to hear and find you better), recognizes hand gestures and "unspecified objects" and has an improved emotional engine. Readers should be advised that my birthday is on May 28th, and that shipping from Japan may take awhile. The rest of the robot pack includes Emiew, who just debuted a few weeks ago and is billed as the world's fastest robot (because Hitachi engineers have heeded my advice and opted for wheels instead of legs); MILO, which does not try to look humanoid at all (and is "designed to look over tables and inside baby cribs") but unfortunately doesn't look all that good either, sporting a weird banana-like curved midsection; and Promet, another walking humanoid, this time with a Power Ranger/Transformer look about him. Hmm, I thought I'd also found a robot that snuggles with senile old people, but now I can't find those links... well, these ought to keep you busy learning (and shopping) for the time being while I go try to hunt them down again (you know what would be helpful on this mission? A robot).