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Wired calls it, “Beautiful … enlightening … a must-read for bot-obsessed humanoids,” while AP reckons it’s “a fascinating history.” We, on the other hand, thought we’d let Tim Hornyak, author of the glossy ‘bot book, Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots, give us a personal view of his latest publication after the jump.

Japan’s latest cleaning robot not only has the dust-busting muscle to put Roomba to shame but it also includes a video camera, Wi-Fi and can humbly apologize to anyone whose feet it gets under.

Japanese firm RayTron isn’t one we’ve heard much about but that could change if its domestic robot, cutely named Chapit, gets to take over the nation’s home entertainments as planned.

Downtown Tokyo played host last weekend to dozens of the most advanced Japanese automata at the Robot & Science Forum in the Machine and Industry Memorial Hall, which, thankfully, is also known as TEPIA.

If you thought maintaining a personal website was as easy as it gets these days, then NEC’s new robotic blogging assistant might make you reconsider.

With the proliferation of real-world robots in Japan recently, it’s unsurprising to find some that are clearly designed to replace salary-drawing human staff on reasonably routine jobs. One such is the Ubiko T2-4, a building-patrol robot with a special line in sniffing smoke, with or without fire.

This Google ad just popped up on my website and piqued my curiosity. After all, who wouldn’t want to watch a robot surgeon go to work on some poor guy’s perineum?

This is fantastic — I’ve lost count of the times I’ve been forced to watch Honda’s idiot robot Asimo trundling around ‘bot shows and press events, so it’s wonderful to see him get his comeuppance at last.

As of this week, Japanese kit robot fans are drooling over a pretty sophisticated piece of DIY kit in the shape of Kondo Robot’s KHR-1HV.

Alsok’s newest job-stealing robot is on the prowl for those banes of everyone’s lives — jumped-up commercial security guards.

Matsushita usually sticks to simple things like its Panasonic-branded MP3 players or hairdryers, so it’s something of a surprise to see the company’s hard-core arm, Matsushita Electric Works, come up with a blood-loving robot for medical use.

Real human or synthetic simulacrum?

The tail end of last month saw the opening of Japan’s biggest-ever exhibition of old-time robots here in Tokyo. Automata, as ‘bots used to be known in the 19th century, are basically wind-up figures that perform the same task repeatedly, usually to the accompaniment of cheesy music.

Murata Boy is one pretty serious serious biker — just look at him burn round the corners as he showed off at Ceatec this morning. All he needs now is a beard and a paunch.

Murata Boy, the cycling robot from Japan’s Murata Manufacturing, has made it up a hill.

When Japan’s first robot museum opens in October, it will also feature the world’s first specialized robot gift shop. Whatever that is.

Following last week’s announcement that Japan is pouring yet more money into robot research, we now get scenes of traditionally dressed bots busting out some funky moves in Tokyo.

All right — we admit it’s a quiet news day. To tide you over (until September at this rate), here’s a video of everyone’s favorite two-legged attack robot with guns skating and squeaking its hulking 3m frame into action.

Toyota has just opened a showroom in Tokyo filled with various attention-seeking metal men, most of whom we’re totally sick of bumping into on the streets of the Megalopolis here. There’s even one who blows his own trumpet.

GreenScape, a housewares and design shop in Tokyo’s trendy Nakameguro neighborhood, has come out with a line of nifty robot-inspired jewelry and accessories.

Japan’s NEDO, part of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, is throwing a pile of cash at technology that it hopes will enable the country to build better bots over the next decade. Perhaps creating legions of semi-intelligent and compliant drones is exactly the solution to Japan’s desperately serious aging problem.

Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (ASIT) has just unleashed the latest in a long line of bipedal robots to come out of the R&D labs of this country. The HRP-2m Choromet is a 35cm tall, 1.5kg Gundam lookalike that is driven by Linux.

Mmm — recreating the pain and discomfort of a nasal endoscopy with the help of a plastic man; how ingenious.

Kyosho is selling its 1/5th scale MANOI AT01 “athelete humanoid” robot in kit form. But you’d better act quickly — there are only 50 available, and entry for a drawing to win one closes July 31.

Japanese company Akazawa is selling an 18-jointed, 23cm robot named PLEN, which can be operated via Bluetooth and several au mobile phones.

Computer scientists have moved beyond figuring out how to beat computerized chess systems and are now tackling automated Texas Hold’Em programs.

Japan’s first bot museum is set to open this October in a refurbished auto showroom in Nagoya, of all places.

Japan’s elite AIST research labs have just launched a huge initiative to develop next-gen robots for the factory, home, hospital and (perhaps behind the scenes) battlefield.

A troupe of break-dancing microbots has been kicking out the jams in Seoul this week.

Robots are having a field day in Germany. While one group has just completed a World Cup championship in Bremen another is diligently patrolling Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, one of 12 venues hosting the human World Cup.

Germany, it appears, can’t get enough soccer these days. With one World Cup tournament already under way, another is scheduled to begin Wednesday with robots instead of human beings kicking away to score goals.

Japan’s industry ministry is throwing together a battle plan that should help safeguard the country against death-dealing androids. The new scheme will severely limit the bots’ ability to wreak havoc on the country’s weak and defenseless.

Does Japan love robots or what? No less an authority than the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is establishing a Robot of the Year award to reward firms that put bots into practical use.

PaPeRo now has a digital doppelganger in the form of an avatar that appears on the device of your choice and interacts with you. It’ll also help you consolidate the functions of your various gadgets.

Japanese technology is often described as futuristic, and now here’s proof.

The Internet Renaissance robot, or ITR to his pals, is the latest in a long line of connected “fun” ’ bots that can get online, grab content and deliver it to its fleshy masters. Most recently, of course, we saw the now-defunct AIBO learn how to read RSS feeds.

Man sees moose. Man shoots moose. Moose is robot. Man is bad.

Digital World has dug up a video of a real-life Transformer robot.

We’d be remiss if we ignored PC Watch’s great coverage of ROBO-ONE, which took place last week in Odaiba, Tokyo.