Robots Battle for Championship

Robots battled for the title of world champion Saturday at Tokyo's 12th Robo-One Grand Championship match, where amateur-built bipeds competed to stay on their feet. With companies giving up on consumer robotics projects due to high costs, "the future of robotics depends on amateurs," the chairman of the Robo-One committee told Reuters.

Toy companies have picked up some of the slack with simplified robotics projects, but the designer of the former Robo-One champ says they can't keep up with amateur development. "You cannot win the tournament without the help of a major innovation every six months," he said. "You don't see that kind of speed anywhere else." (More robots stories.)