Yeah, I noted back in January that Honda and Toyota were both in the robot race. Haven't seen the commercials, though I'd like to (no tv). Which brings me to... I wonder if there's like a tv ad blog that will keep me up to date on all the latest advertising.

They are just developing the next generation of auto workers. Robots don't form unions (yet).

Oooooh. Duplicate post. We are getting big now. Watch out slashdot!

I think they're really just trying to take over the International Robot Sumo Tournament.

I'm curious how the autonomous robots know where the boundries of the circle are. Do they rely on sensors to keep them from cross a black line, or do they keep a position on a "map" in their memory based on where they were originally positioned in the circle and where they have been since they started moving?

From the Northwest Robot Sumo Tournament rules page:
"The outer edge of the dohyo, the border line, is indicated as a white circular ring with a width of 5 cm (2 in.) and an outside diameter of 154 cm (60-5/8 in.). "On the border" is defined as being within the interior of the dohyo."

There are remote-controlled and autonomous robots. Obviously, the RC robots don't need their own way to detect edges.. as for the autonomous robots, I guess they know when they fall off the ring.