There are about 570K industrial robots in the world, with 60% in Japan and 8% in the US. (The US is 2nd in the world, but Japan installs more robots each year than the US has installed in 32 years.) Growth has been 16% and 8% per year, but orders jumped 40% in the first half of 1993 -- mainly for the auto industry and its suppliers. J. Engleberger of Transitions Research Corp. says that only one US company, ADEPT, now competes with Japanese robot manufacturers -- and 40% of its sales are outside the US -- but US industry is diversifying into food and pharmaceutical packaging. Hazardous manufacturing and weapons dismantling may be good application areas. Deburring, grinding, and polishing operations have the 3 Ds: dirty, dangerous, and demanding. Space exploration offers vast potential but poor return. European ESPRIT and EUREKA projects focus on space, nuclear, and undersea applications. Medical robotics has moved to Japan and Europe. R&D funding in the US goes mainly for basic research, much of it benefiting foreign students. MITI is being asked to facilitate non-Japanese applied research, licensing agreements, and sales in Japan. [David K. Kahaner (kahaner@cs.titech.ac.jp), 12/10/93. Steve Goldstein.]

Husqvarna (Sweden) will soon be marketing a Grazing Sheep lawn mower. The solar powered robot can keep 20K square feet of lawn clipped. It's programmable, but mainly just changes direction when it encounters a buried wire at the edge of the lawn. [Lars Olofsson (larso@wmute.trillium.se), alt.cyberpunk.tech, 1/15/94. Bill Park.]

The new Mac CD "Issac Asimov's The Ultimate Robot" is "shovelware" with no obvious audience, according to Mike Landberg (cdrommike@aol.com). You can watch movie clips of robots, view snapshots and and video clips of the late author, read 42 stories and essays (in a small screen window), or browse articles on robotic topics such as inverse kinematics and exponential acceleration. $55-$79 from Byron Preiss Multimedia, (800) 426-9400. [SJM, 1/2/94.]

Linda Jacobson's "Garage Virtual Reality" explores the grassroots movement of low-end, hack-your-own VR. Sams/Prentice Hall, 420 pp. with HD diskette of DOS software, $29.95; ISBN #0-672-30270-5. [lindaj@well.sf.ca.us, sci.virtual-worlds, 12/29/94. Anandeep Pannu.]

The sci.nanotech newsgroup now has a FAQ/overview by J. Storrs Hall, Ralph Merkle, and Eric Drexler. Archives of sci.nanotech can be FTP'd from planchet.rutgers.edu. For additional literature contact The Foresight Institute, P.O. Box 61058, Palo Alto, CA 94306. [J.Storrs Hall (nanotech@planchet.rutgers.edu), sci.nanotech, 12/24/93. David Joslin.]