The Robots First Conquered Japan...

Why am I not surprised that Japan takes the prize for the highest industrial robot to manufacturing worker ratio? And furthermore, why am I not surprised to find this cool (yet admittedly trivial) fact in the web annals of IEEE Spectrum magazine? Fully 1/3 of industrial robots are in the automotive sector. Here's a graph breaking down the country ratios -- the sector breakdowns are included in the full story:

On an unrelated note, I'd hate to see what a Robocoaster defect looks like...