he met "Pepper": a so-called "companion robot" that can read human emotions. Yusuke Abe, a developer at SoftBank robotics, explained what Pepper could do, and why it was proving popular in Japan.

The lander's payload includes a rover from the United Arab Emirates, and a rather cute Japanese robot whose developers include major toymaker Tomy. It's called SORA-Q, and you could be forgiven ...

Inspired by the "Transformer" toys, the electric vehicle, called Earth-1, was designed by Kunio Okawara, famous in Japan as the artist behind the long-running popular robot anime 'Gundam'.