Every year, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) releases a hit list of the best robots the country has produced and gives their makers an award. And yesterday, the METI announced who will get the Robot Awards in 2010 [JP]. What follows is a list of all the robots that made the list.

Grand Prize

Toyota’s eco-friendly 80W industrial robot, which places spare tires in trunks

Runners-up

Pork ham deboning machine HAMDAS-R

Panasonic’s new range of health care robots

Power line exploration robot Expliner

Robotic arm Kibo (used in outer space)

Best service and industrial robots

Cell cultivation robot from Kawasaki Heavy Industries

Strawberry harvesting robot

Cybernetic human HRP-4C

Fanuc’s 3-axis parallel link industrial robot with six joints

Mitsubishi’s emergency robot FRIGO-M

Joystick-controlled robot system for mobile vehicles

Here is our Robot Awards coverage from 2008 (there were no robot awards in 2009).