Japanese scientists unveil baby robot

A Tokyo University team has developed a robot designed to simulate the development and behaviour of a nine-month-old baby in an effort to better understand how humans grow.

The robot was created by the team led by Yasuo Kuniyoshi, a professor at the Tokyo University. Professor Kuniyoshi plans to study the data acquired from the sensors and cameras attached to the robot to find out how a baby reacts to the environment and the process by which it develops curiosity about new objects.

In the picture, a student of Japan's University of Tokyo, plays with baby robot Noby which reacts to an inflatable comic book character Anpanman, while the screens behind them show what Noby is seeing and hearing. (AP Photo)

The project is also a part of attempts to make more "human-like" robots. Professor Kuniyoshi's team chose a nine-month-old human baby as Noby's model, as this is the time of rapid development of movement and cognition functions.

In the picture Japan University student Kosuke Nakamura shows tactile sensors covering the body of baby robot Noby during its demonstration at the university laboratory in Tokyo Tuesday, June 15, 2010. (AP Photo)

Noby has two cameras for "seeing" and two microphones for "listening to" the external world. It also possesses 600 tactile sensors attached on its body to feel and weighs 7.9-kg.

It is flexible and its joints can move like those of a human baby. Prof. Minoru Asada of Osaka University hopes it will help people understand human nature and development better. (AP Photo)

Baby robot Noby starts to fall asleep by sensing its own increased body temperature, using tactile sensors attached on its body during its demonstration. (AP Photo)

Noby is one of the humanoid robots created under a broader project headed by Minoru Asada, robotics engineering professor at Osaka University, and funded by the government-backed Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). (AP Photo)