Robots in classroom

Nov 9 2007

In brief...

Child-LIKE robot "playmates" are being developed for nursery schools after researchers found that toddlers learn to regard them as human.

It is hoped the robots will help teachers by demonstrating social skills and codes of behaviour.

Scientists studied groups of children aged between 10 months and two years as they reacted to the Japanese-built prototypeQRIO which possesses an "impressive array" of mechanical and computational skills, according to the researchers.