A robot baby made by a Japanese lab has been declared 'horrifying' - despite just wanting a hug.
Osaka University's Asada lab built the baby robot, which is among the most advanced ever made.
Its upper body alone contains 20 pneumatic actuators to help it move about in a (relatively) realistic fashion. It has about 12 degrees of freedom to look around and can move its spin, head and arms.
The robot will be used to study how attachment forms between mothers and their children - which is why realism is so important.
Unfortunately the robot ('Affetto') still lacks hands and legs, and only the face is covered in a urethane skin. So they still have some way to go.
Worse, the robot also falls unpleasantly into the 'uncanny valley', the name given to the 'creepiness' you feel when seeing something almost, but not quite, human.
However, the project will continue until at least 2016 and is fully funded, meaning we can look forward to a lot more (hopefully less horrifying) robots in future.
Take a look at the machine in the video above.