'This is awful': robot can keep children occupied for hours without supervision

Humanoid robots were out of fashion at this year's RoboBusiness, the annual exhibition in San Jose, California, that pegs itself as "the most important robotics event in the world". Make your robot look and sound too much like C3P0, explained Ty Jaegerson of Savioke, and people's "expectations of intelligence go up". The exception to the non-anthropomorphic, however, was the iPal, a child-size robot designed to take on distinctly adult responsibilities. The 3ft tall iPal has wide eyes, working fingers, pastel trimming, and a touchscreen tablet on its chest. It can sing, dance, and play rock paper scissors.