Can a 'robotherapist' deliver as good a massage as a human?

Imagine having a live-in masseur available to pummel away at your aching back at the end of each day; one who never gets tired, or suggests that maybe it is time for you to return the favour. Enter the Backhug: a robotic therapist equipped with 26 mechanical fingers to scan the unique curvature of your spine and press away stiffness in the joints of your back, neck and shoulders, with nothing more than a whirr and occasional squeak of complaint. Exhausted by the effort of repeatedly pressing his own thumbs into their back joints to relieve their pain, Lee did what many employees fantasise about, and designed a robotic clone to partly replace himself. When I was invited to try one of these "robotherapists", I jumped at the chance. Despite taking regular exercise, I suffer from many of the above complaints, and was intrigued to see what difference six weeks of daily massage could make.