日本筑波大学研制出仿真婴儿机器人“代太郎”，为日本机器人家族增添新成员。研究人员希望在人口危机的背景下，“代太郎”能让日本年轻人体验育儿乐趣。

    Meet Yotaro, a Japanese robot programmed to be as fickle as a real baby. The cuddly baby-bot looks unearthly with a pair of luminous blue eyes and oversized cheeks, but engineering students are hoping it will teach young people the pleasures of parenting as Japan faces a demographic crisis.

    “Yotaro is a robot with which you can experience physical contact just like with a real baby and reproduce the same feelings,” said Hiroki Kunimura of Tsukuba University’s robotics and behavioral sciences lab north of Tokyo.

    Yotaro’s face, made of soft translucent silicon with a rosy hue, is backlit by a projector connected to a computer to simulate crying, sneezing, sleeping and smiling, while a speaker can let out bursts of baby giggles. The baby changes its facial expressions and moves its arms and legs when different parts of its face and body are touched. 

    While the baby robot has a balloon-sized head and exaggerated facial features, its inventors nonetheless hope Yotaro “could help young parents to learn about raising a baby,” said research team member Masatada Muramoto.