Bolted onto a two-wheeled trolley, with a tiny square head, pink shoulder pads and outsize metal claws, Hadaly-2 doesn't look much like a human being. But behavior is another story: Shine a light in this robot's eyes and it will squint, blink and turn away in a strikingly humanlike manner. Created at Tokyo's Waseda University, Hadaly-2 is among the latest manifestations of Japan's unique obsession with friendly humanoid robots.

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