First Robot Teacher Started Teaching

The world's first robot teacher started teaching at a Japanese primary school. It was her first day. It is called Saya.


The pupils expressed different feelings of robot. One pupil described Saya as "pretty" another said that she was a bit "scary but fun" while another said that he "couldn't believe he was getting taught by a robot".


First, she called the name of each child before asking the pupils to carry out tasks from a text book for the pilot project in Kudan Primary School, next to Tokyo University.


Professor Hiroshi Kobayashi, of Tokyo's University of Science said, "They don't see her as a humanoid but human. They were very happy and surprised when she was able to call their names. They treated Saya like a real teacher."


Saya's steel skull is covered with fine latex cast from a female university student. Underneath, a system of 18 motors works like muscles to give her facial expressions including surprise, fear, disgust, anger, happiness and sadness. The robot is able to talk in any language, move her head and respond to questions.


Each teacher robot has a price tag up to £25,000. "The aim is to develop something that is useful to society and humans in daily life. The robot teacher is the perfect application for a robot," added Professor Kobayashi.