Our editors have compiled a list of the “Top 5 Strangest (or Coolest) Japanese Robots” for your enjoyment. Which ones are your favorites? (Thanks, Zipped)

5. Mighty Morphin Rayered-X

Rayered-X (pronounced Layered-X) is an innovative robot with four extremeties – each consisting of seven servos – that give it 28 degrees of freedom. It sports a custom aluminum frame, is 50 cm tall and weighs around 8 pounds.

At first it looks like a short tower, then becomes a carousel, then a walking spider, then into a tall biped battle robot. It can even transform an arm into a new leg and keep on fighting

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4. Trumpet Playing Robot

Toyota recently showcased their new line of trumpet playing robots — designed to entertain and “function as assistants” for the elderly — at the Toyota Hall in Japan.

3. Robot Scientist Clone

Hiroshi Ishiguro — “a senior researcher at ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories in Japan” — has created a robot clone of himself.

Created using casts of his body, his robot doppelganger sits and fidgets, looks around and taps his toe just like his creator. Ishiguro actually created this robot to, no joke, fill in for him in the classroom at Osaka University, where he’s a professor

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2. RI-MAN

RI-MAN was designed to look after the growing number of elderly in Japan. It’s the world’s first robot that was specifically engineered to lift and carry humans. The 5-foot, 220 pound RI-MAN includes a variety of built-in sensors, which allow it to see, hear, touch, and smell.

Still in the initial testing phase, RI-MAN is currently practicing with dolls that weigh about 12 kg (26 lbs). Researchers plan to increase the weight of the practice dolls over time, with the aim of achieving the ability to lift human adults in 5 years. Researchers will continue working to upgrade RI-MAN’s sensors and data processing skills to improve adaptability

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1. Repliee Q1Expo Female Android

Japanese scientists have developed a life-like female android called “Repliee Q1Expo”. The Q1Expo has “42 actuators in her upper body, powered by a nearby air compressor, programmed to allow her to move like a human.”

She can flutter her eyelids and move her hands like a human. She even appears to breathe. Repliee Q1 has skin made from a silicon substance has 11 piezoelectric sensors embedded in it to detect if someone is touching her

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