TOKYO, March 5 (UPI) -- Students at a Tokyo primary school will soon be learning from the first robot teacher, a Japanese science professor says.

University of Tokyo Professor Hiroshi Kobayashi has created a robot capable of teaching human students while also expressing a limited range of emotions, including anger in case of unruly children, The Daily Telegraph said Thursday.


The robot is named Saya and has been under development for 15 years leading up to the scheduled school trial.

The robot's 18 facial motors are what give it the ability to mimic certain human emotions while the humanoid's other inner workings allow it to speak multiple languages and set tasks, the newspaper said.

Saya's planned appearance at the primary school will mark the most recent attempt by Japan to integrate robotics into everyday life.

The Telegraph said the Japanese government is hopeful that by 2015, each home in Japan will be equipped with a robot. To meet this end, the government has invested $35 million in the technological field.