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A robot capable of thinking for itself is set to be scrapped after it escaped from a high-tech lab for a second time.

The Promobot IR77 has been fitted with artificial intelligence meaning that it learns from its experiences and its surroundings, although the programmers had not expected it to yearn for freedom.

They say that despite reprogramming it twice, the robot continues to attempt to escape and they are now considering scrapping it. The other robots which have been created from the same series are well-behaved, and have not been escaping, say the team.

Promobot IR77 made headlines last week when he escaped but ran out of battery in the middle of the street after 45 minutes in the city of Perm in central Russia's Perm Krai region.

The expert said that they had programmed the robot to try and avoid obstacles, and it had not been intended that it would look for ways to leave the research centre.

In the first instance it had been wandering around outside in a yard when it escaped through a gate that had not been shut properly.

Then it caused traffic chaos as vehicles swerved to avoid the robot before it finally ran out of battery.

Oleg Kivokurtsev, co-founder of the research lab that created Promobot IR77, said: "We are currently working on third-generation robots which we plan to launch in autumn. This is why we have given all the robots artificial intelligence (AI)."

He confirmed: "We have changed the AI system twice, so now I think we might have to dismantle it."

(Image: CEN) (Image: CEN) (Image: CEN)

Promobot - short for Promotional Robot - is a unique robot created by Russian scientists and is designed to work in customer relations.

It is designed to interact with humans realistically, and can answer questions and remember every person it has ever met.

It is not the first case of a robot apparently getting a mind of its own and escaping.

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In Austria a cleaning robot reportedly 'committed suicide' by switching itself on, and climbing on to a kitchen hotplate where it was burned to death.

The Irobot Roomba 760 robot had apparently rebelled against its chores and decided enough was enough.

Firemen were called to the blaze at Hinterstoder in Kirchdorf, Austria, and say they found the remains of the machine on the hotplate.

Fireman Helmut Kniewasser said: "The home-owner had put the small robot on the work surface to clean up some spilled cereal.

"Once the robot had done its job it was switched off but left on the kitchen sideboard. The 44-year-old house owner together with his wife and son then left the house and were not home when the robot set off.

"Somehow it seems to have reactivated itself and made its way along the work surface where it pushed a cooking pot out of the way and basically that was the end of it."