By now, you've probably heard about the hitchhiking robot that was mugged by merciless humans in Philadelphia.

Now, in a move that may result in fewer robot beatings, Japanese robotics engineers have introduced a robot that is programmed to run away from human bullies.

A Robovie-II robot, tasked with engaging customers in an Osaka, Japan shopping mall, soon found itself being accosted by hoards of children, impeding its progresss and even kicking the defenseless robot.

In response, teams from the ATR Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories, Osaka University, Ryukoku University and Tokai University designed an abuse-evading algorithm to help it escape the roving bands of tiny people, according to a report from IEEE Spectrum.

After studying pedestrian behavior at the mall, the researchers found that the probability of abuse increased when more children were in the robot's presence.

The robot is now programmed to move away from tiny humans and their curious abuse and move toward people over 4 feet 6 inches (presumably, an adult and/or parent).

Some of the psychology behind why children abuse robots (yes, really) is detailed in a research paper (PDF) titled "Why Do Children Abuse Robots?" Some of the paper's findings are pretty startling, including these passages:

some children frequently obstructed the robot’s path regardless of the robot’s utterance requesting for the children to stop the obstruction, covered up the robot’s eyes with their hands, and beat the robot’s head ... we found that the majority of [the children] did not regard the robot as just a machine, but a human-like entity.

Yikes.

We now know that the human who ended hitchBOT's short life was an adult-sized male but, nevertheless, this child bully-escaping algorithm could help save a robot in the future.

Remember, robots have long memories, so tell your kids to be nice to our shiny, metal friends, and maybe you'll get a pass when the robot apocalypse arrives.