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Japanese researchers have created a baby robot designed to simulate the behavior and development of a real infant in an effort to better understand how humans grow up.

Named Noby, short for "nine-month-old baby", it has 600 sensors across its body to feel touch, cameras and microphones fitted into its head for vision and hearing, and is hooked up to a powerful computer.

Noby is 71 centimetres (28 inches) tall and weighs 7.9 kilograms (17 pounds), similar to a nine-month-old human. It has soft urethane skin, is flexible and has joints that move like those of a human baby.

Researchers are using it to test theories of human development, said Tokyo University professor Yasuo Kuniyoshi, who led development of Noby with the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.