For thousands of years we humans have dreamed about making machines that can take on our

toil and make our lives easier. And now for the first time in history we're seeing such devices play active roles in our daily lives.

I'm Marie Goy and 12 years ago I left my home and parents in Japan to come and live in Singapore. In this program for the BBC World Service, I'll be visiting both countries to hear how robots are rapidly becoming a part of daily life.

Here in Singapore, I've been hearing more and more about robots appearing in classrooms like the one my four-year-old daughter

Mikku is attending and back in Japan where my parents still live robots are

increasingly being used to take care of the elderly.

I want to know why these two places are so far ahead in the field of robotics,

whether robots can really teach our children and care for our elders and what all

this means for the future and for us as human beings.

Good morning children. In some Singapore in preschools robots are getting involved in the teaching and this has got me both curious. In some Singapore in preschools robots are getting involved in the teaching and this has got me both curious and a little

nervous so I thought I should check it out for myself by joining a lesson here at

PCF Sparkle Tots, run by Principal Nora Heider, where the children are learning from a small car-like robot called Kibo.

So the children are six years old and they're setting up this robot called

Kibo and they're about to start their lessons.

Kibo will speed and shape upon yelling a clap.

The main machine of Kibo is like a little car with two wheels and there are many blocks. Each of them has different

instruction. So the teacher gives the instruction, quite a wrong instruction, of what they want the robot to do.

But if people senses that the room is dark, turn on the blue light and move at work.

So the children put together blocks, more than 10 of them following each instruction and let Kivo scan the instruction.

How do you remember every single instruction?

Kiva would begin forward if something is near the blue light is on. The instruction that keyboard was given was if it hears a clap, it turns around or it shakes,

and if it's dark, then it changes color to red and red and red.

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