From a design perspective, this is a useful trick to play on human feeling, and the robots of the future will likely be specifically programmed to make tiny errors and require our help.

In an expansion of its initial deal, Cartoon Network will air “Transformers: Robots in Disguise” on the company’s channels in Europe, Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East this year.

A graduate student in the famed MIT Media Lab has created a robot that uses circular OLED displays as eyes, enabling new ways to research human-robot social behavior. The new bot, called TOFU due ...