iCub is a robot platform; the intent is to explore the development of human-style cognition. Exploration techniques are an essential feature of human development, as anyone who raised a child knows.
(iCub crawling robot baby video)
iCub is defintely a step forward from earlier robot babies; take a look at M3-neoni:
SF fans recall the robot child portrayed by Haley Joel Osment in Steven Spielberg's AI (from Brian Aldiss' excellent 1969 short story Super-Toys Last All Summer Long). I don't think he crawled, though.
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Nano-Chainmail 2D Mechanically Interlocked Polymer
'Nemourlon armor of reasonable weight resists penetration by most fragments and any bullet that is not both reasonably heavy and fairly high-velocity.'
Humans Love Helping Other Species
'At the ringside opposite them a table had been removed to make room for a large transparent plastic capsule on wheels.'