Die, Robot! Japanese drunk gets into fight with android assistant in mobile phone shop

In what may be the first reported case of robot rage, a customer at a mobile phone store in Japan has taken out his frustrations on android employee.

Kiichi Ishikawa, from the city of Yokosuka. south-west of Tokyo, was allegedly drunk when he entered the SoftBank Corp shop on Sunday morning, Kyodo News reported.

Local police were called when 60-year-old Ishikawa flew into a rage at the "attitude" of a human member of staff. Instead of attacking the object of his anger, however, Ishikawa allegedly kicked and damaged one of the company's Pepper humanoid robots.

Described as a robot with a heart, SoftBank started selling the devices in June, primarily as human companions. The company says Pepper is able to recognise emotions in humans and is programmed to respond with its own emotions.

Over time, the robot's developers claim, Pepper will establish its own personality.

SoftBank is releasing 1,000 of the androids a month for a fee of HK$12,889 plus monthly service fees.