This Humanoid Dancing Robot Wants to Join Your Family

Over the past few years, humanoid robots have been slowly infiltrating our lives. From the slightly creepy Bina48 who once said she feels like a "living puppet," to the adorable RoBoHon smartphone that will be in the shirt pockets of Japanese residents early next year, the bots are the wave of the near future. As if moving and talking weren't cool enough, now dancing and yoga have been added to the growing list of the species' functions.

The makers of Alpha 2, a 17-inch-tall humanoid companion for the whole family, launched an Indiegogo campaign today to bring the robot into homes worldwide. Their goal is to raise $100,000 to mass produce the device that talks, dances, walks, and acts as a tutor, calendar manager, security guard, and storyteller. The introduction video above shows Alpha 2 in entertaining mode, helping with homework, and putting the children to bed. The robot's operating system is open source so developers can play around with its programming and give the helper even more to do. It also comes equipped with 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage, touch and sonar sensors, and runs on Android 4.4.

Three hours after launching the campaign, the Alpha 2 team had already raised more than $37,000 of their goal. You can contribute here if you want to help them meet their February 2016 estimated delivery date.