The red and white robot, designed to run errands in offices, was unable to communicate with its handler's laptop as it smashed into the office furniture as onlookers gasped.
Still, the 1.3m tall, 29-pound EMIEW 2 was able to show how it can scoot on two wheels, get on its knees to move on four wheels and even lift its foot about an inch to step over thresholds and bumps.
Explaining why Hitachi's Emiew used wheels instead of feet, Toshihiko Horiuchi, from Hitachi's Mechanical Engineering Research Laboratory, said: "We aimed to create a robot that could live and co-exist with people."
"We want to make the robots useful for people ... If the robots moved slower than people, users would be frustrated." Emiew - Excellent Mobility and Interactive Existence as Workmate - can move at 6km/h (3.7 miles per hour) on its "wheel feet", which resemble the bottom half of a Segway scooter.
With sensors on the head, waist, and near the wheels, Pal and Chum demonstrated how they could react to commands.
"I want to be able to walk about in places like Shinjuku and Shibuya [shopping districts] in the future without bumping into people and cars," Pal told reporters.
Hitachi said Pal and Chum, which have a vocabulary of about 100 words, could be "trained" for practical office and factory use in as little as five to six years.
