Sega Corp. subsidiary Sega Toys will begin selling in May a humanoid robot that is able to walk, dance and "communicate" with people through facial expressions, body language and messages that appear on monitors.

The device, to be named BOT, will be the first humanoid toy robot to be marketed commercially, the company said.

BOT will be able to imitate a variety of emotions -- including joy, despair, anger and happiness -- through facial expressions and body movements.

The robot will also be able to display on a monitor messages that have been sent to the owner over a mobile phone, it said.

Two people who own robots will be able to exchange messages by sending them via their robots, it said. The toy will be released worldwide.

Rival company Takara Co. will also release a toy robot in the autumn, which will be able to move based on instructions received from a mobile phone.

In April, Sega began marketing a dog-like robot called Poo-chi, which sold more than 10 million units in Japan and 100 million abroad by Dec. 31, it added.

The release of the robot comes after Honda Motor Co. and Sony Corp. in November unveiled robots that can walk, turn around, dance, speak and recognize objects in response to spoken commands from humans.

Honda's robot is called Asimo while Sony's -- which can identify a particular ball based on color and kick it -- is called the SDR-3X.