[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] May a robot light Chanukah candles?

Technion just released this video for the last day of Chanukah:

Another way to light the Hanukkah candlesHope you had a great Hanukkah. Computer Science students in Prof. Ron Kimmel's lab taught their robot to light the Hanukkah candles this year.
Posted by Technion Live - Technion ~ Israel Institute of Technology on Sunday, December 13, 2015

In this case, the robot is set up to mimic the actions of the human, and is not acting on its own, to light the candles.

So would this be halachically acceptable? (Assuming that the human and the robot light the candles in the correct order, that is!)

Is the robot like a utensil - for example, like a long stick to reach the candles but still considered under the control of the human, or are its actions too far removed from the human's movements to qualify?

If a robot was built that could perform the actions based on specific or general human instruction, would the answer be different?

Bot Mitzvah from Futurama

Robots are a fascinating issue in Jewish law. There was some controversy last year when a rabbi seemed to suggest to CNN and JTA  that a robot that could pass a Turing test could potentially be counted in a minyan [prayer quorum]  (he later clarified that he was saying no such thing.)

I recently read an emotional  science fiction story about a Jewish scientist/widower who built a humanoid robot to replace his dying daughter by electronically replicating her brain. In the end, the replacement (who looked and acted exactly like a human) lit Shabbat candles.

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Posted By Elder of Ziyon to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 12/14/2015 10:00:00 AM