He can breathe, blink, shake, urinate, and even quickly become a she.
But that sort of reality in a robot comes with a $138,000 price tag.
Built to simulate a human being, SimMan 3G - so named because he is wireless - is helping to train medical professionals at Waikato hospital's Clinical Skills and Simulation Centre.
Designed to simulate a range of medical situations, SimMan 3G comes with interchangeable genitalia, quickly becoming a she.
Yesterday, SimMan 3G, one of five such robots in New Zealand, put registrars Dr Conrad Engelbrecht and Dr Vicki Freeman through their paces, with anaesthetist technician Grant Hemmingsen also working on the robot.
Specialist anaesthetist Jeff Hoskins and centre director Rob Sinclair looked on from an ante-room.
From there Dr Hoskins could, remotely, control the robot's actions using specialist software on his notebook computer as the trio worked on the robot.
Previous SimMan models were not wireless, so manoeuvrability was limited to the lengths of a cable.
In the two simulations the Waikato Times watched Dr Hoskins simulated routine procedures which went wrong involving the administration of anaesthetics and drugs, to see how the trio coped.
Both their medical knowledge and their ability to work as a team were put to the test.
So complex is SimMan 3G that he can recognise what drugs are being administered and their quantities, and react accordingly.
"The simulation puts you in situations that you have in real life. You still feel like it's 100 per cent real," Dr Freeman said.
Dr Engelbrecht said: "It gives us the opportunity to work with all problems in a safe environment where there can be no harm done to patients. I think we did all right."
Dr Hoskins said people's performance in the simulations was confidential, and did not count towards their qualifications.
The centre was also trialling a new piece of Studiocode software yesterday, which could record the simulation and SimMan 3G's vital readings, while allowing observers to bookmark certain parts of the simulation.
The bookmarking allows the likes of Dr Hoskins to skip back to a certain point in the procedure during debriefing.
Half of the SimMan3G $138,000 bill was paid by the Waikato District Health Board, and the balance by the Auckland University anaesthetics department, Braemar Hospital, local anaesthetists and the Souter Trust.
