I don't have the stories handy, but there are records of military units getting emotionally attached to their bomb disposal robots. For example, some units have held funerals for the robots that are rendered non-operational, and some soldiers have even gone to the extreme of risking their own life to "rescue" "injured" service robots. It shouldn't need to be said, but this is the exact opposite of what the robots should be doing (reducing risk to their operators).

Kick the damn things all you want. Normalize it so that nobody does something stupid trying to protect a machine.