29/02/2008

Scientists at the University of Plymouth are hoping to teach their baby robot to speak.

Called iCub, the one-metre high humanoid baby robot will be worked on by robotics experts and language development specialists who research how parents teach children to speak.

The so-called baby robot, when completed in the next four years, is hoped to be the first of its kind in the world - a thinking, speaking and acting robot that can complete tasks such as stacking wooden blocks.

The University of Plymouth beat proposals from 31 others to win a £4.7 million grant for the Italk - Integration and Transfer of Action and Language Knowledge in Robots - project.