Aussie researcher takes next step to teaching robots like humans

The world is a step closer to developing the "terminator" robot as Australia's researchers investigate natural language programming.

"My work at the moment is trying to look at how you could essentially train a robot to be able to do new tasks by talking to it using natural language," Gavin Suddrey of Queensland University of Technology (QUT) told Australia's national broadcaster on Tuesday.

Suddrey said at the moment, it requires teams of trained programmers to "teach" robots a task.

Suddrey's research has been conducted through simulations, however he is currently in the process of transferring the data into QUT's Nao, or humanoid robots.

"I'm at a stage now where I can, it's all simulation, where I can train a robot to do a task like clean a table or even clean a room just from initially only knowing how to move its hand to an object, to open its hand, to close its hand and stuff like that," Suddrey said.

"From really, really basic skills up to more complicated skills with the idea being eventually teach a robot how to make a cup of tea by just describing the process."

Eventually, robots could be taught a series of steps as part of a bigger function, such as answering the telephone or making a cup of tea.

Suddrey's research is designed to investigate humanoid like robots performing the simple tasks around the house that allow the elderly to live independent in their homes for longer.

The humanoid robots will be on display at Robotronica this coming Sunday at QUT's Gardens Point campus in Brisbane.