A British university is developing a robot that can bond like a human child and display emotion.

The £1.68m project, a partnership of robotic experts, psychologists and neuroscientists from around the world, aims to produce machines to engage emotionally with humans.

Like children, they will form attachments with their human handlers.

They will also display "emotional resonance" - an ability to mimic people's emotions to enhance positive bonding.

The Feelix Growing Project robots, being built at the University of Hertfordshire, will be able to see, hear, touch and judge the distance between themselves and humans.

They will recognise human body language signals, and respond to emotional states such as anger, fear and happiness.

One of the first machines - a box on wheels - is already showing imprinted behaviour, The Engineer magazine reported. Like a human baby, it has become attached to its "mother" and follows her around.

Dr Lola Canamero, who is co-ordinating the project, said: "The goal is to build machines that can develop social, functional skills to interact with humans.

"We are involving many researchers, including robotics experts and even animal psychologists. If robots have to be integrated with humans then they should be able to develop social and emotional skills.

"This will help them grow with a particular person and become better adapted to them. They could match their owner's emotional profile by being either expressive or not, depending on their handler's characteristics."

Working with Dr Canamero are experts from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, the Communications Research Laboratory in Japan, and six European universities.

Together they aim to produce a range of robot prototypes.

None will resemble science fiction robots such as Marvin, the over-emotional "paranoid android" from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio play and movie.

The machines developed in Hertfordshire will be simple demonstration platforms designed to try out different technologies. However, some will be given artificial heads capable of producing facial expressions