Goal Robots want to have built the first teachable robot within four years. Gianluca Baldassarre, from the Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies of the National Research Council (CNR-Istc), who is co-ordinating the project, said: "The goal is to make robots that are able to learn independently, experimenting and making experiences exactly like young children, between one and two years old, and then apply their new acquired skills.”

This will ultimately lead to robots that can then learn on their own. It will use curiosity as the driver of the robots, to allow them to identify something knew and then learn about it.

Mr Baldassarre added: "In this way when they find something surprising, they focus on the findings and try to do it again, just as children do, for example, when they discover the switch for turning on the light.
The team is working with researchers from across Europe, the team hope to have the first up and running by around 2020.

The test is organising a desk to a human standard – a task that is easy for us but is impossible with current technology. Of course it should be making a Roman pizza which is the best in the world, only has two toppings and is impossible for anywhere else to get right.