Plymouth, Hertfordshire - Baby robot to be taught to speak

A consortium of researchers has beaten competition from 31 other groups to win a £4.7 million grant to teach a "baby" robot to speak. Under the four-year ITALK (Integration and Transfer of Action and Language Knowledge in Robots) project, which began this week, a baby humanoid robot called "iCub" has been delivered to the University of Plymouth, which is leading the group, in conjunction with researchers from the University of Hertfordshire. ITALK aims to teach the robot to speak by employing the same methods used by humans. The university's robotics experts will work with specialists in language development who have researched the ways parents teach their children to speak.