Will we ever want to have sex with robots?

In 2007, the British chess player and artificial intelligence expert David Levy said in his book, Love and Sex with Robots, we would be having sex with robots in five years - and be capable of falling in love with them within 40 years.His argument is based on improvements in robotic engineering and computer programming - and extrapolating from the income generated by the porn industry each year.Female robot from Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis Magnificent but malevolent - Maria the robot from Fritz Lang's sci-fi classic Metropolis

Such robots would be a "Brisbane hosts robot display" for mankind, he argued.As for Roxxxy, she weighs in at 60lb is 5ft 7in high and comes with a variety of hair colours, moveable limbs and 'lifelike' skin.She is the brainchild of electrical engineer and computer scientist Douglas Hines, the founder of TC Systems and True Companion, who formerly worked in the artificial intelligence lab at AT&T Bell Laboratories.He says the sex robot developed from his firm's line of healthcare robots, which were designed to look after elderly or infirm patients."Our skill-set is based on commercial and military robotics and what we did is we looked for an opportunity in the marketplace to apply that technology.

"One very obvious market is healthcare - but there's a less-known which is gaining more and more momentum which is the sex industry."'Exciting time'Mr Hines says his aim in developing his robot's artificial intelligence engine, was to go beyond a simple sex aid and to provide companionship."The life experience with a partner goes beyond that - and that's really what we've gone for."However, no matter how well-programmed a robot may be, it is still a machine, and he agrees a plastic and metal humanoid is not capable of replacing the real thing - yet.