YOUNG people from the Bristol area have been giving their views to experts about the role they think robots will play in the future.

The teenagers met a team from the Bristol Robotics Laboratory for a conference at Explore At Bristol on the Harbourside.

The Robotic Visions event was one of five being held across the country. Others are in Newcastle, Aberystwyth, Glasgow and Oxford. The findings will be passed on to Government bodies and scientific institutions.

Project co-ordinator Dr Claire Rocks leads a team called Walking with Robots, which aims to delight audiences with the potential of robotics research while encouraging them to consider the technical challenges and ethical implications of that research.

She has teamed up with University of the West of England science communicator Dr Karen Bultitude and the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, which is a joint project involving Bristol University and the University of the West of England.

The lab's Professor Alan Winfield said: "Robots have such an enormous impact on our lives already and the speed at which the research is developing has important repercussions for our futures. This makes it critical that we identify strong ethical principles for future investigations so we are seeking the views of the very people whose lives will be affected by research developments."

The conference included 26 students aged 14 to 16 from John Cabot Academy, Henbury School, Oasis Academy Bristol and Kings of Wessex School in Cheddar.

The youngsters looked at issues such as robots heading into space and robot family and friends.