#Hang up your apron: meet the robot chef that can cook dinner

A robot which can imitate a top chef at work has been unveiled - and could available to buy in just two years

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The robot consists of two dexterous arms and hands, made by The Shadow Robot Company, which are mounted above a kitchen surface but retract from view when not in use.

Inventor Mark Oleynik, a computer scientist, says that the limbs, which have 24 joints and 129 sensors, are able to faithfully reproduce the movements of a human hand , so that the robot can cook food as well as a human chef.

Hard at work: the robot chef in action (REUTERS)

At a demonstration at a technology fair in Germany yesterday, the robotic chef prepared a bowl of crab bisque from a recipe created by Tim Anderson, winner of the BBC s Masterchef competition in 2011. Mr Anderson was originally recorded making the dish wearing motion sensor gloves, and the robot was then programmed to imitate his movements down to the tiniest detail.

The robot has currently only been programmed to create the bisque, but Mr Oleynik aims to have a consumer version of the robot available by 2017, which will come with a digital library with over 2000 dishes and be priced at around £10,000.

The Moley Robotics website claims that later editions will also feature built-in motion capture cameras so home cooks can 3D record themselves preparing their favourite dishes and upload them to the digital recipe library .

Household robotics are a growing market, with around 2.7m products such as robotic lawnmowers and hoovers sold in 2013, according to the International Federation of Robotics a 35 per cent increase on the year before.

Robotics have been identified by the Government as one of "eight great technologies" which could help build the British economy.

Other companies are also looking at the application of robots in the kitchen. IBM s supercomputer Watson, which famously defeated two human grand champions to win the US quiz show Jeopardy, was recently programmed to create a series of recipes . using unusual combinations that humans would probably not consider trying but work together on a chemical level. A cookbook of the recipes, which features such dishes as apple and pork kebab cooked with mushrooms, strawberries and curry, and ale made with veal stock is published today.