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Robots may often be depicted as lowly mechanical servants in sci-fi films, but experts believe they could become our friends and even provide enjoyable company.

Japanese scientists are trying to create eerily human-like machines with a 'presence', while others think that looks don't matter.

The race is on to build bots that can adeptly read human emotions and respond appropriately - with an 'affordable' plastic robotic companion launching in February.  

Hiroshi Ishiguro, a renowned robot designer at Osaka University in western Japan has created Geminoid F – a realistic life-size female robot, which cost $110,000 (£68,671) to make.

She wears human clothes, has realistic-looking hair and eyelashes and moves as naturally as technology currently allows.

Dr Ishiguro is known for his detailed creations and is fascinated by 'the uncanny valley,' which is the sense of dread caused by a robot that comes close to human likeness but fails to fully achieve it, perhaps through jerky movement, or lack of eye contact.

He believes it is a matter of time before the problem is eliminated, with the help of better actuators to make movements smoother, for example.

The roboticist told PopSci: 'My goal is not just to create a humanoid but to understand the feeling of a presence. What is that? I want to understand what is a human, and what is a human likeness.'

And he thinks when this presence, or sonzai-kan is created, they can be used to relieve loneliness and become our friends. 

Dr Ishiguro believes that such robots could be used as a medium through which distant friends and family could communicate, or even as an extension of the self.

Hiroshi Ishiguro, a renowned robot designer at Osaka University in western Japan has created Geminoid F – a realistic life-size female robot, which costs $110,000 (pictured). He thinks that robots with a human-like presence could relieve loneliness because humans will be able to build relationships with them

Many scientists are exploring whether robots could help look after isolated people. 

The potential is great for intelligent machines as the number of elderly requiring care is expected to soar in rapidly-aging Japan in coming years and companion bots, such as Sony's Aibo pet dog have already been accepted in homes.

Robotics are already used to check on the elderly and monitor their health and safety, but they might also play a role in reducing feelings of loneliness and isolation. 

Recently, scientists have been creating increasingly sociable machines that interact in a more human way.

They argue that these sociable droids make it easier for humans to work with machines and that a mechanical companion could improve a human's quality of life.

Hitoshi Matsubara, a roboticist at the Future University Hakodate, concedes that human company is preferable to a robot, but a robotic companion could be helpful and easy.

'We understand robots are machines. But we can create harmony between the two, robot and human, he said. 

Meet Pepper the friendly robot designed to live with humans

His view is shared by others such as Minoru Asada, a professor of Adaptive Machine Systems at Osaka University, who has created a baby-faced robot called Affetto.

He is interested in how people use nonverbal forms of communication to form a relationship with each other and thinks that understanding it more would lead to more 'natural' human-robot relations.

Professor Asada has developed a new brain-scanning technique that lets him track the emotional bonds that form between a mother and child in real-time.

It involves placing both participants in a machine and showing them each other's facial expressions on a computer screen. He hopes to learn whether the pair's brainwaves become synchronised.

'These kinds of findings will be very helpful for us in designing a robot that can synchronise or create artificial empathy,' he said, explaining that such information could help a robot decide which actions to copy and how it should react.

If this happens, these robots may make excellent teachers or companions that can effectively show empathy.

While empathetic realistic droids may be years away, engineers have created cruder plastic humanoids that are about to enter homes and act as useful companions.

Pepper has flashing lights and wheels, but asks humans questions about their feelings, such as whether they are stressed, to act like a concerned friend.

Launched by Japan's biggest phone mobile carrier, softbank, it is intended to be a member of the family and the first 'affordable' humanoid, costing 198,000 yen (£1,130 or $1,900) when it goes on sale in February.

Pepper is designed to read nonverbal social cues by scanning human faces and listening for strain in voices. This data is run through an algorithm to calculate a person's mental state and it learns to please them. 

Academics have partnered with Google in a bid to bring human-like robots closer to reality. Google developed a system, that helps computers distinguish between individual objects (pictured) and aims to improve visual recognition systems using deep learning, as well as help machines understand humans more easily

By spending time with a human and learning what they like, the robot can make someone feel as if they are accepted and understood, its makers claim, even if the machine doesn't resemble a human.

Matthias Scheutz, of Tufts University Human-Robot Interaction Laboratory in Massachusetts, says a human resemblance is unimportant and people can develop feelings about their cars and vacuum cleaner, for example.

Experts say they have seen cases where people want to give their robotic hoover a break from work, or ask for repairs to bomb disposal bots that have saved their lives, because they feel emotionally attached to them.

While this might make robots natural companions for some people, Sherry Turkle, director of MIT's Initiative on Technology and the Self, warns that they merely provide an illusion of a relationship, which could lead to some vulnerable people becoming more depressed or isolated, due to failed interactions.