"I love science fiction films," says Sharkey, "they're like fairytales." The problem is that they give people the wrong impression about what robots can and cannot do, especially in a military environment. "When I tell people the truth about robots, it's like telling a child that Santa Claus doesn't exist."

One of the core dangers of autonomous weaponry in conflict situations is that "military robots do not discriminate between adversaries and innocent civilians," comments Sharkey, who will discuss the ethics of military robots in a conference workshop on Thursday.

Sharkey's work includes research into the use of robotic childcare and care for the elderly, especially into the human and developmental tradeoffs these entail. Some of his upcoming work involves the examination of robots deployed for policing and surveillance.

Sharkey's sum-up of the new movie after previewing the trailer: "It looks great, but I still like the first Terminator film the best."