This is the BBC.

In this edition of the bottom line, we'll be talking about robots in the workplace and how humans need to respond.

Hello and welcome to the programme. You might remember the old movie and recent TV series Westworld.

Robots deployed in the entertainment industry turned bad, a dystopian picture of technology

turning against us. Well, as it happens, many people have anxiety about robots at the moment.

Not so much the problem of them taking up arms and trying to kill us, more the issue of them

killing our jobs. But of course, forget robots. Technology has been killing and creating jobs

forever and most of us can appreciate its benefits. So we wanted to have a level-headed discussion

of artificial intelligence and robots in the workplace today, and I have three guests with me

who can bust some myths and preconceptions about robots,

but who will also challenge the way we think about how we work.

And first up is Thrasantha Nana Yakara, a roboticist from Imperial College in London.

And Thrasantha, just tell us what you're working on at the moment.

Yes, I am leading a laboratory called Laboratory for Morphological Computation,

which is basically working on how to design soft robots

that are different from very rigid robots you see in the factories.

These soft robots are meant to be working with humans in shared environments, like in households

or in future factories where robots will be co-workers of humans.

Co-workers. But what is a soft robot?

As a soft robot doesn't necessarily have to be soft like a pillow.

It can be rigid, but it can control its stiffness, basically.

So you can weave the human body as a soft robot.

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