everybody is quite happy to get involved with this. so there's quite a big push at the moment for human robot interaction, so caregiving robots in hospitals, and care homes, so maybe for patients who are lonely and don't have anybody to come and visit them. some of the money for the team comes from a big company whose future will rely on this kind of technology. certainly with the high level skills, we find difficult in recruiting. there's a shortage, there is high demand because lots of industries are now_ going for this level of robotics. so being engaged in these competitions allows us to keep in touch with the recruitment pipeline _ and some of the excellent research that is going on. a bit of talent spotting? definitely. robots are the future, but programming them to be as good as humans at some tasks is still many years away. richard westcott, bbc news, cranfield in bedfordshire.