Christchurch psychologists are bringing science fiction to life through studying the relationship between humans and robots.

University of Canterbury researchers are studying Baxter, a revolutionary robot that can interact with people independently.

Doctor Kumar Yogeeswaran will be using Baxter to further his research in socio-robotics, which has already seen him examine how a robot's appearance affects how people behave towards them.

The goal of such research is to better understand how the future use of robots will impact our thoughts, feelings and behaviour toward technology and each other.