Roboy, the robotic 'boy' set to help humans with everyday tasks

Scientists have revealed an ambitious plan to create a humanoid helper robot with artificial muscles - in just nine months, the Daily Mail reports.

Engineers at the University of Zurich's Artificial Intelligence Lab hope that 1.2m tall Roboy, designed to look like a child, will eventually help the sick and elderly by acting as a mechanical helper.

To help the robot move, the team are developing radical artificial 'tendons.

The team has already signed up 15 project partners and over 40 engineers, and hope to fund the project using a combination of commercial partners and crowd funding.

'Financing the project through sponsorship and crowd funding enables us to implement an extremely ambitious project in an academic environment", said Professor Rolf Pfeifer, who is leading the project.

The team hope Roboy will become a blueprint for 'service robots' that work alongside humans.