A £200 robot Spyke will be available this Christmas.

The robot is manufactured by Meccano which is now owned by a Japanese manufacturer.

The foot high robot helps around the house, checks whether the children are doing their homework or if you have left the oven on.

It can play music, make telephone calls over the internet and has a camera for a head.

And when it is running out of power it recharges its batteries.

Spyke is controlled through a wireless network so people with wireless broadband can access Spyke while at work and see what's going on at home.