THE Royal family meet a lot of different people on visits across the country -- but it's not often that they meet robots.

When the Duke of Cambridge visited Oxford today, he met hi-tech robots Bamm-Bamm and Betty, as well as getting to grips with a robotic arm.

Lars Kunze of the Oxford Robotics Institute explained that robotic assistant Bamm-Bamm was able to identify different objects and pick them up on command.

The Toyota powered intelligent machine was able to identify a plant pot on command and hand it to the Duke of Cambridge, after some prompting.

Bamm-Bamm spent a short while trying to identify the plant before grabbing hold of it.

When it did, it warned HRH to make sure he had a good hold of the shrub before it let go.

"Thank you," said the heir to the throne as Bamm-Bamm handed over the present.

Prince William has been visiting Oxford to open Keble College's new building today. 

Find out how his visit has been going at our liveblog

Oxford Mail:

Betty the Robot

The H B Allen centre is Keble's new centre for postgraduate studies.

It is a centre for groundbreaking research into robotics and virtual reality, and is also supporting tech and science start ups.