A brand new robot has been unveiled in Dublin that could become the arms and legs for the Cork teenager Joanne O'Riordan. She is one of only seven people in the world born with Total Amelia - which means she has no limbs.

She issued a challenge in April 2012 for someone to design her a robot to help her do every day things.

A prototype called 'Robbie' the robot has been designed by a team of engineers at Trinity College in Dublin, costing around €50,000.

Following an approach to the O'Riordan family and various meetings with Joanne, the research group embarked on an intensive three month development period to build a prototype robot which could carry out some of the actions Joanne had requested.

"On the face of it, building a robot to pick up dropped items sounds like a straight forward idea - we take it for granted that we can easily do this ourselves. However, there are huge challenges when trying to this with a robot in a domestic environment. Primate evolution spanning 65 million years has got us where we are now whereas we had 3 months to build something" said Conor McGinn, Chief Engineer and design lead with the research team.

Robbie picks up a pen using his arm

The robot's head is made from 3D printed plastic, with an enclosed 8-inch LCD screen (the face). The body consists of aluminium, carbon fibre and plastic, while 'inside' are batteries, computers, motors, gearboxes, sensors and communication hardware that act as the 'brain', 'muscles' and 'nervous system' of the robot.

When 'Robbie' is in its default kneeling position it can interact easily with Joanne, as her head is approximately the same height as the robot's head.

Assistant Professor at the School of Engineering is Kevin Kelly. He says Robbie will prove that what Joanne needs can be done.