An international team of scientists and academics plans to publish a “code of ethics” for machines as robots become smarter, faster, stronger and ubiquitous.

They have identified key areas that include ensuring human control of robots, preventing illegal use, protecting data acquired by robots, and establishing clear identification and traceability of the machines.

“Security, safety and sex are the big concerns,” said Henrik Christensen, a member of the European Robotics Research Network ethics group. How far should robots be allowed to influence people’s lives? How can accidents be avoided? Can deliberate harm be prevented? And what happens if robots turn out to be sexy?

The greatest danger, however, is likely to lie with robots that are able to learn from their “experiences.” As systems develop, robots are likely to have much more sophisticated self-learning mechanisms built into them and it may become impossible to predict exactly how they will behave.

“My guess is that we’ll have conscious machines before 2020,” said Ian Pearson, futurologist-in-residence at BT. “If we put that in a robot, it’s an android. That is an enormous ethical change.”