A Chinese farmer who has devoted his life to making his own robots is set to see his fame go international - and says he wants to being his creation to the UK.

49-year-old farmer Wu Yulu, from the outskirts of Beijing, has already achieved fame in China for his home-brewed automata, which he makes from scrap materials including wire and screws.

Wu says that since he began building robots in 1986, he has invented over 47 robots which can walk, pour tea, offer smokers a light, give massages and even paint pictures.

Already a star in the Chinese media, he's set to gain further renown when he appears at this year's Shanghai World Expo, which runs from May to October.

Wu - who was only educated to primary school level - admits that his robot-building obsession has been hard on his family. His wife threatened to divorce him after he spent all his money financing the robots, and on one occasion, he managed to burn the family house down.

But he's looking forward to the extra attention the Expo will bring to his robots - which he refers to as his 'children.

'I am a little famous now,' Wu sasid. 'I have been doing this for over than twenty years but I feel that each year more people discover my inventions.

'At the Expo I can receive everyone's recognition. I am representative of all farmers, this is something very glorious.'

Wu began his inventing career making devices to make his farming more efficient, such as changing his bicycle into a seeding machine. But that quickly blossomed into the creation of automata to carry out numerous small tasks - his latest project being a robot that can give massages.

'I want to make more useful robots to help humans, I've also designed a robot which can help chop the meat when cooking,' he said.

And he hopes that Britain will be able to see his robots for themselves in the future. 'It is possible I am able to visit the UK soon,' Wu said, adding that no date has been fixed, but it was in the pipeline.