IRONING - that most hated of household chores - is on the verge of being banished to the dustbin of history, thanks to researchers at a North-East university.

A robot maid which can fly through piles of clothes without complaining, getting bored, or burning a hole through your favourite shirt, is being devised by academics at Newcastle University.

They plan to break down the last bastion of domestic drudgery by developing the world's first automatic ironing machine.

A team of robotics, mechanical engineering and textile experts from the university and King's College, in London, have received funding and hope to have a working robot by 2006.

The machine, small enough to be stored under the stairs, would fold as well as iron the clothes. All the user would have to do is put them in a drawer.

Team leader Dr Jian Dai, of King's College's Department of Mechanical Engineering, said: ''It would be a robot built specifically to deal with this task.''

''The robot needs to know what type of garment it is ironing, so it will have to include some kind of sensor that allows it to recognise what it is dealing with and how to treat it."

Coded tags similar to the washing instructions already sewn into clothes could be attached to garments by manufacturers.

A report on the robot ironing project appeared in the magazine, The Engineer.

Patricia Schofield, who tests household appliances for Good Housekeeping magazine, said: "What a fantastic idea. Doing the ironing is the chore everyone likes least. It's just so boring. You can't do anything much else at the same time, except watching television, and then you risk burning a hole.

"Everyone hates ironing. I can't think how on earth they're going to build this machine, but it will be very well received."