Creating a new generation of robots that can see, react, learn and adapt to the world around them with minimal or no human control will be the main thrust of a new robotics centre which opens in Edinburgh tomorrow.

Intended groundbreaking work will include developing "intelligent" or "sensitised" robots that can make autonomous decisions themselves and operate in disaster zones where it would be dangerous for human beings - such as the site of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe in Japan in 2011.

Other examples of research to be undertaken by the new centre include developing robots that can carry out underwater surveys of offshore pipelines without being joined to the surface by umbilical cables and giving replacement prosthetic hands - such as those made by the Scottish firm Touch Bionics - a sense of touch.

It is estimated that, by 2025, such advanced robotic and autonomous systems in non-military sectors will be worth around £70 billion a year to the global economy.

Sethu Vijayakumar, Professor of Robotics at Edinburgh University and co-director of the new Edinburgh Centre for Robotics, said the facility will become a hub for robotics in Scotland and help to spawn commercial spin-offs across a wide range of high-growth sectors from the oil and gas industry to renewable energy, healthcare, assisted living, transport, manufacturing, nuclear, digital media and education. The new centre brings together academics from Edinburgh University's informatics and engineering departments with Heriot-Watt University's department of mathematical and computer sciences and department of engineering and physical sciences.

Both universities have international reputations for their robotics research. Heriot-Watt is well known for its work on subsea robots, which are extensively used in the offshore oil and gas industry. Edinburgh University enjoys a worldwide reputation for its research on prosthetics, humanoid robots and machine-learning.

Vijayakumar said that, by bringing together 50 researchers from 16 research groups together with more than 30 industrial companies, the multi-disciplinary centre will combine the strengths of both universities' research expertise to create a whole that is larger than the sum of its parts.

Last year, robotics was selected by the UK Government as one of the eight most important sectors that will underpin the nation's industrial strategy. As part of that push the new centre will, said Vijayakumar, provide the robotics sector with highly skilled researchers whose work will help to launch new products, create jobs and boost economic growth.

The new centre has benefited from £5.7 million in funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Funding Council which will allow a dozen students per year to embark on doctoral studies with final degrees awarded jointly by both universities.

Further support for the centre, worth £9m, will come from commercial sponsors such as Balfour Beatty, BP, Schlumberger, BAE Systems, Honda, Touch Bionics and Network Rail. This will allow students to work in commercial research labs and gain exposure to "real world problems", Vijayakumar added.

The creation of the joint centre, which will be housed in existing buildings in both universities, follows the allocation of £7.2m of public funding to pay for state-of-the-art high-tech equipment for the centre.

Some of the equipment has been installed while the purchase of other items, such as a humanoid robot from Nasa, is still being negotiated. "Most of this is not stuff that we can simply get off the shelf - it is highly specialised. unique equipment," Vijayakumar said.

He added that the centre will attract more robotics students to study in Edinburgh as they will be able to attend classes at both universities and have the flexibility to research cross-disciplinary fields not available elsewhere.

Speaking at the launch of a UK strategy to stimulate growth in robotics in the summer, Professor David Lane of Heriot-Watt University - the centre's other co-director - said the UK must "act quickly" if it doesn't want to get left behind by countries such as Japan, Korea and the USA.

"We need to provide a business environment in the UK that is geared towards helping robotic and autonomous technologies out of the lab and into the marketplace," he said.

"We believe the UK could achieve 10% of the global market share by 2025."