Domestic robots
Until recently, the idea of robots appearing in peoples' homes was considered science fiction, or something which only the very rich had access to. However, the consumer robotics market is booming at the moment. Thanks to falling costs, they are beginning to enter mainstream society. Sales of professional and personal service robots are expected to reach 11.5 million in 2011, more than double the number in 2008.*
Initially popular in Japan, Korea and the Far East, they are now spreading to Western homes too. Some robots clean carpets or mow the lawn; others help busy professionals entertain children or pets; other machines feed and bathe the elderly and incapacitated.
Korea has a stated goal of "a robot in every home by 2020," and Samsung has already developed a robot maid that "recognizes people, can turn on microwave ovens, washing machines and toasters, and also pick up sandwiches, cups and whatever else it senses as objects."*
PR2
PR2 is a two-armed, wheeled robot. It is being developed by Willow Garage, a robotics research lab in California. The name stands for "Personal Robot". In the future, it is hoped that this machine could assist with a number of household tasks, as well as learning about its environment. A prototype version has already demonstrated the folding of towels - and this can be achieved "on the fly", rather than using a fixed set of movements.*
Each of the robot's two arms can lift up to 1.8 kilograms each. It has two cameras and a 3D laser scanner to help it picture the world and to identify objects.
Roomba
The Roomba is perhaps the most well-known domestic robot currently available. This autonomous vacuum cleaner is made and sold by the iRobot Corporation. Under normal operating conditions, it can navigate a living space and its obstacles while vacuuming the floor. The machine was introduced in 2002. By 2008 it had sold over 2.5 million units. Several updates and new models have since been released, allowing the Roomba to better negotiate obstacles and optimise cleaning.
Litter Robots
Litter Robot is a self-cleaning litter box for cats that uses a rotating globe to sift the clumps from the clean cat litter.
It has been engineered to solve many of the problems associated with early automatic litter box designs.
Rake type boxes can get stuck on a clump and either burn out the motor, or fling the clump across the room. The rolling action of the Litter Robot globe let the clumps sift themselves from the litter bed and drop into a sealed drawer at the base. This lowers the stress on the motor, and does not depend on the motor power to remove the clumps.
Many automatic litter boxes rely on special litter or containers to work properly. The Litter Robot uses standard plastic garbage bags and any clumping litter.
Many early boxes did not have a warning system, and would activate while the cat was using their box. The Litter Robot has a sensor that can detect a five pound weight, and will not operate if the step into the litter compartment is depressed with the proper weight at any point in the operating cycle.
Robotic Lawn Mowers
A robotic lawn mower is an autonomous robot used to cut lawn grass. A typical robotic lawn mower requires the user to set up a border wire around the lawn that defines the area to be mowed. The robot uses this wire to locate the boundary of the area to be trimmed and in some cases to locate a recharging dock. Robotic mowers are capable of maintaining up to 20 000 m² of grass.
Robotic lawn mowers are increasingly sophisticated, are self-docking and some contain rain sensors if necessary, nearly eliminating human interaction. Robotic lawn mowersrepresented the second largest category of domestic robots used by the end of 2005.
Possibly the first commercial robotic lawn mower was the MowBot, introduced and patented[1] in 1969 and already showing many features of today's most popular products.[2]
In 2012 the growth of robotic lawn mower sales was 15 times that of the traditional styles.[3]
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