From Roombas to Rosie – Engineering Domestic Robots
Proving that our distaste for household chores knows no bounds, people have been dreaming about robots that can do our housework for more than half a century. From Rosie the Robot, who served the Jetsons in the 1960s, to Bender in Futurama, domestic robots have long been a mainstay of science fiction. Until recently, such autonomous and interactive robots were confined to the realm of imagination. The majority of domestic robots that have made their way into our homes so far are relatively “mindless” creations designed to perform a single function. The most ubiquitous example is the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner, which has been patrolling floors around the world since 2002. Joining Roomba has been an array of one-hit wonders designed to do things like mop floors, fold our clothes, clean the cat litter box, mow our lawns and clean our swimming pools. More recently, advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have led to the creation of more intelligent domestic robots that have