When I was very young and reading comic books was a favorite pastime in those non – Internet days, a favourite series was the one about the Jetsons – a family living in the distant future, with a robot for their home called Rosie who’d take care of their household chores.

Later on – the cult movie series – Star Wars, owed a great deal of its appeal to its two key robot characters – R2D2 , C3PO and BB8  who fight alongside the good guys to defeat the Empire.  With technology moving at the speed at which it is –  it may only be a matter of time before we can have a Sophia style robot for your home and take care of domestic woes.  Right ?

Wrong.

The process of automation began to drive our machines and devices – once they began to offer multiple performance options and became ‘programmable.’  At their heart was the ubiquitous micro-chip that programmed microwaves, washing machines irons and more. Could these have been programmable robots ?

Early Robots

The earliest domestic robots were the robot vacuum cleaners – a disc-shaped piece of dust-sucking machinery. Using motion sensors, these ‘robots’ would navigate obstacles in a room while detecting dirty spots on the floor.  Vacuum Robots are still going strong along with home helper robots that are used for entertainment, security and surveillance.

Devices with robotic functionalities have already entered our homes. They know who we are and where we go on Google Maps. They recognise our faces on Facebook. Or by our retinal and fingerprint scans on our mobile devices. They listen to what we say and crack lame jokes if we want them to. They know what we like to see on Netflix., eavesdrop on our conversations, read our chats and serve up what they think we’ll like. These tiny little pieces of code keep track of us and pack a powerful punch for the robotic functionalities they fulfill.

Home Care Robots

Personal robots have already been developed with face recognition technology, so they can address their owners by name. In addition to identifying human faces, robots are also being programmed to learn our individual preferences. This will allow them to better anticipate the needs of the people around them over time. And that’s what will drive a whole new generation of in-home robots that are already beginning to change our lives. So far these little droids are used to clean, keep an eye on the elderly, perhaps even sing a song or act as in-store shopping assistants.

The personal assistant robot who we address as ‘ Siri ‘ or ‘ Ok Google ‘ us rapidly becoming integral to our lives, Less of a robot and more of an Internet-of-Things voice-assistant hub,   Amazon Echo has been a surprising success and has ensured  the emergence of a similar offering in the form of Google Home. Amazon Echo’s Alexa and   Google Home’s Assistant are voice-assistance technologies within these devices that will play music and control other stuff in the house – from the washing machine to your oven to your lights to your security cams.  They’ll update the weather forecast and bring you your favorite game scores. They’ll track package delivery, donate to your favorite charity and help you set up and maintain your calendar.

Today’s Robots

The most promising development seems to be the one at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show, where the Aeolus Robot prototype showed off its domestic skills by mopping floors, moving around furniture and taking out drinks from the refrigerator. This ‘ home care ‘ robot is one that’s  closest to the Rosie of the Jetsons household.

And this one remains stuck in my mind – as it will in yours. In a nod to the coming future a pair of robots developed at Boston Dynamics work in tandem – where one holds the door open for the other to pass through and to follow behind it.

Delightful ? Or terrifying ? The Robots are well and truly in our homes.