Roomba

Robot maids? Voice-activated appliances? Automatic meals? The smart home of the Jetsons, America’s favourite space-age family, is hovering ever closer to reality. And in 2016 it will arrive on our doorstep.

New data from Juniper Research has forecast that over 1 in 10 American households will own a consumer robot by the end of the decade, up from under 1 in 25 this year. At this early stage in the market, shipments are expected to be dominated by so-called ‘task’ oriented robots assigned to take over