54. Domestic Robotics

Who would not want to have a robot at home that vacuums the house, cleans the kitchen or the bathroom, loads or unloads the dishwasher, or polishes the shoes? In spite of the hundreds of millions of potential customers and users surprisingly few such robots exist. In this chapter, we first look into what it means not only to develop but also to commercialize a domestic robot. Using domestic cleaning robots as a representative example we look into the task details and its context. We also discuss the economic context and the market situation, and the technical challenges which slow down the triumphal procession of domestic robots. We will then have a look at the latest developments of domestic floor cleaning robots, robotic pool cleaners, and window cleaning robots. The survey of domestic cleaning robotics concludes with an outlook to new technologies that might help to solve some of the problems discussed at the beginning. The subsequent section then gives an account on the state of the art in robotic lawn mowing. The Section Smart appliances briefly surveys the latest developments in ironing robotics, intelligent refrigerators, and digital wardrobes. The Section Smart homes looks into a selection of ongoing and completed research projects in the field of smart environments and smart homes.