ReadyBot is a kitchen cleaning robot that is already at the prototype stage; the intent is to provide a general purpose robot able to clean the kitchen.
Many countries, especially Japan and parts of Europe, face a significant demographic challenge. Because of changes in birthrates, there are not enough new workers entering the market. Over the next few decades, tens of millions of robots, capable of performing menial and repetitive work, will be required to keep those economies afloat and competitive.
While governments and academics have poured effort into research and made great progress, to this day there is still no "general purpose" or mass-production robots available for household and commercial use.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!)
is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for
the Invention Category that interests
you, the Glossary, the Invention
Timeline, or see what's New.
Gaia - Why Stop With Just The Earth?
'But the stars are only atoms in larger space, and in that larger space the star-atoms could combine to form living matter, thinking matter, couldn't they?'
Microsoft VASA-1 Creates Personal Video From A Photo
'...to build up a video picture would require, say, ten million decisions every second. Mike, you're so fast I can't even think about it. But you aren't that fast.'