The big money in robotics in the future will be in “domestics” - i.e. robots that help us do menial tasks and chores at home like mowing the yard, mopping or vacuuming, dishes, and other stuff.
Eventually we will have domestics that cook dinner to order.
This is where the big money will be in the market - potentially a larger play than Apple but one that will likely feature more players. Americans love leisure and it will be easier than ever with a smart home and AI domestics.
I don’t want a robot to do my work, I like my chores. I don’t like to fold socks—the robot can do that.
I tend to think it will be for construction, maintenance, and painting. Crawlers for going over buildings and bridges piece by piece to make evaluations, those kinds of tasks.
There have been a few tries at personal care robots. So far, they've flared out as the problem space is much more complicated - a lot more of the warm fuzzy "this object is my "friend" stuff - than the simpler crawler type tasks.
But there are lots of things that chould be done by robots. For instance, I used to live in a reinforced concrete hi-rise (42 stories) and every 8 years the outside had to be gone over to check and remove any concrete spalling (happens when they flex in the wind). Perfect job for a set of crawlers.
Rumba has been around for quite sometime, vacuuming rooms. Very recently, I saw ads for a lawn mower.
It looks a lot like my electric mower but has no handles. You put it in the yard and it goes to work cutting the grass.
One of the best scenes on TV was when a rumba scooted out from under a sofa and scared McGee