Ten home robots to lighten your domestic chores

Robots are making great strides not just in the science world but also at home. Photo: Bloomberg

At the end of every year in recent memory, it seems, high-tech optimists have predicted the next year as the one when robots will finally lift from our shoulders the burden of dreary domestic tasks.

Think washing floors, scrubbing the grill, cutting the lawn, watering plants, changing cat litter, vacuuming the carpet - and, for good measure, pacifying the baby and entertaining the older children.

That was certainly the case at the close of 2013, said Dan Kara, a robotics analyst with ABI Research. "This was supposed to be the year where everything was going to be different," Kara said. "Again."

And while that home-robotics revolution didn't exactly come to fruition this year, Kara said a handful of interesting robotic debuts in 2014 brought consumers one step closer to the chore-free home of the future.

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That sentiment was echoed by two others who closely follow the consumer robotics industry: Erico Guizzo, editor of the Automaton blog of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and Andra Keay, managing director of Silicon Valley Robotics, an industry group. Based on recommendations from these specialists, as well as some firsthand tests, here are 10 notable robots that made their debut this year.

Neato Botvac: Vacuums constitute the biggest and most competitive consumer-robotics category in the marketplace, and they're getting better. The earliest models were criticised for their over-reliance on humans to maintain them. ("I had to constantly clean my cleaning robot," Guizzo said.) Owners also had to drag the bots to their charging stations when the batteries died, and move furniture that the robots couldn't squeeze beneath. The Neato Botvac ($899 to $999) requires less cleaning than the earliest robotic vacuums, and it features good pickup power and a low profile that helps it sneak under couches. My favorite feature: when the battery is low, the Botvac returns to its charging station. When Dyson's much-anticipated robot appears next year, watch for similar features.

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Ten home robots to lighten your domestic chores