Contemporary Robotics - Domestic

We're moving towards a world full of robots, that's a fact. In this series, we're taking a break for a second to assess where Contemporary Robotics are at today and what the future looks like. For this second chapter, we're focusing on Domestic robotics.

Domestic Robots are now common things

As we previously showed in our article "Are you still doing your own chores?", what was a revolution in 2002 when the first Roomba was released, is now becoming pretty common. In 2016, 20% of vacuum cleaners were robot. And in 2017 they're up to 23% and rising. In just a couple of years, we will see them pass the 50% milestone. But robots are not just vacuuming our homes. They're also mopping, mowing the lawn, cleaning the windows, cleaning the grill of the BBQ, cleaning the pool, cleaning the gutters, handling the cat litter... And while vacuums are leading the way, the others are close behind. A Juniper research in 2015 affirmed that 10% of American household will own a robot by 2020 (up from 4% in 2015). The question is not to know if you're going to own a household robot anymore, but rather when you will.

Domestic Robots represents a huge market potential

In line with their growing presence, domestic robots represents a growing market value with a very high potential. While they represented a 2 billions dollars market in 2013, they're planned to account for a staggering 153 billions dollars by 2020 (a 7,550% growth rate in less than 10 years) according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Whereas people associate domestic robots mostly with vacuums and Roomba, most of the traditional household products manufacturers have set a foot in robotics. Hoover, Philips, Samsung, Electrolux, LG - to only name a few - have all jumped aboard the robotics bandwagon. The potential market for domestic robots is exceptional. Both in value and volume.

Domestic Robots improve lives

Although we're still far from the future depicted in science-fiction works with a robotic butler, many robots are taking away chores from us. We mentioned earlier in this article how robots came to handle vacuuming, mopping, mowing, and cleaning in general. By doing these chores autonomously, they effectively free our time. With less time spent cleaning up our houses, we can focus on more meaningful things: hobbies, personal connections, giving back to the community,... With between 1 and 2 hours a day spent on household chores, domestic robots could offer us up to the equivalent of a full awake day