Domestic robots

The critter on the image is a robot able to "clean, sweep and do the laundry", developed at Tokyo University. Although the Roomba and other dust sweeping robots are known to most people, domestic robotics still has not delivered on its promisses. Like in so many other areas where robots are said to revolutionize in the next 10 years. As promissed every year for the last 30 or so years.

The thing that most people don't realize is that there two robots in this image, not just one. The washing machine is also a robot. It has sensors, typically temperature and water level, a controller, the washing program dial, and half a dozen actuators, the big rotor plus the water flow valves. This is ,by all accounts, a working robot. It is not able to load the clothes or to put them out to dry, but it is able to wash them without a problem. Notice that the key to the success of this washing robot is the succesful interaction with the environment. In particular, it relies on the environment to load the clothes into the washing drum and also to them them out.