James Dyson takes on Google with £5m investment in domestic robots

Sir James Dyson is taking on the might of Google by investing £5m in a British university to develop a new generation of "intelligent domestic robots". His company, best known for its vacuum cleaners, is putting the money into a laboratory at Imperial College London, which has begun hiring up to 15 scientists who will work on developing robot vision systems that could be used in devices such as robot-controlled vacuums – a longstanding ambition of Dyson himself. The inventor said the plan was to create "practical everyday technologies that will make our lives easier". The move could put Dyson into a position where it is directly challenging Google, which has recently acquired eight robotics companies, including Boston Dynamics, which has made self-controlling robots for the US military. In January it spent £400m acquiring DeepMind Technologies, a London-based startup focusing on artificial intelligence.