Co-founder & CEO at Square Off, a consumer robotics startup that specializes in developing and manufacturing of smart toys & games. The future of consumer robotics is bright and full of possibilities. As technology advances, robots are becoming more and more integrated into our daily lives, performing tasks that were once considered the exclusive domain of humans. From vacuum cleaners and lawnmowers to personal assistants and healthcare workers, robots are increasingly becoming a common sight in homes and businesses worldwide. One area where consumer robotics will soon be making a huge impact is in the home.

The layoffs are part of a restructuring that iRobot said will save the company up to $10 million in 2022 and between $30-$40 million in 2023. This was the same day iRobot announced it was being acquired by Amazon for $1.7 billion. However, iRobot said the two events are not related. To better align costs with near-term revenue, part of the restructuring includes shifting certain non-core engineering functions to lower-cost regions and increasing use of iRobot's joint design manufacturing (JDM) partners. "These actions help support the company's near-term priorities to drive innovation by executing on its product roadmaps, optimize inventory levels across all major channels, expand DTC sales and position the business for profitable growth in 2023," iRobot said in its earnings statement.

In some very sad but not at all surprising news considering how things have been going for social robots lately, The Robot Report is, er, reporting that Jibo Inc. has completed the sale of its assets and intellectual property to a New York–based investment management firm, which I suspect is not going to be using Jibo's IP to build robots. We've known for a while that Jibo (the company) was having some challenges both in selling robots and meeting expectations. Layoffs followed, and back in June, a Boston Globe reporter stopped by Jibo's Boston office to find it deserted and full of packing material and sold furniture. New Jibos haven't been available to purchase for months, although owners reported getting software updates as recently as August. According to The Robot Report, however, Jibo has now sold all of its IP and assets to SQN Venture Partners, which is probably just going to try to sell them off for as much money as possible. We'll update the post if we hear back.)

If you had your very own home robot, what would you want it to do, exactly? Yeah, me too, but that kind of robot is a long, long ways off. Consider Jibo, essentially a dancing Amazon Alexa. And Kuri, a miniaturized R2-D2 that roams around your house taking pictures. If that doesn't sound particularly impressive to you, well, the market felt the same way.

Some 15 million of them are cleaning floors all over the planet, and they're doing so reliably and affordably and autonomously enough that people keep on buying them, which is something no other consumer robot has ever been able to replicate. Providing the vision for the small team that designed the Roomba was Joe Jones. What started out as his personal side project at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab in 1988 became a commercial product at iRobot in 2002, and while iRobot is still doing its best to make the Roomba better than ever, Jones left to found his own agricultural robotics company, Harvest Automation, in 2006. Now Jones has started his second robotics company, Franklin Robotics, which is funding its latest project through Kickstarter: Tertill is a solar-powered, weed-destroying, fully autonomous and completely self-contained robot designed for your garden. Put it out there, forget about it (mostly), and it will brutally exterminate any weeds that it can find, as long as they're short. The genius thing about Tertill is that it's self-sufficient. It has one button, you push that button, and then forget about the robot while it weeds your garden every day, forever.

Some 15 million of them are cleaning floors all over the planet, and they're doing so reliably and affordably and autonomously enough that people keep on buying them, which is something no other consumer robot has ever been able to replicate. Leading the small team that designed the Roomba was Joe Jones. What started out as his personal side project at MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab in 1988 became a commercial product at iRobot in 2002, and while iRobot is still doing its best to make the Roomba better than ever, Jones left to found his own agricultural robotics company, Harvest Automation, in 2006. Now Jones has started his second robotics company, Franklin Robotics, which is funding its latest project through Kickstarter: Tertill is a solar-powered, weed-destroying, fully autonomous and completely self-contained robot designed for your garden. Put it out there, forget about it (mostly), and it will brutally exterminate any weeds that it can find, as long as they're short. The genius thing about Tertill is that it's self-sufficient. It has one button, you push that button, and then forget about the robot while it weeds your garden every day, forever.

Ten per cent of American households will own a housekeeping robot by 2020, with global unit shipments reaching 48 million in 2020, up from 15.7 million this year, according to a new study by Juniper Research. Urbanisation and a reduction in available time for household chores were cited as key drivers behind the growth. This was reflected at CES 2017 where nearly half of the robotics marketplace was dedicated to this class of consumer robot. In addition, a swathe of large-scale vendors, including Dyson, Samsung and LG have unveiled housekeeping robots, demonstrating a viable commercial proposition. The new research, Consumer Robotics: Investment, Disruptors & Future Prospects 2017-2021, predicted that consumer appetite for social robots will be more limited and not gain traction until 2021.

The latest Internet of Things (IoT) sub-segment to emerge is the Internet of Robotic Things, where intelligent robots operate with relative autonomy. In essence the Internet of Robotic Things (IoRT) describes devices that are able to combine data from various sources, monitor events, determine a best course of action and manipulate objects in the real world. "Both commercial and consumer robotics systems can benefit from these capabilities," he said. "Smart edge devices can share embedded, local data with robotic systems, describing themselves and providing other information," said Kara.