2011 — The Year of the Robot? Retail Therapy on BBC Radio Manchester

Discussed two topics with Becky Want this morning on Retail Therapy, live from the Arndale on BBC Radio Manchester. Listen again if you fancy it here.

The first topic we covered was robots. I think that we might finally see domestic robots coming into the mainstream in 2011. There’s a huge variety available today and they have been around in various forms for some years, but they don’t really seem to have caught on in the UK.

When I talk about domestic robots, don’t expect to see R2D2 and C3po roaming around your living room any time soon. Today’s robots are rather more function-specific: mowers, hoovers, mops and even soup makers (depending on your definition of a robot). But they are increasing in practicality all the time, and importantly, falling in price.

A really practical automatic vacuum cleaner is now just £200 from iRobot. I should be testing one in the next couple of months for what I hope becomes a new regular review slot on BBC Radio Manchester. If it works well, I will certainly be taking one: with a toddler it seems the cleaning cycle in our house is never ending!

I could also fancy a robot mower, with the grass on our lawn rapidly rising towards the ten inch mark. Maybe I’ll review one of those in the new year…