Engelberger and others at the show drew a sharp contrast between the explosive growth of the computer industry over the past few decades and the relative stagnation of the robotics field. While venture capitalists were lining up to fund computer start-ups, Engelberger, despite his impressive résumé, was unable to get financing for his robot that would help people live at home rather than go into a nursing home.
The robotics industry today is about as far along the road to widespread commercial acceptance as the PC industry was in the 1970s. The differences are that robotics don't have an equivalent of Moore's Law, the industry hasn't settled on standards, there's not much in the way of venture capital money and there's really no viable commercial application - killer or otherwise, said Paolo Pirjanian, chief scientist at Evolution Robotics .
On the show floor, several vendors displayed small demo robots that used sensors to navigate the show floor - literally technologies in search of an application. Unfortunately, the economics are such that it's extremely difficult to build a true robot that can interact with its environment at a cost that would attract consumers, Pirjanian said.
The vacuum cleaner is a good example. Electrolux tried to market a robotic vacuum cleaner called Trilobite that uses ultrasound to get around, but at $1,800 consumers weren't biting. The Roombas and e-Vacs are affordable - between $150 and $250 - but they lack the sophisticated capabilities that one would want in a robotic vacuum cleaner, such as obstacle avoidance, the ability to go up and down steps, and the ability to know where it had already vacuumed.
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