CIOL : News : A robot for every home?

Worldwide robot sales in the first half of ’03 were up by 26%, says a survey. 50,000 household robots are already in operation, and a tenfold increase is expected by ’06.

BANGALORE: The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) has released its 2003 World Robotics survey, which says that robot orders in the first half of 2003 were up by 26%, the highest level ever recorded. Growth rates reached 35% in North America, 25% in Europe and 18% in Asia.

There are now at least 770,000 robots at work, including 350,000 in Japan, 233,000 in the European Union and about 104,000 in North America.

Robots are coming to our homes too. At the end of 2002 more than 50,000 autonomous vacuum cleaners and lawn-mowing robots were in operation. By the end of 2006 a tenfold increase is predicted.

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