Farewell lawnmower... hello robot

Domestic robot sales have seen the biggest rises

More and more people are turning to robots to do their household chores, such as mowing lawns and vacuuming carpets, according to a survey.

Demand for robots jumped by a unprecedented 26% in the first half of 2003 from a year ago, said the annual World Robotics Survey released on Tuesday.

While industrial robots continue to dominate the market, sales in domestic robots saw the biggest rises.

In 2002, sales of "domestic robots" - mostly self-piloting lawnmowers and window-cleaners - rose to 33,000 up from 20,000 the previous year, said the UN Economic Commission for Europe and the International Federation of Robotics.

HOW MUCH DO ROBOTS COST? Vacuum cleaner £119 - £1017 Lawn mower £418 Kids monitoring robot £600 Industrial robot average cost £44,887

The total number of robots in use worldwide stands at around 1.4 million, it added.

Orders for new factory robots rose 35% in North America and were up 25% in Europe - in both cases mostly for use in the auto industry.

The global robot market shrunk by 12% in 2002, the study said, adding the new figures indicated that "a strong recovery is in sight".

Dropping prices

The report found that Japan still remains the world's most robotized economy, and is home to around half the 770,000 robots working in factories around the world.

But, with the Japanese economy flailing, demand for new machines is limited.

The number of robots has dropped steadily from a peak of 413,000 in 1997, as companies choose to make do with existing machines.

The study anticipated booming robot sales over the next three years, as prices come down.

Taking the global average, a robot sold in 2002 cost a fifth of what a robot with the same performance cost in 1990, the study found.