A team of young engineers is assembling a fleet of robots that can fold laundry, bake biscuits, flip pancakes and deliver cold beer!

"The mission of Willow Garage is to create a new industry in personal robotics," said Steve Cousins, chief executive. "We've been working on building a platform that allows the technological problems of personal robots to get solved."

Robots have been behind-the-scenes players for decades, building our cars, assembling our online orders and defusing our bombs. They've crept into the home in highly specialised ways, like the Roomba vacuum or - depending on your definition - even a washing machine.

To be sure, robots will remain very expensive - and out of reach to most - for some time to come.The standard PR2, a squat white robot that resembles Pixar's WALL-E, costs $US400,000 ($382,000).

Article courtesy of The West