Whether you realize it or not, your home is probably already full of robots that make your life easier. But first, you have to think about this in terms of what a robot actually is.
According to Britannica, a robot is “any automatically operated machine that replaces human effort, though it may not resemble human beings in appearance or perform functions in a humanlike manner.”
With that in mind, I have created a list of different types of household robots. Some you may already own. Others, you may want to add to your home to make life easier. In most cases, for each category, there are many different manufacturers and models to choose from. I’ve included links so you can explore options and hopefully find robots to make your home easier to manage.
- Automatic Clothes Washer—-The washing machine is much older than you think. The first washing machine, a hand-cranked model, was developed by a German scientist, Jacob Christian Schäffer, in 1767. Much later, in 1937, Bendix developed the first fully automatic electric washing machine. Today, according to research by Statista, 72% of U.S. households have a washing machine. Version 1.3 of the Matter smart home standard was released in May 2024. It includes support for major appliances in a home, including clothes washers, dryers, dishwashers, and more. So, models of major appliances that support Matter can be integrated into an overall smart home.
- Automatic Clothes Dryer—While clothes dryers were invented long after the clothes washer, they have still been available for quite some time. The first spin dryer was developed by General Electric in 1952. Today, according to Statista, 69% of U.S. households have a clothes dryer.
- Laundry Folding Robot—The FoldiMate is a robot that automatically irons and folds your clothes. You simply feed your clothes into the FoldiMate, and it irons, folds, and neatly stacks your folded clothes in a lower bin.
- Automatic Dishwasher—The first dishwasher, a hand-cranked model, was patented in 1850. The first electrically operated dishwasher was released by Miele in 1929. According to Statista, 50% of U.S. households have a dishwasher.
- Robotic Lawn Mower—Cutting a lawn is no fun at all—especially if you suffer from hay fever and allergies. Robotic lawnmowers have come a long way since the earliest models that required you to bury a wire around your property. These early models, like the earliest robotic vacuums, randomly moved around your lawn for hours to cut the entire lawn. The latest robotic lawnmowers use GPS positioning to precisely navigate and cut your lawn in perfectly even rows. Robotic mowers are available from Husqvarna, Greenworks, Segway, and others.
- Automatic Litter Box—I’m not a cat owner, but I’ve had to take care of a neighbor’s cat while they were on vacation. Cleaning a litter box is not the most pleasant task I’ve ever performed. Automated litter boxes can handle the worst of this task for you. There is a wide range of manufacturers to choose from, including litter-robot, PetSafe, PETKIT, and many others.
- Automatic Pet Feeding Station—If you enjoy sleeping late on the weekends and don’t want to get woken up by a hungry pet, an automatic pet feeding station can provide your pet with portion-controlled feeding on a regular schedule. There are models available from several manufacturers, including INSTACHEW, Pitpet, Petlibro, and others.
- Automatic House Plant Watering System—An automatic house plant watering system can save you from overwatering and killing your houseplants. Or, it can save you from returning home after a vacation to a house full of dead or dying houseplants. Automatic house plant watering systems are available from many manufacturers, including LetPot, RainPoint, sPlant, and others.
- Robotic Garden Weeder—To the best of my knowledge, there is only one robot specifically designed to weed a garden, the Tertill. It was by Joe Jones, one of the inventors of the original Roomba robotic vacuum. You leave this solar-powered robot in your garden, and it will wander around every day, cutting off weeds until it dies from lack of sunlight.
- Irrigation System with a Smart Irrigation Controller—If you live in an area with a dryer climate, watering your lawn, trees, and gardens is necessary since the plants can’t survive without regular watering. In addition, because clean water has become an expensive commodity, smart irrigation controllers can save money by optimizing the water used for irrigation. Smart controllers are available from Rain Bird, Hunter, Orbit, Rachio, and others. These same companies also offer smart hose timers for people who don’t have an in-ground irrigation system but still need water.
- Pool Cleaning Robot—Swimming pools can provide great fun for a family, but they do require regular cleaning. A pool cleaning robot can minimize the effort to keep your pool clean. Pool cleaning robots are available at Dolphin, Aiper, Polaris, Wybot, and others.
- Grill Cleaning Robot—The only grill cleaning robot I’m aware of is the Grillbot. It is a small device you place on your grill after cooking while the grill is still warm. It moves around the grill surface while its spinning brushes clean the grill’s grates for you. The Grillbot makes quick work of an otherwise messy job.
- Overhead Garage Door Opener—According to Wikipedia, “the electric overhead garage door opener was invented by C.G. Johnson in 1926.” Overhead garage door openers provide security, are safer than manually operated doors, and you won’t have to exit your car in the pouring rain when you arrive home. Electric overhead garage door openers are available at Genie, Chamberlain, LiftMaster, and many others. Smart controllers from Tailwind and Konnected convert almost any dumb overhead garage door opener into a smart opener. Additionally, these smart controllers allow the overhead garage door opener to be integrated into a smart home.
- Robotic Gutter Cleaner—Cleaning gutters to remove all the leaves that fall on your roof and make their way into the gutters is a messy job. If it isn’t done, the leaves can clog your gutters, cause overflows during a rain storm, and, in the worst case, result in a flooded basement. The only robotic gutter cleaner I’m aware of is the iRobot Looj 330 Gutter Cleaning Robot. Unfortunately, this product has been discontinued. The good news is that if you are interested in one you can find them on eBay.
- Window Covering Motorization—Window coverings with motors that automatically open and close themselves based on environmental conditions or a schedule can benefit a smart home. Window coverings can automatically be opened for daylight harvesting or solar heat gain from the sun during the winter to offset the cost of heating a home. They can also be automatically closed when the sun is shining directly through a window to reduce glare, keep furnishings from being bleached by the sun, and reduce solar heat gain during the summer. Finally, they can also be automatically closed at night to provide privacy or, when the sun isn’t shining through windows, to provide extra insulation. Professional smart home manufacturers Lutron, Crestron, and Savant all offer high-quality smart window coverings. Smart window coverings are also offered by Somfy, Hunter Douglas, Levolor, Graber, and others. Finally, there are retrofit window covering motor solutions so you can automate your existing window coverings. These are offered by Aqara, SwitchBot, and others.
Finally, there is a host of cleaning robots for the inside of your home. These are covered in another article I’ve written can be found here.
Wrapping Up
Today’s homes are filled with robots people may not recognize because they don’t resemble C-3PO from Star Wars or even Rosey from the cartoon show The Jetsons. However, there is a wide range of robots available to take over household chores for you. Today’s robots are specialized devices capable of only performing a single task. In the future, this may all change as AI could provide the needed intelligence boost that would allow for a more general-purpose household robot.
