James Dyson is investing £5m in a robotics lab, in a move that puts the vacuum tycoon in direct competition with Google in the race to produce robots that perform household chores.
The research lab has been working on robotics with Imperial College in London for several years.
The five-year investment, with an extra £3million of match-funding from other sources, will pay for 15 scientists, including some of Dyson’s own engineers.
Dyson said: “My generation believed the world would be overrun by robots by the year 2014. We now have the mechanical and electronic capabilities, but robots still lack understanding – seeing and thinking in the way we do.
“Mastering this will make our lives easier and lead to previously unthinkable technologies. Almost anything where you need a human to do it, you could replace that with a robot in the brave new world. The key is being able to behave as human does. Vision is the key to it.”
In 2001, Dyson’s prototype robotic vacuum cleaner – the DC06 – nearly made it into production, but the inventor pulled the product saying it was too heavy and expensive.
Now be believes his company using small, powerful motors and electronic navigation systems can work on developing a mass-selling house robot. Such a machine could patrol the grounds of your home to detect for intruders, raise the alarm in the vent of a fire and help with the housework.
Dyson is taking on the might of Google, which has recently acquired eight robotics companies, including one which has made self-controlling robots for the US military.
In January it also spent £400million buying a London-based company working on artificial intelligence
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Scientists in Japan are also in the race to build a new generation of ‘house-bots’. They have already unveiled ‘Twendy-One’, a human-styled robot designed to help with housework and nursing care.