Historically, household robotics have made for fabulous science fiction but miserable business ventures. Even chronically ingenious entrepreneurs like Atari's Nolan Bushnell and the British innovator James Dyson of vacuum cleaner fame found that their robot ventures did a better job of capturing imaginations than customers. And with the notable exception of Sony's cute but useless Aibo robo-dog, technology's giants have all steered clear of the mass-market robot. No "General Robotics" here.

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