in what way do you envision robots being used in our homes in the next decade?

Answer 1

There are already robots doing the vacuuming and lawn mowing. And since machines like clothes washers, driers, trash compactors, litter-box cleaners, ice-makers, bread makers, household lighting timers, coffee-makers and dishwashers are almost entirely automatic besides loading and unloading, they could be considered a form of robot.
A robot that takes the trash out to the curb would be nice, so would one that has an automatic "pick-things-up" routine.
There's even a refrigerator that keeps track of what food is inside it, compares it to the list of food you want, and makes up a delivery order.
The new "robots" made by Japanese companies look cool, but are not terribly functional. They can walk around, climb stairs and play pre-programmed responses, but that's all they do. You have to program every move into them, and, except for automatic obstacle avoidance routines, you have to make sure whatever objects they need to deal with are in the right place. So they aren't significantly better than available machines.

Answer 2

As they can fit more complex progamming onto smaller chips and as RF ID becomes more integrated into life I bet you'll see robots doing the tedious collecting and sorting that you hate to do. Picking up laundry from the floor is one possibility. Sorting trash by recycleable or not is another. A fun new topic for robots is hunting snails or other pests in the yard.

But in reality manipulating things is very difficult. Robots are most happy when a series of objects are always in the same place. intelligent homes will be the more 'cutting edge' developments that you see. this will be driven by the increasing cost of consumables and energy.
Your sprinkler system will start monitoring the lawn and watering only as needed. You house will monitor when people are in the room and turn the lights off if not needed. Likewise the AC system may monitor rooms and choose which rooms to heat or cool.

Or that is my vision

Answer 3

There are already plenty of specialized robots
in the home.
All what can be said is that there will be more
of them.

As for all-purpose humanoid robots, the topic
that might be behind your question, I see them
more as entertainments or curiosities, a bit like
pets, but that might rapidly become a bore, than
practical devices.

Also I think they will be quite pricey, as horribly
complex technologically, if many human-like
functions are integrated.
The only savings is that they will eat electricity
instead of human food. We keep the meat and
leave them the bones, oops, the watts :-)

Seems that Toyota and Sony are working day and
night to develop such creatures. Well, at least they
will learn a few things.

All in all, I see a market for them, but a narrow one.

I don't think I will be an "early-adopter", as said in
marketing lingo. ;-)
.

Answer 4

next decade probably not. the tech is still too expensive. and still not widespread. only japan is putting lots of $$ into R&D. with the multitude of cheap labor fr latin america, africa, asia we still dont need a robot to do housework. only when things r desperate, then man will expedite its use......

Answer 5

seeing as how human beings are becoming lazier by the minute we'll have robot to do the housework like: laundry, cooking, cleaning, etc for us.
heck we might even have one to carry us to our cars (god forbid we ever have to use our legs to walk a step or two)