Vector, a tiny desktop companion robot that was both surprisingly endearing and unsurprisingly useless, met its demise earlier this year when its creator, Anki, ran out of money and shut down. But ...

Sure, home robots such as the Roomba vacuum cleaner are pretty useful, but they are still a long way from the characterful, interactive droids we were promised during a misspent youth watching Star ...

Sci-fi has long promised that robots would be living in our houses someday, helping us out and basically becoming a member of the family. But that hasn't really happened yet – after all, it's hard to ...