Scientific American article that makes an excellent point: Why has it taken so long for robots to be actually useful to the general public?
Seldom in the history of technology has an industry been so eagerly anticipated, and so slow to emerge, as the consumer robot industry. Back in the early 1980s, when computers were turning from hobbyist playthings into mass-market appliances, it looked as though robots would soon follow. Heathkit’s famous Hero I robot kit came out in 1982, not long after the original IBM PC. Entrepreneur magazine predicted a $2-billion home robot market by 1990. Today the original PC is a museum piece, and Hero I is still the state of the art.
