Guides

Background for reading the catalogue. Each guide opens with a short answer; the rest is for anyone who wants the reasoning.

• How home robots work

  a multi-purpose home robot is three things: a body that can move around a home, arms and grippers that can handle objects, and software that decides what to do from what the robot's cameras and sensors see. The body and arms decide what the robot could do. The software decides what it actually manages, and whether it can cope when things are not exactly as expected. For almost every robot on this site, the software is the least-known part.

• VLAs and teleoperation, explained

  a VLA is a kind of software that lets a robot turn what it sees and what it is told into movements. Teleoperation means a human controlling the robot remotely. Home robot makers use both, often together, and a buyer should know which is doing the work in their home, because it changes what you are buying: a robot that acts on its own, or a robot that is sometimes driven by a person working for the vendor.

• What to ask before buying a home robot

  outside mainland China, the only way to get a multi-purpose home robot today is a preorder, and every robot its vendor says is being delivered to households is sold only in mainland China. Before you put money down, find out what the robot has really been shown doing, how much of it is done by a remote human operator, whether it can legally be sold where you live, and what you get back if delivery slips.

How this site decides what to list is on Method, and robots that were looked at and not listed are under Not qualified.