Robots are on the march again

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Barbara Chandler10 April 2012

As Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon opened in cinemas nationwide last week and Robbie Williams shared a stage with a 65-footer called Om at Wembley, robots are on a roll.

"People love robots because they straddle the divide between hope for the future and terror. They titillate with scientific promise," says Gadget Show Live co-host Jason Bradbury.

Robots have been running their own marathons in Japan, where they have a top-tech fan club.

Japanese computer specialist Le Trung even has a live-in robot "perfect wife", Aiko. Apparently she can cook, clean, do accounts, read newspapers and talk - 13,000 sentences in English and Japanese.

In the UK, there's not much to ease domestic chores. The best appliance of robot science is that disc-like vacuum cleaner, for hands-free automated floor cleaning. Latest models have sorted teething problems, and John Lewis says sales are surging - theirs costs £350. Samsung has just added new features to a 39-sensor £500 Navibot Silencio. This now has a small camera for a Visionary Mapping System™, which works out the best route and "cognitive mapping" to remember where it has been, ready for next time.

But the stereotyped humanoid robot is the motif most designers love. Italian furniture designer Fabio Novembre has made his man-sized anthropomorphic bookshelf for Casamania exactly his height of 184cm (six feet). But, unlike Kindle, he won't find you a book, or even dust them.

"Robots have a timeless classic feel," says New York designer Aimee Wilder. She sells direct to the UK, and has a cute robot wallpaper at around £92 a roll. It's cheaper to have robot stickers (£39.95) designed by Trina Andersen at 95%Danish at Oxo Tower, SE1, which has cushions and bedlinen as well. Or the "I am not a robot" sticker from Red Candy at £19. Designers are also using the cheeky outlines of Eighties Transformer arcade games - see them on cards, mugs and coasters by south London graphics designer Roisin Caffety.

There are also games to clutter a desk, from the Fifties-style Amazing Robot, who always has the right answer, to the wind-up Mr Robot Head (from Aspace).

Wind-up tin toy specialists Protocol has 200 robots, already huge in Spain, where the company is based. Now it hopes London will welcome them, after a trade show at Earls Court. Some will arrive shortly at Priscilla Carluccio's Few & Far emporium at South Kensington, or find them in Clapham and Battersea at Grand Passion boutiques.

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