Engineering firm Dyson, best known for its vacuum cleaners, is developing a line of robots to perform household chores for homeowners around the world.
The British company has demonstrated a series of robot prototypes that it’s developing and has announced plans to hire hundreds of engineers over the next five years to build robots capable of performing a variety of household chores.
The images released to media show off the fine motor skills of the various robots that have arms capable of lifting plates out of a drying rack, vacuuming, or lifting a children’s toy off the floor.
The company says it aims to develop “an autonomous device capable of household chores and other tasks,” and that the first robots could be released by 2030.
News of the line of robots comes nearly five years after the company released its first robotic device, the Dyson 360 Eye robot vacuum cleaner. The company has long been a leader in artificial intelligence.
Dyson says it’s in the midst of the “largest engineering recruitment drive in its history.” It’s currently recruiting 250 robotics engineers with expertise in “computer vision, machine learning, sensors and mechatronics,” and hopes to hire 700 more over the next five years.
Dyson says it has already added 2,000 new employees to its workforce this year.
In 2020, Dyson announced plans to invest $3.45 billion U.S. in areas including robotics, new motor technology, and machine learning through 2025.
The company is also building out what it hopes will be the United Kingdom’s largest robotics research center. The center will be based at Hullavington Airfield near the company’s existing design center in Malmesbury, Wiltshire, where it’s refitting an aircraft hanger where 250 roboticists will be based.
Future research will also take place in a lab in London, as well as at the company’s global headquarters in Singapore.
