Having grown up on films like Terminator and Star Wars my view of robots is slightly skewed towards them either wanting to kill me or acting effeminately in space. But obviously in the real world robots are pretty cool, sometimes even stealing our jobs due to them not needing time off when they come down with the fluand bitching about working overtime.

I know my father works at the local car factory and has command of a huge army of robots that are cutting metal into the shape of car doors and such but the coolest robots are the ones that can be used around the house everyday. In the last decade we've seen a wide range of different attmepts from the Sony Aibo's take on digital doggys to the impressive Honda Asimo that can run down a hallway faster than me!

One of the cooler types of robots are the ones that incorporate your other gadgets, specifically MP3 players. There are quite a lot of different MP3 robots that plug into your iPod and they'll dance merrily to your Beastie Boys collection. Again Sony have had their hand in another robotic venture with the Rolly

The Sony Rolly follows you around the house whilst pumping out the jams as it goes. The design looks a lot like the Segway transport...thing, and it can play music either by Bluetooth or via it's on board 2 Gigabyte flash memory.

Despite the impression that picture above gives the Rolly will actually fit in to the palm of your hand, which conjures up thoughts of forgetting the little fella following you around and accidentally stepping on him.

The idea of MP3 robots isn't exactly new either, Hasbro have recently announced the AmpBot. The Ampbot looks like the Rolly but a much more humanoid version. Boasting Mid range speakers and tweeters it may even satisfy the audiophiles out there too. However is it a problem that when I look at it all I can think of is the robot that Sylvester Stallone buys Paulie in Rocky IV?

We've all seen films where in the future we'll have robot servants; walking our dogs, cooking breakfast and tidying up the house but in the years that have followed films like I, Robot and Blade Runner we're not exactly there yet.

There are a few worth mentioning that seem to be steps in the right direction. Below I've included two examples that I find promising the first being a sophisticated, scarily human robot from car manufacturer Honda and the second being a strange quadruped that looks more like an animatronic Bambi on ice.

The first one being the Honda Asimo, I remember hearing about this little guy over five years ago now. There are plenty of videos on the internet if you just search for Asimo. I've seen this sophisticated cyborg sit down on a chair and get up (a feat some humans find taxing) as well as running down a hallway and bizarrely: Conducting an orchestra! Whilst it has been around for a whilst I don't really see it being under the christmas tree any time soon as they seem to be constantly showing it off doing some other outlandish activity. What it will do next noone knows but if you have a spare $1 million to buy it and another couple of thousand for maintenance.then you could have your very own Asimo for the home!

This robot is not necessarilly one for the home but warrants a mention as it is scarilly likelife. It's being developed by the Pentagon so I'm not sure whehter that video is on a need-to-know status but it is designed to be a robotic pack mule, carrying equipment up to 340 lbs and without the need to stop for water and the not so stealthy braying.

This video shows how it's essentially an all terrain robot, being able to cope with the harshest climates. Watch how it copes with icy paths, it's almost like watching a dog struggling with the slippery surface. Later going on to show it's rather goofy gallop for when it's spotted by the enemy, I'm sure it will leave the enemy confused with laughter.

So we've got a fair ammount of robots already completed or in development that are living up to their portrayal in the movies. Robots like the BigDog and Asimo are obviously high end models that can do some fantastic things but with smaller droids like the the AmpBot and smaller cousin Rolly it is clear that companies are getting ready to start bringing robots into our homes and into our lives.