Many technological hurdles on the road to building household robots have recently been cleared leaving one nagging question in the air—just what do we need them for? “‘We have shifted from how to build a robot to how to use it,’ said Eric Berger, a director at Willow Garage. ‘It’s now all about how to make me—the user—more productive.’ There are numerous robot applications for doing personal chores, such as vacuuming carpets, ironing sheets or cutting grass. But the killer applications for personal robots remain as illusive as ever,” writes the Economist.