Everyday task Brits would rather a robot do

You don’t need to know your KITTs from your Johnny 5s to have an interest in robotics, but they have helped give inspiration to inventors over the years and set increasingly high expectations of how the technology could work with us in the future.

In fact, more than 2.7 million Brits (5%) admit they’d like a robot to dress them if they could, according to a poll of 2,000 UK adults. The top three everyday tasks they’d like to hand over being general cleaning (52%), gardening (32%), and DIY (30%).

The innovation of the last year has given people more applications for robotics, and as a nation it seems we’re keen to continue exploring the potential benefits. Almost a quarter (24%) of people now think robotics should be used most for the medical sector, compared to 17% in 2019.

Now in its 6th year, UK Festival of Robotics (upgraded from UK Robotics Week), (19th – 25th June 2021), will showcase hundreds of an exciting range of free robotics events for all ages, ranging from competitions, lectures, open days, symposia, hackathons, challenges, live demos, festivals, workshops, and games film premieres throughout the UK.

Aston spoke to Professor Robert Richardson, chair of EPSRC UK-RAS Network to talk about what robotics could be doing to help you and look ahead to Robotics Week.

Photo by Alex Knight on Unsplash