Unlike the beady-eyed, sleek humanoids that walk, talk, reason and "think" in the new big-budget thriller "I, Robot," today's most useful household robots aren't even as functional as R2-D2.

Lawn mowers, carpet vacuums, roving security systems and a few others typically perform only one mundane chore and they have yet to become household words, let alone chore champions.

In the film's year 2035, on the other hand, US Robotics' workhorse for the home is NS-5 Automated Domestic Assistant, the hottest state-of-the-art model in a long line of housekeeping robots the manufacturer is about to crank out in record numbers to meet skyrocketing demand.

Primitive by contrast, today's best known home robo-products like Roomba and RoboMower do what they are supposed to do, but without really thinking about it.

Burlington, MA-based iRobot (not to be confused with the name of the movie) has sold more than a half million circular roving robotic vacuum cleaners worldwide. Its top-of-the-line remote-controlled model sweeps anything from small spaces to whole rooms and returns to a home base to recharge itself within three hours for 120 minutes of cleaning time.

It can sweep under some furniture, a heavy dirt detection feature makes the circular vacuum spend more time on trouble spots and sensors know when the unit is stuck and will help it dislodge.

In Time magazine tests, the new Discovery still got stuck once in a while on the edges of a rug and missed dust in corners, though brushes are designed to help it sweep walls and baseboards.

iRobot makers also produce a PackBot EOD for explosive disposal detail, hazardous materials work and surveillance duties, but let's hope you don't need those robotic services at home, even in today's world of terrorism.

Pardesia, Israel-based Friendly Robotics also offers a robotic vacuum (as does Electrolux, among others), but it is better known for its $1,000 to $2,000 RoboMowers, push button, battery-powered mulching mowers that crisscross your lawn several times while you sip lemonade -- but only after you set up a wire perimeter and recharging station. It charges in 24 hours for 2 to 3 hours of mowing an area ranging from 6,500 square feet to 16,000 square feet, depending on the model.

More humanoid-like robots are yet to be mass produced and are only available for large sums of cash from places like Sharper Image or are produced only as prototypes to demonstrate the future.

Most notably, they include Honda's Asimo and Sony's Qrio.

Think of them as NS-5 infants. Of think of NS-5s as their evolutionary destiny.

These humanoid robots look like small space suit wearing moon walkers and have the ability to fluidly navigate a variety of terrains, avoid obstacles, get up after a fall, respond to commands and remember faces, voices and spaces as well as pick up, throw and kick objects. Unless you have a lot of rubber balls laying around, they are of little more use than highly sophisticated electronic toys that are fun to have around.

Similarly, there are those clanky, yet cute -- in a plastic sort of way -- robotic dogs and cats that don't really do household chores but, unlike their living counterparts, they also don't give you any messy ones to perform. They just yip and yap, spinning around, whining, whirring and begging for a steady diet of double-A batteries. That can be a chore.

Finally, some companies like White Box Robotics are building simple R2D2-looking robots from personal computer parts to perform security duty, alarm tasks, golf caddying and the like.

"I Robot" may be robot inspiring, but life isn't going to imitate art anytime soon.

Expect to take out the trash, pick up the leaves, clean the toilet, walk the dog, and wash the windows for years to come.

Published: July 16, 2004

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.