Mobile robotics has been a research area for more than two decades, but actually very few developments has been transferred to commercial products. In the last few years a new trend can change this lack of commercial mobile robots: the growing interest on developing robots oriented to the consumer market. Nowadays there are three different products with these characteristics: kits to build small robots, robotic pets and domestic robots. The last two, which are frequently named personal robots, can progressively converge in some of their characteristics.
There can exist many applications for personal robots, and they can vary with the users. For a chid, the robot can be not only a toy but also a teacher. For an adult it can be a collaborator, in the office and at home. For elderly and disable people it can be an assistant that could help them to overcome some of their physical limitations.