Are home robots useful dedicated housemaids?

Do we need a smug, plastic bollard on the kitchen counter to tell us it’s raining and take a memo? What happened to engaging the brain, looking out the window and sticky notes glommed onto the fridge door?

Seems that’s all a little passe as prototype all singing- and-dancing robots, ready to launch to market as willing domestic darlings, have been presented by both LG and Sony at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January.