MIT is launching what it calls an "an ambitious new project to reinvent how robots are designed and produced." With a $10 million grant from the National Science Foundation, MIT's aim is to develop a "desktop technology that would make it possible for the average person to design, customize and print a specialized robot in a matter of hours."

To say that this tech would hurry along our long-dreamed-of robot future is a gigantic understatement. Naturally the robots would be used for many things, and MIT's example here is of a tiny printable scurrying bot that would be useful for surveillance or search-and-rescue as it could creep into small spaces.

But we all love our Roombas, don't we? Which makes us wonder if MIT's innovation isn't really all about making robots to help us in our everyday lives. A sort of robot butler or maid, perhaps--customizable at will. And science fiction has been dreaming of these devices for decades, giving us a rich palette of robot models to choose from:

Fans of British TV comedy Red Dwarf will recognize this angular-headed android immediately and probably grin. He's called Kryten (full name Kryten 2X4B - 523P') built by DivaDroid corporation in 2340, and he's a Series 4000 mechanoid or "slave 'noid." Addicted to laundry, he cooks, cleans, irons, and has strong internal programming that prevents him from swearing (so he's good for kids!) or even speaking ill of his masters.

Sadly, though, his memory is acute, he's not all that bright, and invariably he ends up pitching his human crewmates into one disaster after another.

Nevertheless his design, human form, and amazing utility means he may indeed be the ultimate robot butler, even sporting a plastic tuxedo in his first on-screen appearance.

Created initially by Isaac Asimov as a short story that's part of the famous Robot series (responsible for inventing the famous Laws Of Robotics, stating robots cannot harm a man), Andrew is an android robot purchased by the Martin family to perform generalized housekeeping duties.

All goes well, despite some resistance from the younger family members, until Andrew breaks the youngest daughter's figurine. Wishing to make up for the accident, he carves a replacement out of wood. Cue astonishment at the creative expression of a mechanoid, and a story about robot rights and the pursuit of an individual identity for robots--even as Andrew himself strives to become more human. He even gets married.

It's an open question whether you'd allow your Roomba to earn the right to vote, or what ethics you'd embed inside a more human machine, and it's luckily a question we've not got to worry about yet as we're far from Andrew's level of artificial intelligence. But perhaps creativity really is something we'd like in our butler bots--otherwise all those robo-cooked dinners are going to be very samey.

Built by Anakin Skywalker out of spare parts to help his Mom, C-3P0 is nevertheless a standard android designed as a "protocol" unit, programmed with over six million forms of communication.

While his main roles are etiquette, customs, and translation, C-3P0 is quite definitely capable of butler-ish tasks such as delivering messages, and he ultimately ends up as a personal assistant to Princess Padme Amidala.

As the, ahem, gold standard for many people's image of what a humanoid robot should look like, C-3P0 is almost inevitably going to be one of the first robots we build when we get to this level of robotic sophistication. And wouldn't you love to see the gleaming chap greeting visitors and rustling up dinner in your home?

Serge, a product of Graystone Industries' robotics division, served as robot butler in the home of the Graystone family (the father of which, Daniel, eventually created the robotic cylon race that entered a bitter war with the humans).

Completely non-human in apperance, Serge could speak in a clipped artificial voice and understand both spoken word instructions and some of the nuances of human interaction. Balanced on a single spherical motion unit, he was fully integrated into the Graystone's smart home environment, and greeted guests, operated as security guard, brought drinks, remote-controlled the home's functions, and could perform information-retrieval tasks when needed.

Oddly enough, due to his Segway-like locomotion, his wireless links to a smart home system, and his ability to both speak and understand commands in plain English, Serge may actually represent the sort of butler robot we may be seeing within a short number of years. Think of him as a natural evolution of a telepresence robot, equipped with Apple's Siri, and you'll see what we mean.

Rosey, proper name XB-500, is an old demonstrator-model robot hired by George Jetson from U-RENT A MAID. She scoots around on a single leg, atop casters, and is frequently seen dusting and vacuuming using typically human cleaning tools to do so. As the Jetson's maid and housekeeper, her AI is useful for tracking and looking after the family's kids and pets, the dog Astro, and alien Orbitty.

Being much simpler mechanically than many other fictional robots, building a real-life Rosey would perhaps be easier--although we've far surpassed her dexterity and ability to use human tools with real-life androids like HPR4-C and Asimo, of course. These more expensive bots may also be safer, as we'd likely program them not to use "radioactive" window spray.

Robby is the personal assistant robot to Dr. Morbius on the otherwise-abandoned planet once populated by the Krell. Imbued with artificial intelligence, Robby exhibits a distinct personality and something of a wit. He can drive a custom electric vehicle, perform many household tasks, act as security, and even synthesize complex materials for humans' use.

Robby was 7-foot tall, and slightly menacing-looking, complete with exposed internal workings, a heavy footfall, and crude claw-like limbs (necessitating things like the custom vehicle design to accommodate his awkward grip).

Technically we've long surpassed Robby's physical design limits with real-life robots, and where we're working toward designing human butlers now they tend to be more child-sized so as not to seem threatening. Nevertheless it's easy to imagine robots of Robby's stature working in security roles. Those claws would give any line jumper a worry outside most nightclubs. On the other hand, Robby quite definitely exhibits a respect for human life, and a conflict of orders that clashes with this in the film Forbidden Planet results in him briefly overheating. That's definitely a feature we'd like to see.

You think we're going here?

All the robots you can see on the left there from the impressive Reem through Asimo, the HRP4-C and Luna, are all robots currently in development to help us through our daily lives. Some are research machines, others are intended to become genuine on-sale products soon enough (Romeo the robot, for one).

This future is nearer than you think, so the question of whether you'd prefer a Serge or a C-3P0 as your personal bot may be more relevant than you realize.