Meet James and Rosie. If you're late for work they can whip you up a lovely breakfast of pancake and sausage. James and Rosie can also make you popcorn and sandwiches. James and Rosie are robots from the Technical University of Munich and they could be the future of robotic household help.

Household robots aren't just the stuff of science fiction anymore. Several types of household robots are already available on the market from robotic vacuum cleaners to robotic pool cleaners. And soon humanoid household help could soon cook and clean for use. TUM's robots have already expanded their repertoire to include making popcorn and the robots weren't explicitly instructed to turn the stove on and off. They did it by themselves.

This could mean that soon you can just tell a robot to "Make a sandwich" and the robot would be able to infer what actions it needs to do to accomplish the task.

A start-up company in Menlo Park, California called Willow Garage has already designed a robot that can fold clothes, set the table and bake cookies.

"The technology is much closer than most people think," said Andrew Ng, an associate professor of computer science at Stanford University. "We're not yet there, but I think that in less than a decade the technology will exist to have a useful household robot."

Willow Garage founded four years ago by Scott Hassan is a company that aims to speed up the development of personal household robots.

"We're trying to build a personal robotics industry," Willow Garage Chief Executive Steve Cousins told the Los Angeles Times. "We want to serve as a catalyst."