There exists a large number of different robots that are applied in industrial companies. They are used in unhealthy areas like spraying of car bodies, for welding or for the automatic transport of parts. Some of them consist of an arm that is movable in a very veriable way and that is teachable in a special mode.
Sewer robots are used for inspection and repair of the sewerage system. They are equipped with a camera and may also inspect tight sewer pipes, that will be otherwise unaccessible. There are others model, who mill fissures and repair them using casting resin. A funnel in an egyptian pyramide has been explored using a likewise device.
Misantropic conditions last in space and on other planets. Robots may be constructed in a way that they withstand these conditions. So the russians visited the moon with Lunochod and the robot Pathfinder has already been on mars long before a human will reach it.
Aibo is a series of "entertainment robots" made by Sony, i.e. a dog, planned as a companion for people. My opinion: it is bad enough if people need stupid beasts as companions - Aibo is even worse.
Asimo is a humanoid (man-shaped) robot assembled by the company Honda, which may serve as a kind of slave in the house. Today he is nothing more but a remote controlled walk-thing.
All manufacturers of construction systems like Lego or Fischertechnik supply robot kits. Most of them are very expensive compared to the provided contents but on the other hand they allow an easy entrance into the topic.
My plan is to build up sutonomous robots, which undertake different tasks, i.e. to transport things things inside the house. I tried two approaches up to now. With the old approach I tried to build up the hardware with Märklin Metall and tried to use the Conrad C-Control for the control. - This approach was not successful, because Märklin Metall is too heavy and the C-Control is too weak. In the new approach I use Fischertechnik for the hardware and apply Atmel-AVR microcontrollers for the control.