Dyson working on home robots

Dyson is moving beyond vacuum cleaners and hand driers and will try to develop robots capable of helping with household chores.

The company has announced plans to create a major robotics centre at its facility at Hullavington Airfield, in Wiltshire, that will work on new types of domestic robot. The site will be home to 250 robotics engineers.

Dyson says it is investing heavily in developing new technology - and half of the 2,000 people to have joined the company this year are engineers, scientists or coders.

The company revealed glimpses of some of its work, in a video at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation, in Philadelphia.

Robot arms are briefly seen picking up plates, a bottle of detergent and a soft toy - but what kind of commercial devices this work might lead to is not revealed.