The use of robots for lawn and pool applications, and as automated vacuum cleaners is a relatively new market. According to a research from ABI, robotic products for home care applications are expected to more than double through 2014 - 19. In 2014, the company estimates that there were about 3.4 million home and lawn care products representing $1.2 billion in sales. That number is expected to grow to about 7 million robots sold in 2019, a market worth $2.9 billion.

One of the most striking conclusions from the research is that while the main robotic application is floor cleaning and vacuuming, as evidenced by industry pioneer iRobot and others' huge investment in this area for some time, the said application in particular is virtually the entire market. Using ABI's estimates, lawn care, automated pool cleaners and other applications make up around 2 percent of the entire market. In addition, the robotic vacuum/floor cleaner market is dominated by iRobot and its Roomba line of robotic floor cleaners.

ABI appears to be bullish on the future of the overall market. Dan Kara, Practice Director, Robotics at ABI Research said, "The total addressable robotic home care marketplace is quite large, mostly unsaturated, and in some cases essentially unaddressed. The overall robotic home care opportunity is massive." Nevertheless, in ABI's own projections, the floor cleaner/vacuum market is expected to dominate overall sales throughout the forecast period. Robotics manufacturers will have to address iRobot's dominance in this segment either through added features or lower prices in order to successfully take significant market share.

Here are the top brands in each market segment, according to ABI:

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