The closure underscores the central problem home robot makers like Mayfield and the Jibo team have faced: there just isn't a lot of demand for household bots in their current form. As adorable as they are, they tend to be voice assistants with an adorable look. They do offer some extra functionality over a smart speaker (such as recording family moments) and are sometimes mobile, but rarely so much more that they can justify their higher prices. It's not that home robots will never take off -- just that the technology isn't there yet.