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> I have no use for drones, or bipedal robots, or some kind of other walking robot at all Bipedal is the hard half of the fold clothes and put them away

• flukus 9y ago
  Why? Personally I'm hoping for some kind of telescopic arm in the ceiling, bipedal robots still take up storage space and get in the way, ceiling arms could work around me, are probably easier to deliver and are probably better to interact with "hey arm, can you give me a reading light and put my book away when I fall asleep".
  • gonational 9y ago
    Wow, that’s a brilliant idea… applying the wisdom and thinking we currently use leads us to inventions that are similar to a dishwasher, or inventions that are similar to a human, but really all you need is a simple robotic arm in the ceiling, some sensors, and a computer which can be constantly updated.
    • visarga 9y ago
      Visualise yourself sleeping with an arm hanging above you. What if someone hacks the arm and it kills you in your sleep? You can't be sure with all the vulnerabilities. I wouldn't be able to sleep with such a dangerous thing in the same room.
      • adrianN 9y ago
        Step 1: Don't connect it to the Internet.
        • duncan_bayne 9y ago
          But then how would it sign advertising to the deaf people in your household?
  • Pxtl 9y ago
    Why ceiling? Is your floor not flat enough for wheels? A Roomba with arms would suit me.
    • flukus 9y ago
      My floor isn't flat enough for my roomba clone, it get's stuck on a lip. More importanly though, my floor has all sorts of stuff on it, the clothes I wore yesterday, that box I haven't thrown out and various other random things, along with myself. My ceiling is remarkably free of obstacles and has a lot of unused space.
      • Pxtl 9y ago
        If only you had a robot to move those things you leave on the floor.
        • flukus 9y ago
          That requires either some decision making from the robot or a lot of prompting me for answer's, neither of which I enjoy. A pair of shorts on the floor? I might want to wear them later, I don't want them back in the drawer or in the washing machine, I want them there to slip on when the pizza guy comes. The box I might want thrown out instantly but I could have other plans for it. Robots need to be able to work around humans, not make more work for them.
          • itronitron 9y ago
            how about a robot whose job is to pick things up off the floor and attach them to hooks hanging from the ceiling? that way all of the floor-based robots would be free and clear to conduct their business
            • LandR 9y ago
              Hooks hanging from the ceilings. Robotic arms coming out the ceiling. It sounds like I'd be living in some dystopian nightmare.
  • intrasight 9y ago
    When I was a young robotics engineer, I designed a house with a hidden ceiling that hid the mechanical parts for such a robot. There were 4'x4' panels with releases and actuators to open up a hole for the arm to descend through. A 28'x28' space would only need 10 actuators (edge panels can't open). But alas 30 years later I've still not built it.
    • duncanawoods 9y ago
      25 years ago, in a high school English exam, I wrote a short story about just such a design. As is the way of such stories, the arm throttled a small child after a miscommunication! I was a little bothered that I might have unconsciously cribbed it from Asimov that I read at that age. Mechanical ceiling arms seem likely to be terrifying even if they work.
      • intrasight 9y ago
        Doesn't have to be terrifying. Make it soft and squishy and use artificial muscles not gears and motors. It doesn't have to be able to lift my piano.
        • duncanawoods 9y ago
          I don't find ceiling tentacles any more reassuring!
  • imron 9y ago
    Doesn't work so well if the laundry is in the basement and the bedroom closet is on the 2nd floor. A general purpose bipedal that can perform basic human actions is considerably more flexible that telescopic arms fixed in the ceiling. And if it's capable of folding clothes it's not much of a stretch to imagine it could also provide a light an put your book away.