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I think Amazon is uniquely positioned to come out with the first broadly applicable consumer house robot. To me, I would buy one if it could move around the ho

by mrep 9y ago

I think Amazon is uniquely positioned to come out with the first broadly applicable consumer house robot. To me, I would buy one if it could move around the house and handle some daily chores like taking the dishes/trash out, laundry, and the always classic getting me a beer. That would require 1: the ability to move around my house, 2 the ability to accept and interpret commands, and 3 the ability to recognize objects visually and how to interact with them. Amazon has 1 partially solved with kiva, 2 with Alexa, leaving the big problem as 3. Amazon is well aware of 3 though because that is their main problem blocking them from automating hundreds of thousands of jobs in their warehouses. They even hold competitions for it: https://www.wired.com/story/grasping-robots-compete-to-rule-amazons-warehouses/ https://www.wired.com/story/grasping-robots-compete-to-rule-... With all of that potential labor savings in solving that problem, and the possibility of a home robot using the same technology, I doubt anyone spends more R&D on this problem.

dominotw 9y ago
I am having hard time believing that a generic consumer home robot is only couple of years away. Robots currently avaiable in that space are highly customised to a specific task (eg: Roomba). My roomba has trouble with wires, long hair, rubber bands ect. I have to do a "prep" before I turn that thing on so it doesn't trip. Defeats the whole point of it, prep is worst part about vacuuming, I might just finish the whole thing myself by using the manual vaccum.
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larkost 9y ago
Kiva is not quite what you seem to think it is. Those robots navigate in specially constructed, human-free, spaces with QR codes on the floor to keep them positioned right. It is a highly developed system, but not one designed for anything remotely like a human home. And I would separate your #3 into two items: recognizing household objects (a very significant bit of work), and then interacting with individual objects. Single instances of each of those are tasks that whole companies are devoted to. General-case systems are just not in the cards at this point.
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by mrep 9y ago

dominotw 9y ago

I am having hard time believing that a generic consumer home robot is only couple of years away. Robots currently avaiable in that space are highly customised to a specific task (eg: Roomba). My roomba has trouble with wires, long hair, rubber bands ect. I have to do a "prep" before I turn that thing on so it doesn't trip. Defeats the whole point of it, prep is worst part about vacuuming, I might just finish the whole thing myself by using the manual vaccum.

deleted 9y ago

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larkost 9y ago

Kiva is not quite what you seem to think it is. Those robots navigate in specially constructed, human-free, spaces with QR codes on the floor to keep them positioned right. It is a highly developed system, but not one designed for anything remotely like a human home. And I would separate your #3 into two items: recognizing household objects (a very significant bit of work), and then interacting with individual objects. Single instances of each of those are tasks that whole companies are devoted to. General-case systems are just not in the cards at this point.

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