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SpotMini would be great for people with disabilities. I imagine there's a huge market in healthcare for these robots. A seeing-eye or service dog cost $59,600.
by debt 8y ago
SpotMini would be great for people with disabilities. I imagine there's a huge market in healthcare for these robots. A seeing-eye or service dog cost $59,600. So if they can get SpotMini down to that price point, I think it could dominate the market.
Much easier to care for a robot than a dog.
- mxwsn 8y agoI went to a talk by Boston Dynamics at MIT recently. They've clearly thought long and hard about the commercialization problem, and they pinpointed this exact application as the first and best domain to pursue commercially, particularly for the elderly.
- iguy 8y agoI'm surprised, or perhaps, can you be more specific about what they had in mind? If we could replace seeing-eye dogs with computer vision, good enough to help blind people cross the road, then why build it into a fake dog, not into fake sunglasses?
- debt 8y agoIf you combine poor vision with also poor motor function then a seeing-eye robot that can open doors is definitely your best option. Boston Dynamics could easily make different models for people of varying abilities. A SpotMini for the blind, one for people with motor impairments, one for people with both. They could make one for in-home use specifically, so maybe two SpotMini's could handoff once the person leaves the house. A set of SpotMinis. It's a massive problem space.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]