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Things it can't do: - go up stairs - get up after a fall / reset itself - pick up heavy objects - precise motion (so no cooking) - interact with buttons or
by spyckie2 6y ago
Things it can't do:
- go up stairs
- get up after a fall / reset itself
- pick up heavy objects
- precise motion (so no cooking)
- interact with buttons or touch screens (so laundry might be hard)
The one use case I think it might be worth it is if the robot can take a room full of toys and return everything back to where it belongs. Kind of like a one click, reset this room. If it can help me keep organized and clean around the house that would be a big win. Also, if it can help me detect which clothes are still wearable and which I should probably wash, that'd be nice.
I'd gladly pay 5k for a robot that can auto-organize my stuff around the house, even if it involves a lot of customization and setup. Imagine leaving your groceries next to the fridge and coming back to a perfectly organized fridge. Or letting your kids play in the play room and then the robot comes in and puts all the toys back. Or if you just tend to leave stuff out (throw your clothes on the floor or forget to return stuff), the robot can put it back.
I think that's a legit use case.
- _cs2017_ 6y ago> Or if you just tend to leave stuff out (throw your clothes on the floor or forget to return stuff), the robot can put it back. You don't need the robot for the first part. I never found the second part that valuable.
- yencabulator 6y ago> - interact with buttons or touch screens (so laundry might be hard) What makes you say that? All it needs is a "knuckle" on the backside of the grasping arm, to push things with. We already make gloves that work with touchscreens, so the knuckle can work with them also. Vision is the harder part.
- tripzilch 6y agoWhen I saw the video I was mainly thinking about all the things it might be able to help my elderly grandmother with. I mean I get that luxury and convenience of this robot taking care of stuff that you find boring or tedious, but imagine this robot being able to do certain normal every-day stuff that you're actually no longer able to do yourself? (Or maybe you're capable but it hurts to do, you get the idea) A few years ago I had my leg in a cast, and I'm just thinking if this robot could've helped me put on my sock?
- onion2k 6y agoThis is what a 10 year old would want a robot for.
- bdhess 6y agoDefining where things belong is a thing I want control over, so that when I go to find something, it's right where I want it. Actually putting things in their proper place is a chore, no matter how old you are.
- netcan 6y agoThat isn't necessarily a bad frame for "what a cool robot should do" ideas.
- thinkingemote 6y agoIf I was 10 and had a robot and my friend also had one, we would be setting tbem to fighting each other, or doing stunts, or doing silly things.
- hindsightbias 6y agoFor a lot less than $21K you could make a pretty nice outfit for a 10 year old and have them play the robot. You would probably want some bleach-safe clothing though.
- mosselman 6y agoOr you could teach your kids to clean up their toys themselves. Make it a fun game for example. Set an example by putting away your own groceries as soon as you put them in the kitchen. Boom 5k saved. Maybe they will grow up to not be the type of person who leaves all of their crap on the table of the university table after they are done studying. To be clear: I am not shifting on you as a parent. I am making fun of owning robots to do the specific things you mentioned. Obviously if you are immobile in some sense it would be great to have a cleaning robot
- bdhess 6y agoEven if you're not immobile it would be great to have a cleaning robot. Hiring housekeepers is a thing. Do you actually enjoy cleaning?
- techie128 6y agoInstead of building robots, perhaps we should allow low cost care workers to help immobile people. These care workers can be sourced locally or abroad (immigrants). Boom. You've just lifted someone out of poverty and helped an immobile human get a live human care taker.
- pjc50 6y agoAll well and good until a pandemic comes along.
- techie128 6y agoLive-in caregivers are not going to increase the chances of infection. Other types of caregivers may.
- Cthulhu_ 6y agoWhy the focus on low cost and immigrants? There's millions of people in your country (and I don't even know where you live) that live below the poverty line or are unemployed. Open up jobs, pay a decent wage, and stop this line of thought about exploiting people as much as possible for as little money as possible.
- paulie_a 6y ago> Or letting your kids play in the play room and then the robot comes in and puts all the toys back. That's the kids responsibility after they are done. Otherwise I do like the application to keep things tidy. It's a small thing but it improves quality of life and removes a common task of dealing with clutter. I think a lot of robots will start with huge limitations that nearly paint it into a corner. Eventually a more generalized platform will exist. Too many companies are attempting to make that today and skip the necessary steps in between.
- spyckie2 6y agoit is the kid's responsibility... until it becomes the robot's.
- blueblisters 6y agoWouldn't you pay for a robot what you would pay for a car if it can help you do your regular housekeeping? A $15k car arguably provides less value if you mostly use it to ferry you from home to work and back.
- imtringued 6y agoAre you sure? Without that car lots of people would not have access to affordable housing.
- macrolime 6y agoThere's still probably several hundred million people in the developed world who has a car,but does not need it for affordable housing.
- Xelbair 6y agoDepends where you live. Over here, in Eastern Europe i have no need for a car(i sold it this year, after 10 years). Public transport is really decent if you use it outside of rush hours, most stores are in walking distance(not only form my location but all over the city). And there is a great network of cycle lanes so you can easily cycle to work. Plus our cities are usually wide, but not tall, which means more places for developers to build houses.
- bArray 6y agoThings it can't do (extended): - operate in your particular setting (it's likely over-trained for that specific environment) - run for long periods of time as a fully autonomous robot - be anywhere near small humans or animals - do any of the tasks in the video with any kind of speed or precision - learn new tasks - handle multiple objectives, or even process the request of a single objective reliably This is nowhere near being consumer grade. It'll either ship half-baked or you'll have to get on the "it's just around the corner" train, along with the autonomous vehicle guys.
- spyckie2 6y agoYes, this is the point. The market is replacing housework, but with its capabilities it can only replace a specific subset of housework currently. However, if there is just one really valuable thing it can do, then it may be worth it even if there are 50 things it can't do.
- koliber 6y agoYou're right about this expanded list of things it can't do. However, the conclusion is a bit on the negative side. The Roomba or any of the autonomous grass mowing robots can't do any of the things you mention either, and yet they are commercially successful in the consumer world. The article mentions that this robot is still a research platform, so as you say, it is not currently ready for consumers. However, there is a lot of potential here despite of the limitations.
- martin-adams 6y agoThe more single purpose the device, the lower the price point would need to be. The Roomba also is a smaller device, so you’re not compromising living space either.
- nmca 6y agoRight, just like scientific calculators and mobile phones :)
- 6y ago
- ragebol 6y ago- Set the table - Gather & sort laundry, maybe even put in the washing machine - Gather dishes and maybe put them in the washer All chores easy for an able bodies human. But imagine having some disability or getting older. Getting back that autonomy in your life is definitely worth the money. Heck, if I have to pick between playing with my newborn son or doing the above and the likes, I'd trade my car for a robot that can do this.
- spyckie2 6y agoI would hesitate to use this robot for dishes. Maybe sorting laundry but not folding them. And I don't know if it can actually set the table fast enough. You'd be surprised at how much dexterity and precision all these things need. I doubt this robot can handle that.
- Cthulhu_ 6y agoIf you have the money, why not just hire a help? Hire your neighbour, not some billionaire. There's social ways and means for a situation like that. But oh no, having people around and paying them a decent wage smells like socialism! Anti-individualism! Better to pay 20K for a half-assed robot that can only do a fraction of what needs to be done than to pay someone's wage, right?
- macrolime 6y agoCall your neighbor every time you need to put some dishes in the dishwasher or do some laundry? You could have a maid but then you need to have them around all the time or you need a lot of space. Also many places in Europe it's essentially illegal to have a maid.
- patrickaljord 6y agoHow is it illegal to have a maid in EU? Never heard of this one so genuinely curious. It's super expensive for sure but not illegal at least here in France.
- manigandham 6y agoThe base can be redesigned and replaced to be more capable, or more customized to the environment it works in. Attaching some Segway bits would work.
- harperlee 6y agoIt will still be a base. Awesome thing about legs is they can step way out of the equilibrium point thus creating a huge leverage for e.g. pulling or holding heavy things.
- cosmodisk 6y agoI think at this point, if there was a robot capable of doing this, it would also drive my kid to school,walk the dog,and even do the dishes on its spare time. Instead we get a tall clothe hanger on a motorised base.
- tsherr 6y agoIf you want/need a robot to walk your dog, then you shouldn't have a dog.
- retsibsi 6y agoThis seems a bit harsh. What about an elderly/ill/disabled person, who would love the companionship and would make for a kind and responsible owner, except that they aren't capable of consistently giving the dog sufficient exercise?
- emerongi 6y agoI think many dog breeds would outsmart the robot after a while.
- retsibsi 6y agoI certainly can't imagine trusting a robot with a dog any time soon. Maybe there's a semi-autonomous, supervised use case, e.g. human takes dog & robot to a park; robot walks laps with the dog, staying close enough for the human to see what's going on and intervene if necessary. The set of people that would help (i.e. for whom it would be both needed and feasible) might be pretty small, though.
- espadrine 6y ago> I'd gladly pay 5k for a robot that can auto-organize my stuff around the house The main equation for general-use household robots is: can it beat human fares? A good weekly cleaner (4 hours) is about €22/h in Paris, or €4.5k/year. Let’s say your robot lives 4 years, similar to your computer (which seems fair, since it is one, and an abused one at that). Since you amortize its price over 4 years, its initial cost must be below €18.3k ($21k) with human-quality-parity. Personally, though, I would bet on dedicated, single-purpose robots, working together through wireless communication. Simpler to build, less costly, easier to replace. One small wheeled quadcopter for cleaning surfaces, one wheeled laundry box to carry it to the washing machine, one arm attached to the washing machine to put it in, etc.
- spyckie2 6y agoI think you have to think beyond equivalencies. We pay for 4 hrs/week because we can't afford more. But what if you could have 15 times or 50 times a day kind of cleaning, just not as thorough? That's what I think the value is for this robot. A quick clean, reorg of the room / house.
- rmc 6y ago> The main equation for general-use household robots is: can it beat human fares? This is where raising the minimum wage can spur innovation. If we gradually increase the cost of human labour (with higher wages, and other conditions), then the market will be motivated to fund & find technological solutions.
- fludlight 6y agoRobots won't accidentally infect you with disease, which is a big worry these days.
- wiradikusuma 6y agoIn my country, the robot is called M.A.I.D, Mobile Autonomous Interactive Dude(tte), and it's like $5/hour.
- spyckie2 6y agoA maid can do much more things than this robot can do. This robot is actually quite limited. It's trying to work within the limitations of the robot and figure out what value it can bring that is the interesting part.
- koheripbal 6y agoIt's hard for robots to compete with below minimum wage illegal immigrant labor. I pay $100 for two people to spend 4 hours cleaning a 3000 square foot home - including laundry.
- monkeynotes 6y ago$12.50 an hour, how does someone make a living from that?
- learnvella 6y agobetter to have the option of working for 12.5/hr than being forced to be unemployed.
- pantaloony 6y agoLots of room/house mates, possibly to the point of illegality (that is, beyond the legal occupancy limit).
- missedthecue 6y agoBy not being the sole income earner. If their partner works a comparable job, suddenly youre looking at $25/hr which is perfectly comfortable in most areas.
- 6y ago
- al3xandre 6y agoThings it can do: - stick a knife in your throat while you sleep (Assuming it is always-on and connected to the internet, and has zero-day vulnerabilities which it obviously will)
- mrfusion 6y agoWe need the three laws ASAP.
- kylebenzle 6y agoDARPA has done this long ago. I know you are making a dumb joke but the problem has been solved.
- dsr_ 6y agoThe three laws or an equivalent thereof? Cite sources, please. I think it's equivalent to strong AI.
- kwhitefoot 6y agoCitation needed.
- macrolime 6y agoThere's a few videos on youtube of various mechanisms for getting up stairs without walking on legs. I suppose the challenge is to get it to work properly on the huge variety of different stairs found out in the real world though. Lots of washing machines and other household equipment now has APIs, so interacting with buttons or touch screens might not be necessary.
- cptskippy 6y ago> The one use case I think it might be worth it is if the robot can take a room full of toys and return everything back to where it belongs. I think the 6x label on the dusting Spiderman scene is where I lost any interest. If it's that slow then it would take weeks to pickup the pile of Legos sitting on my floor right now, assuming it could.
- verroq 6y agoThat’s fine because I am not ok with a robot in the house that can strangle me in my sleep. Not being able to walk upstairs is a feature.
- gsoto 6y agoI'd buy this if it could setup my boardgames.
- Descon 6y agoI picture these being used around hospitals and nursing homes for general fetching and returning of things. i.e. linens, telephones, keeping patient's belongings in their own room (this was a nightmare for my grandma in the alzheimer's ward) and other things that would allow nurses and porters to be more effective
- justaguyhere 6y agoI'd gladly pay 5k for a robot that can auto-organize my stuff around the house Cheaper option might be to have less stuff in the house :P