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Everyone wants universal household robots. For widespread adoption, they are going to have to have a price point that allows monthly financing or lease payments that are roughly similar to a car, suggesting that manufacturers will need to retail units in the neighborhood of $40,000 to get widescale uptake.
Most humanoid robots in development are initially intended for industrial settings such as warehouses, but a few are being marketed as being more affordable. They are still currently limited in capability and availability. The latest artificial intelligence is also just beginning to be applied to service robots.
If designed properly, household robots could be durable enough to carry a residual value, creating a secondary market for used equipment, to allow monthly payments that could be affordable for the majority of households.
To achieve this, the machine makers are going to have to stop thinking like NASA, and rethink things like titanium and carbon fiber. Commodity plastic resins, utility grade aluminum alloys, and, critically, affordable batteries will be the way forward for household robots.
About the author
James Anderton is director of content at Engineering.com. He has worked there for 10 years, and prior to that, he was an editor at Canadian Networking Magazine. Anderton went to Boston University and lives in the Toronto area.
This article was syndicated from The Robot Report’s sibling site Engineering.com.
I want one for company….
This is the single most saddest sentence I’ve ever read on the internet.
Says the guy who uses “most saddest.” Arguably worse than forgetting to type the word “my”. Sad about your own lack of grammar skills?
Bro, nobody provoked you. Also, you missed the fact that OP might have meant for company as in not related to work.
Yes that’s why it’s sad lol think it’s a joke as he probably meant to work for his business 🤣
Says the guy who couldn’t tell what’s ridiculously obvious, that he meant company, like someone to be with ffs 🤦
We’ve already have carbon based robots that don’t function as well….. i.e people that follow the crowd, do, think and believe what their government tells them. They just can’t work 24/7 and not get paid (but it’s getting there). Oh, and another thing, they don’t have AI which would be an improvement since the resident intelligence they were born with doesn’t seem to work quite as well as AI.
Never fails there’s always a Grammer cop lurking in the shadows 😂🤣😂
While actuators are fundamental for the physical capabilities of household robots, AI is essential for their intelligence and adaptability. A balanced focus on both will drive the advancement and adoption of household robots, ensuring they are effective, affordable, and safe for everyday use.
Assistant robots isn’t new. It’s been done to some degree already. Having a robot to help with simple tasks does not need AI and imho it is what most will need
What do you need a robot for? What are you going to do with the extra time……
Well I’m sure the wise would use the extra time for God.
Who knows? That’s what we’ll be able to explore.
Whatever I want to that isn’t garbage work. Robots are coming. If “work” entertains you then I suggest finding new entertainment….
One would have more time to relax,and pursue their hobbies…
Work on my orchard
Is it just me or does this article just sort of… end without giving the extra details it appears to be hinting at?
It’s not just you Chris, The abrupt end feels like getting an ad in the middle of an intense action movie sequence.
It’s a poorly thought out piece, like most of the crap on the Internet. “AI is not required for a home robot.”. 💀
Yeah, it suggests electric (bldc? Synchro? Stepping?) motors in actuators without addressing wear etc I’m like, piezofiber to the edge. Also, where’s my human interacting with a robot to exercise at an 8.6 while maybe using a touchscreen or reader controls? Instead they’re replacing a car lease?!
Yup. No mention of actuators themselves.
Not just you sir.
I came here for the actuator story. Lol
Actuators are already really good, hardware is mainly solved.
Sequential decision making AI is much harder to solve right now.
Most errors of sequential decision making robots are not due to hardware.
Wait for it
Doesn’t everybody not see the big picture if we get all these robots to do all this work we are going to put our country in the default because nobody will be able to go to work because robots will take over that means more people to be homeless wake up people it’s like the whole world is brainwashed
At the end, most of us fail in understanding the economics “big picture” behind the advent of something that seems each day more unavoidable; the “rise of the thinking machines”. Thinking robots will come and faster than one could preview. Still, there’s yet a “not so long” road ahead. Actuators, batteries, improved AI, all must be tuned in order to close the gap between human performance and machine performance. What we have today is promising but we are not there just yet. Probably in the time frame of 1 decade. Who really knows, as the future belongs always on the realm of odds; it’s merely probabilistic.
What we have today is a wide polarized opinion about robotics merged with AI. Either one passionately embraces its advent and as fast as possible or “condemns” it by expressing fears on its (advent); “they will steal our jobs”; “they will be the end of our spices”, etc…
Not that both sides are accurately wrong or right, but the fact is… “daily task highs
-performance robots” it”s a wave that will nor stop and cannot be stopped (unless of course… some powerful “dick-head” pushes the red button).
Is not accurate that the “simplistic thought” of human replacement by robots in daily tasks will send millions or billions to indigence or death. Even those who “common sense” perceive as all powerful and financially mighty desires at all to replace a economy based on “human-energy-spent-in-production” to a “robot-energy-spent-in-production” (after all we always are talking about energy use in all aspects of human interaction). The economic cycle (both micro and macro) would most probably cease to exist leading us to a dead end. Human-like robots will be instead an “add-on” to economy boosting significantly it’s efficiency. A simple example: imagine that all big corporations worldwide, at certain point, do substitute its human production by robot production without even think who ultimately will be the consumers of its products. That would be a “shot on its own feet”; a dead-end road. Do big corp CEO’s and stakeholders in existence today would like that? Unlikely. It is not even an option; it isn’t something even to avoid once the very core concept of that extreme idea is the death of any corporation that implements it.
Instead, yes, human-like dexterity in a robot, will be a significant add-on for the world economy. Robot will be produced with the aim of helping “individuals” in its “net-income”. The return of investment got to be always bigger than the investment itself to be worth of venture. Probably at some point in the very near future, robots will be worldwide affordable enough to be acquired as an individual asset that can be used for several routine tasks, yet essential to the flow and continuity of society micro and macro cycles. A human-like robot that can be used as “income-harvest” by being applied in production (factories, services, etc…). Humans will be freed and have to adapt to use their energy in other tasks once most of the basic ones can be easily filled with robotic activity. Education systems will have to radically adapt to this advent.
On the other hand, in my perspective, it must be created and widely accepted directives (either self-imposed or by law) to limit robotic behavior based on AI. AI is a thing of the present but in a very near future (we are aiming that at this very moment and fast) we will reach AGI and super AGI. It’s not a “dangerous thing” by itself but need to be regulated and as soon as better. Having a human-like thinking machine that produces “critical-thinking”, well… we will overflow the world with millions of robots that by becoming sentient perceive themselves not as equal but far superior to their “human-counterparts” and that is competition (one that humans cannot win). As the technological evolution line becomes each day more “hyperbolic”, the human-like robot with advanced AI is a closer reality than one might actually grasp, so the time to produce comprehensive directives it’s now. “You load your boat way before you start your journey!”