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by leksak
890 days ago
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I think what a lot of people want, again influenced by sci-fi, is a general-purpose robot that can do everything a human can do and preferably other things beyond that. One form factor that can do everything we do is obviously the way we humans look hence the inclination to design robots that look like us as well. I could have multiple robots, one for vacuuming, one for doing the dishes, one for gardening, cleaning, renovating, etc. But, if I had one to do all of it any of the purpose-driven forms is likely to fail while the humanoid one _could_ succeed. |
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For example robotic vacuums and lawn mowers have been around, pretty cheap, and pretty good for some time.
There's lots of home chores that a wheeled robovac with telescoping arms & really good vision could accomplish very well (empty/load dishwasher to/from sink/cabinets, light kitchen work, dusting, sweeping, etc). To deliver this in humanoid form you need to solve all the same vision/arm articulation problems, PLUS all the self balancing/walking/look&feel stuff of a humanoid.
There's actually stuff a robot could do better than me if it had a telescoping arm instead of being humanoid look&feel focussed (dusting / reaching high places etc).
To me it conflates 2 problems and overcomplicates to focus on the humanoid form factor at this stage.
And look at the evolution of some tools - cars do not really look like horse drawn carriages for example. Helicopters don't look like flying cars.