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The road to the home robot is one pregnant with risk . The number of success stories it ’s delivered can be weigh on a single hand . The reasons for this monolithic disconnection are nuanced and complex — much like the insides of our homes . Twenty - years after the first Roomba arrived , the robot vacuum has begun to find like a good fortune — more of the elision than the rule .
Aaron Edsinger , the former Google Robotics director who now attend at Hello Robot ’s chief executive officer , is n’t attempting to build the universal home robot — at least not now . The Stretch Robot ( not to be disconcert with theBoston Dynamics truck - unpacking robotof the same name ) line is a platform the ship’s company hopes the next generation of home robots will be make around . Watching it cruise around a home in the demo videos wreak to mind Nvidia ’s line of address robots .
The newly announce Stretch 3 is a robot with a wheeled radical and an adjustable - height gripper . In the advancement video , you ’ll see a couple of Stretches cruising around a home , making beds and unloading the dishwasher — exactly the personal manner of things people have long dreamed of in a home base robot .
There are , however , two very important caveats . First is the $ 24,950 damage tag . As someone who has been known to complain about gamy - end Roombas top out above $ 1,000 , it ’s firmly guess anyone paying the price of a low - end new car — specially give the system ’s shortcomings for consumers .
That contribute us to head number two : The system is curb by teleop . There ’s nothing incorrect with teleop in and of itself , of course . I ’ve made that level plenty of fourth dimension . But a one - to - one human to robot control scenario is not a sustainable one — particularly in the home , which you believably do n’t want to open up up to whoever ends up on the other side of the camera .
One place where teleop is enceinte is the robotic learning physical process . This is where reinforcement scholarship come in — walking the robot through the summons of performing job in different scenarios . This is the kind of thing Tesla is mostly probable doing in that late video of Optimus close up washing — even if the company ab initio did n’t seemparticularly eager to disclosethat entropy .
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“ Too often , a video offers an exciting coup d’oeil of the future , but the automaton is n’t usable , ” co - beginner Charlie Kemp says in a release . “ reach 3 is n’t vaporware . It ’s usable today . It ’s an invitation to join an awesome community creating an inspiring future . It ’s also the most fun I ’ve ever had as a computer programmer . ”
All of that is true — save , perhaps for the last bit . We ’ll just have to take the good doctor ’s password on that one . But being on sale today does n’t intend most people will — or should — buy it . Much like the above Nvidia example , it ’s most correctly viewed as a quotation twist third - company developers can access to make the sort of apps that could — one day — be genuinely utilitarian .
As far as that 2d part goes , Hello tellingly touch on to the recent excitement around humanoid robots . The notion of “ universal purpose ” pops up a lot . Remember , for example , when Tesla Bot was first announced and the companionship ’s CEO prognosticate a robot that can work all 24-hour interval in the cable car manufacturing plant and then grab you some groceries on the agency home ?
It would take a circumstances more words than I ’m currently allotting myself here to explain why genuinely generalized robots are a lot further off than you probably call back . I ’ve often discourse a middle ground between the two — moving from single- to multi - purpose automaton . The path there may , indeed , involve an SDK and an app memory board - style approach to introducing Modern functionality .
In this case , one begins to ask the reasonable motion of how much the next home base robot needs to look like us ? The truly compelling argument here is stairs , but we ’re far from a point where such mechatronic complexities can be delivered to house users at fair rate .
I find this bit from Hello ’s press textile to be particularly interesting : “ Hello Robot has pioneered a middle way between simple single - function robot and complex humanoid golem , show that automaton ’s do n’t need to be humanoid to perform a wide miscellanea of compelling labor in homes . ”
roving manipulation is a huge , vast constriction to the growth of a proper abode golem . Likely the solution will be more than just a couple of arms get on a Roomba . Rather than jumping straight to construct yet another golem in our image , Stretch offers a manipulator more in melodic phrase with what I ’ve regard from home robot research task like those set up at the Toyota Research Institute .
I would say , at the very least , this is a space deserving watching , even though you ’re buy the farm to have to uphold to patiently hold off for your next golem pal .
