The State of Household Robots

paulelaguna writes "The dream of owning a household robot is starting to become reality, particularly for people in Japan. There are robots to help you do the dishes, move furniture, and even robotic wheelchairs to help you get around. Really, the only question that remains for us is when do we move?"

Comments

Not new.

[Anonymous Coward]

There are robots to help you do the dishes

We have those here too. They're called 'dishwashers'.

Re:Not new.

[dintech]

"unionized sanitation specialists"

Don't talk about my wife like that.

Re:Not new.

[Anonymous Coward]

they already did.. it's called feminism.

Re:Not new.

[Z00L00K]

In some parts of the world they are called "Wife".

Re:Not new.

[The Wild Norseman]

My wife was less "unionized sanitation specialist" and more "unionized sanitation consultant." She pretty much got paid to tell me what to do and how to do it.

My first post robot

[AliasMarlowe]

appears to be malfunctioning...

I have a household robot

[Nursie]

I guess "Roomba" is no longer exciting though, right?

Re:I have a household robot

[clarkkent09]

They will be more exciting when iRobot starts making them more reliable and sell them at a reasonable price again. The low end one used to be around $100 (I owned several) and it worked just as well as the more expensive ones, without some useless features like self-charging, and it came with replacement filters and two virtual walls. These days the cheapest one is $200 (basically the same robot as the one that used to be $100) plus you get zero filters and zero virtual walls. On top of that those are hard to find in stores and they try really hard to sell you the $300+ ones (500 series) which don't really clean any better either and are even less reliable. Where is the Japanese competition when you need it...

Re:I have a household robot

[TheJokeExplainer]

How about the XKCD Pet Netbook Robot? :) It's finally been turned into a reality using a One Laptop Per Child XO-1 + and an Arduino microcontroller via Project Butia!

Re:I have a household robot

[takev]

I have one (a 500) it works very well. It may not be as powerful as a normal vacuum cleaner, but it makes up for it by vacuuming longer and more often (you can run it daily). In fact it cleans better than I do myself, it also can go easily underneath the couch and bed.

It runs at my home on carpet and wood floor, and I know someone who has the scooba which cleans a wood floor using a water based solution as well. You do need to be sure there are no cable on the floor that it can suck up and get entangled with, also small objects on the floor can be dragged by it across the house, with mobile phones ending up in a corner behind the couch.

It can follow the sides of the room, but it can not reach deep into a corner, it also follows table legs. Also if it finds a lot of dirt it will make a small circle to try and clean it up.

When you run the roomba daily you need to empty it once every three days (but I get a lot of dust because I live across a park).

Re:I have a household robot

[laura42]

What you need is a robot to empty your Roomba for you.

Just like virtual reality and home automation

[Anrego]

I think this is one of those things that sounds a lot cooler and more practical than it is in actual implementation.

I'd rather a dishwasher wash my dishes then some humanoid robot.. for the plain fact that a purpose built machine is going to be a lot better at it.

I think there's lots of room for automated or semi-automated machines which I guess you could call robots.. but a "robotic butler" I don't see happening.

Personally I'm waiting for an automated lawn mower that doesn't suck!

Re:Just like virtual reality and home automation

[takowl]

Personally I'm waiting for an automated lawn mower that doesn't suck!

You're doing it wrong. It's not a lawnmower, it's a vacuum cleaner.

Re:Just like virtual reality and home automation

[roman_mir]

I am waiting for a robot maid to put dishes into a dishwasher, to clean up surfaces, take out garbage and to be able to sort the recyclables out, to put clothes into a washer, move the from washer to dryer, to iron what has to be ironed, to fold the stuff and put it onto the right shelves, to vacuum clean and to wash floors, to shine shoes and to be able to cook, to go to stores, and pick up what's needed, to walk the dog and to satisfy me sexually.

What I am going to get:

a silly looking thing, that'll put the garbage in the dishwasher, recycle the washer, take out the surfaces, move the right shelves into the dryer, then take them out, iron and fold them, vacuum clean the fridge, place the dirty clothes into it, shine the dog, then cook it, and drive the car through a store.

But you know what? As long as it satisfies me sexually I don't really mind that much.

Re:Just like virtual reality and home automation

[Anonymous Coward]

Um... my dishwasher doesn't gather dishes from the dinner table (i.e. floor by the couch), or even the sink, and it doesn't stack them in a cupboard as they're done. Sure, the washing proper is better left to the dedicated machine, but once you've got a bot that can manage the logistics, washing them itself is trivial and hella cool (to watch, the first few times), so that's what'll sell now. In 10 years, they'll be degimmicked to actually make sense.

Re:Just like virtual reality and home automation

[MichaelSmith]

A better way might be to replace the dishes, cups, etc with little robots. Or possibly build RFID tags into them so that the household robot knows what to pick up, and what to leave alone.

Re:Just like virtual reality and home automation

[somersault]

Then when it's been superseded by newer models, it can run for governor of California

Re:Just like virtual reality and home automation

[TheRaven64]

Special-purpose machines are always better. The problem is that you need a lot of them. That's why you're posting on Slashdot using a general-purpose computing machine, rather than a dedicated slashdot-posting machine. This history of technology progresses in cycles, where you begin with specialised machines, then you develop general-purpose ones that aren't as good. Eventually the general-purpose machines become good enough and the specialised ones are relegated to smaller and smaller niches until they disappear completely.

Humanoid is a pretty poor shape for a robot, but it does have one advantage - it can use the same tools that we use. Your house is (almost certainly, given that this is Slashdot) designed for humanoids and contains a lot of specialised machines that are designed to be used by humanoids. A humanoid robot can use all of these without requiring specialised robot-usable versions.

Re:Just like virtual reality and home automation

[clarkkent09]

Your post inspired me to type in a url and guess what comes up: http://bitchbots.com Maybe you can find what you need there.

Re:Just like virtual reality and home automation

[RMH101]

"That's why you're posting on Slashdot using a general-purpose computing machine, rather than a dedicated slashdot-posting machine."
Um, I'm at work. This is a /. posting machine, that occasionally gets used for other things

Re:Just like virtual reality and home automation

[somersault]

I save a lot of time because I never need to take or remove anything from cupboards or drawers, or load/unload a dishwasher. By the time I come back to the kitchen to eat my next meal my dishes have dried from their previous washing.

I really doubt I'd be saving any water by using a dishwasher (it only takes 10 or so seconds to rinse dishes, 20 if I've been cooking - so much easier to clean pots and pans while they're still warm), plus I'd be spending more on soap and electricity. IMO washing-up liquid isn't needed if I've just been having something relatively non-messy like toast and a glass of water (which is my breakfast every day), I only use it for evening meals or if I've had a glass of milk say.

I'd get a dishwasher if I had a family of course, but since it's just me I think my system makes plenty of sense.

Re:Just like virtual reality and home automation

[delinear]

I guess somewhere like Japan where space is limited and you pay a premium for it, the more devices you can combine into one unit the better.

Re:Just like virtual reality and home automation

[RicktheBrick]

I want better AI software. I want a speaker, microphone, and a camera in every room of my house. I want a natural language interface with the computer. I want to be able to tell the computer when I am leaving the house and when to expect me back. I want the computer to know when any of my appliances are working and what noise to expect from them. I want the computer to know when an unexpected noise occurs and to figure out what it is and take action if it can or to call for help if it can not correct the problem. In the kitchen I want to be able to tell the computer I am using the last of any food I am using for my meal and have the computer generate a shopping list for me. I want to tell the computer when I put something on the stove or oven and have it remind me when I should look at it again. I want it to tell me when the washing machine, dryer, and dishwasher have finished their work so I can unload them. When I leave the house I want the computer to be able to save me energy by communicating with all my now unneeded devices. For instance all my clocks would be shut off and would be restarted with the correct time only when I am in the room they are in. I want the computer to communicate with every device that runs with electricity, water, or gas. There are still a lot of labor saving actions(by saving me money) that the computer can accomplish just be being able to communicate with those devices and by determining when they are needed.

Re:Just like virtual reality and home automation

[plastbox]

All that stuff seems perfectly buildable for an enthusiastic DIY'er. Chances are you are just like me though, knowing full-well that it could be created but leaving the actual work and invention/innovation to someone with more skills. =P

Off switch?

[captainpanic]

I shall write the paranoid post.
Since the robots are not going to take over the world anyway, I assume that they come with an off switch (one of those old-fashioned ones that really mean "off", and not "stand-by")?

I am not sure I would like a machine in my house that can take (semi-)independent decisions without the option to switch it off completely.

Re:Off switch?

[somersault]

I am not sure I would like a machine in my house that can take (semi-)independent decisions without the option to switch it off completely.

Something tells me you're not a big cat person.

Eve no Jikan/Time of Eve

[B1ackbeard]

For those into Japanese animation, check out this short series set in the near future Japan where household androids are commonplace starting to become self aware. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_of_Eve

The State of Household Robots

[M8e]

So the (household) robots already got their own state? I don't like the look of this...

I, for one

[JustOK]

I, for one, welcome our new robotic underlords.

Still waiting for..

[sosume]

Still waiting for a robot that can iron and fold my clothes, or even a complete workflow: collect clothes, wash, dry, fold and put it back in the drawer. That would be awesome.

Re:Still waiting for..

[Dunbal]

It's called a woman. Probably much more expensive than a robot, but the added feature is that maybe once a year it will have sex with you.

Re:Still waiting for..

[Mikkeles]

Well, they got a good start on the folding part (at least for towels).

Robots are the best and worst tool possible

[Baron_Yam]

I'm pretty sure an android is the best possible all-purpose automation tool, because it can use everything that's already designed for humans.

However, I'm also pretty sure that an android would be the worst possible all-purpose automation tool, since the near-human level AI required would also make it a perfect social replacement for everyone on the planet. Why would I want to deal with everyone else when I can have someone who is the perfect slave?

the downside

[halber_mensch]

I had a roomba, and I was on top of the world. I had a robotic servant dutifully cleaning my floors so I didn't have to. Then my dog shit on the floor, and the roomba dutifully 'cleaned' the floor, smearing the shit all over the house and crudding up its brushes, gears, and wheels. I don't have a roomba anymore.