Team Aims To Build Robot Toddler In Nine Months

Zothecula writes "If robots are going to be part of our everyday lives, they'll need to fit into our homes rather than the factory floor. Few people would be comfortable living with a metal spider on tank treads, so the University of Zurich's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory is building a robot toddler called 'Roboy.' Using 'soft robotics' technology that mimics the human body, the 1.2 meter (3 ft, 11 in) tall humanoid robot is part of an effort to make robots that people are more comfortable with in day-to-day situations."

Comments

9 Months? No way.

[ashshy]

Give me nine female robotic engineers -- I need that baby in a month!

toddler?

[C0R1D4N]

Or a Robbit?

Robot invaders

[WaffleMonster]

Making robots that look like humans do not make people more comfortable... It freaks them out.

Re:Robot invaders

[Anonymous Coward]

"Sir, the Uncanny Valley isn't deep enough!"
"Then start digging!"

More what?

[TheCarp]

In what way excactly do we need to become MORE comfortable with machines than we are now?

Has driving a car, warming food in a microwave, and allowing a roomba to vacuume my floors not enough? None of these make me uncomfortable, despite their lack of human interface. Why should other forms of purpose built machines, or even general purpose, suddenly need to be humanoid?

Don't get me wrong, its cool research, and it could yield some interesting results but... as something required to make us more comfortable with machines? Nah, not unless you mean having sex with machines or something.... even that we already have people quite comfortable with some rather non-human form mimicing products.

Re:More what?

[bmo]

>The default state in robots is that they have no concept of saving human life. You virtually never see humans working near robots [hyperwrite.com] in industry, its just too dangerous.

Bullshit.

Not everything is an industrial welding cell.

People use robots all the time, but we don't call them robots. We call them CNC machine tools, which is just semantics. They are as robotic as anything colloquially called a "robot." Turret presses are robots too. Nearly every industrial tool is a robot these days, That's not to say that there aren't interlocks and guards, but we don't give machinery the wide berth that you imply. You just have to keep hands out of the work envelope and this is typically done with light curtains.

In the old days of using single stage manually operated punch presses, before my time, there would be literally leashes on one's wrists that took your hands out the of the work envelope once the switch was pressed. Indeed, I will certainly say that today's robotics are a lot safer than the cam-driven stuff of yester-year. In the old days, light curtains were science fiction, and you couldn't just instantly halt a machine tool like you can today.

But not only that, I saw a program last week about a Frito Lay plant (I believe it was in KC), and the warehouse floor was full of robotic pallet transports mingling among humans (that did surprise me)

If everything needed a "This shall not hurt humans" directive, we wouldn't even have automobiles or even bicycles.

--
BMO

4 foot tall toddler?

[danlip]

that's scary in and of itself

They should take a cue from film animators

[poity]

make it like Wall-E. with expressive hands.