iRobot CEO: Humanoid Robots Too Expensive To Be the Norm

Posted by timothy on Sunday March 9, 2014 @02:18AM from the we-could-just-robotify-cats dept.

Movie robots often look like (and are portrayed by) people in bulky, bipedal suits. Why aren't more robots built along these lines? It's not just the problem of balance. Reader concertina226 writes "'Building a robot that has legs and walks around is a very expensive proposition. Mother Nature has created many wonderful things but one thing we do have that nature doesn't is the wheel, a continuous rotating joint, and tracks, so we need to make use of inventions to make things simpler,' [iRobot CEO Colin] Angle tells IBTimes UK. 'The reason it has taken so long for the robotics industry to move forward is because people keep trying to make something that is cool but difficult to achieve, rather than trying to find solutions to actual human problems. Technology can be extremely expensive if you don't focus.'" [Beware the autoplaying video.]

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R2D2 by sycodon · 2014-03-09 02:22 · Score: 4, Funny

Lucas beat him to this conclusion.

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1. Re:R2D2 by bill_mcgonigle · 2014-03-09 02:57 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Yeah, but when's the last time you saw R2 stuck in a corner, draining his battery without being able to figure out how to get back to his charging station?
  
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2. Re:R2D2 by The+Grim+Reefer · 2014-03-09 06:32 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  No, he had those little rockets on each leg to do it if he couldn't get somebody else to do it.
  Rockets? What rockets? I saw all three Star Wars movies, and even the holiday special, but I don't recall R2D2 having any rockets.
I guess this makes it official ... by Rambo+Tribble · 2014-03-09 02:57 · Score: 4, Funny

... Daleks really are the pinnacle of evolution.