There is an undeniable allure to the idea of a bipedal chassis realizing I'm an inefficient drain on corporate resources, then stabbing me to death while I sleep due to a minor Terms of Service violation.
Reminds me of the engineer who accidentally strangled himself with his contraption:
> He devised an elaborate system of ropes and pulleys to help others lift him from bed. He became entangled in the ropes and died of strangulation at the age of 55. However, he is better known for two of his other inventions: the tetraethyl lead (TEL) additive to gasoline, and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). - "The Man Who Accidentally Poisoned the Planet Twice": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Midgley_Jr.
"Grunthos was reported to have been "disappointed" by the poem's reception, and was about to embark on a reading of his 12-book epic entitled "My Favourite Bathtime Gurgles" when his own major intestine, in a desperate attempt to save humanity, leapt straight up through his neck and throttled his brain. "
It has like 4 fixed points, and it could just build a gun and shoot you!
Given abliterated open models, Stringman is coming for our last remaining job!
I feel like this is nowhere near the case outside of the AI fantasy world.
For instance with wheels on the legs (so that the legs are used only for stairs or for stepping over obstacles) and with at least 3 arms. Only 2 arms are frequently insufficient for many tasks, when you do not have a mate to help you.
Do robots really need legs? Wheels seem better.
That would be cool. But also a little scary if it has an onboard AI which, based on it's embodiment, decides to develop a cat-like personality. Pretty sure if my cat had a better world model and long-horizon planning, it would kill me in my sleep.
The xiaomi-robotics-1 concept is but one that seems very doable and very near term.
Something to get the laundry from each room, wash, dry, fold, put away.
Cut and cook ingredients then do the dishes.
Mow the lawn, water the plants and do basic weeding etc.
Maybe even climb a ladder to empty the gutters / clean windows.
A non-humanoid will never be able to accomplish that without dedicated implements.
I really look forward to that, even if the first versions can't clean the gutters...
It won't be going up stairs or over lawns.
It won't be dusting into the corners of rooms.
If the end goal is something that can do everything a human can do, it'll have to bare the form of a human.
I'm starting from the assumption the vast majority of people won't want a robot in their home, even just on principle. Then most people will not need it to do every possible action an human does.
For the remaining people in the target, having adapted/compatible cabinets or furniture is probably less of an issue. If someone requires assistance for instance, they'll probably also don't want hard to access shelves or crazy weird stairs.
The same way people have started choosing furniture that can accommodate a roomba(RIP irobot), we'll adjust our newer homes to whatever makes sense when we get the next wave of home robots.
Except it won't happen, so the amount of people wanting a pretty flawed and compromised yet expensive robot will be pretty low.
Many people will want full control over what happens in their house, and potentially feel unsafe having things that move on their own. Where's the line is for "full control" will be personal.
Or just some dude on remote. (Get in the robot, Shinji!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFMJ514lz5w
The ED 209 is still cool, and only outclassed on screen by the T-800. =3
We built the world for us, not for the most sensible robot.
So for generalized solutions, a good biped will have some advantages.
Based on what? Do you think humans evolved into what we are based purely on aesthetic? Of course it may be suboptimal, but given enough time and ingenuity, so could literally everything be. Not sure that should stop anyone.
A modern house is a very different environment to the savannas of Africa.
Agreed, those were designed by humans (mostly) for humans. I don't think we as a species "adapt to things" so much anymore, and instead we adapt our environment to us.
I agree from an engineering and cost perspective that matching the embodiment, degrees of freedom and performance to the use case tends to be optimal. But entertainment, fun and inspiration can also be economically valuable use cases - even if less common.
That said, there are use cases which require navigating environments built for humans and the adaptive flexibility to perform unpredictable tasks as a human proxy. And those robots will probably be broadly humanoid shaped.
My fear is that a company that has the money to build and manufacture this will rip off the idea and use their resources to polish the concept. With a lot polish, this type of thing can be useful in certain environments.
By certain environments, I meant it would seem more useful in industrial or controlled environments where automation is more pratical.
I wasn't familiar with cable robots like this, so it seemed cool.
Robot picks up clothes -> this is stupid
Robot picks up kids toys -> this is brilliant
In reality though, I think the cables will never work in a household situation. It's a interesting concept and I'm sure it was fun to build :) Makes me wonder what commercial application this would work for, I'm sure there's something out there that would benefit from this over waiting on humanoid tech
I wonder how it would handle something like a blanket or pillow on top of the toys
I guess in most industrial use cases it makes more sense to have a robot stationary and move the parts around with conveyors. Doing it that way allows to pipeline and parallelize the manufacturing process. In contrast the large operating volume covered by cable robot needs to be served by single robot exclusively.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/forestmanagement/equipment-catalog/c...
* https://costagroup.com.au/2022/07/06/world-first-robotic-pol...
Australia's $900-million-a-year greenhouse tomato industry currently relies on farmers pollinating by hand
“So we've managed to design a robot that pollinates greenhouse tomatoes.”
“It autonomously drives along the rows, finds flowers that are ready for pollination using artificial intelligence, and sends air pulses to vibrate the flowers in a very specific manner to imitate buzz pollination as performed by bumblebees.”
Robot can't open ikea drawers -> this is not gonna work
Two people have mentioned garden applications, so maybe back yard and outside applications are where the creator needs to explore.
Though, I agree that my spouse would rather burn the house down than set this up in the living room where cables would be "ugly" and not match with our decor.
2 sides closer to the side of the couch would go lower than the other sides to reach the area?
Anyone?
I suspect the reason they chose 4 is that 3 cables would limit you to a triangular region, so you’d only be able to access half the room.
Probably if you went this way, you'd want to measure each ceiling cable so it is about X+Y length, or otherwise the slack needs to be held somewhere.
This is one less actuator than their system if I understand them, and they are not counting the gripper itself.
I think the form factor is actually fine but the specs probably need a boost.
Reminded me of the Hangprinter https://github.com/tobbelobb/hangprinter which has been around for around for long time... always wanted to build one.
basically a cable driven 4x8 sheet router.
They say they use 4 actuators, but if they only used 3, this problem would be solved.
Instead of independently controlling all four lines, you can join the lines leaving each corner unit and then just move the line left or right instead of reeling two different lines in and out. You still use the corner eye loops, and you use two cables that are X+Y in length. This allows you to pick a point on the ceiling. Then a third actuator and line in the gripper itself could lower itself to the floor.
EDIT: maybe lower it on three lines instead of one?
Rigid objects would result in the gripper twisting, but the current design could offset some of that by pulling harder in one direction?
Their example of it being used to move items between robotics stations in an automated workshop seems far more widely-applicable than the in-home solution, which I imagine is primarily aimed at assisting people with physical disabilities rather than those of us who can easily bend down and pick things up without pain or exhaustion.
Would more taut crossed wires and a descending line for the grabber (like the one at an arcade) solve the humans crossing wire path problem? Then it becomes separate x/y and z.
$800 is already super cheap, and the openness makes it likely you could implement even cheaper options yourself.
Can it kill you? no probably not. The tension limit kicks in and lets the line out if you pull too hard.
Will it work in a room with a ceiling fan? usually its fine since you can lower the work area ceiling to exclude the fan.
Will it make my kids learn to not pick up after themselves? They never will anyways.
Is there a physical safety? The anchors are attached to the wall, do they release with less tension than a human airway can withstand? I have experienced injuries that would prohibit me from exerting a "backpack" of force over my head.
Products in the real world need to be better than that
Tldr have you met people? There's a reason seat belt laws exist. If we're going to let companies sell things to this population we've fostered and not take our own responsibility, we have to put it on the companies.
A quick browse through any of the shock content subreddits will reveal a lot in terms of average people's understanding of risk.
As far as dyi projects go... This is harmless
There are plenty of things sold that toddlers can kill themselves with, this is why parents have to spend ages 'toddler-proofing' their house. Same with dogs - supermarkets sell lillies but I can't have them in my house as I have a hungry dog that eats anything.
It's OK to have products which are not suitable for people with pets or kids.
It sits several feet above the ground and is attached to the ceiling ffs. Unless you have the world's most clueless toddler who waits for this to fall just to sprint full speed at multiple ropes and you just so happened to install the winches with concrete bolts it seems pretty unlikely.
The toddler:robot win ratio is gonna be like 100:1.
>The toddler:robot win ratio is gonna be like 100:1
is beyond unacceptable for a consumer product.
My point remains that even a toddler would reliably beat this in a fight.
It takes about 38 newtons to lift a 4 litre bottle of milk.
It'll be okay.
My worry is cats. I know cats that will go to war with such a robot. String, jerky movements, vertical retreat... cats are built to war with such things.
I have not worked in this field for many years but had a fun time learning about a very wide array of topics.
No matter how niche the topic, if it's in anyway related to technology or science, you will likely find a genuine expert responding to you.
I just hope and pray this continues so that we have at least one place that is reminiscent of the old internet.
I wonder: how much would a 5th actuator in the middle of the room help? Seems like it might add a lot of damping, precision, and reduce the effect of sag a lot having only 50-71% of the original span and always having a line that's close (or much closer) to pointing "down".
I built a big swing arm in my dorm, so I had two 40lb+ 21" CRT dangling free under some pulleys. Keyboard mouse space below. Then myself on a hammock chair, also swinging. Just a couple pieces of 2x4 reinforced with some angle iron, some door hinges, some cables & pulleys. It was really fun.
I've dreamed of having just a good 2d robot that can, like, hold a camera and pan. I saw Stringman here a couple of weeks ago & it's been hard to not thing about it! I don't own though, so, seems unlikely I'd commit, as alas the walls are not a simple white I can easily patch & paint. But so cool!
Rarely does a product announcement make me laugh out loud :)
"Make another incision ... NO! QUICK! Plug the hole with the knife"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_BlNA7bBxo
Or perhaps I should say: what about safety? Not that any of the billionaire AI companies could have been created if they actually cared about (legal, mostly) safety ... so perhaps you should just go ahead and ignore it.
Something like an extra string running along the edge of a wall that could “gather up” the diagonal strings and tuck them away on an edge or corner would make this a much easier impulse purchase.
Naively, spraying targeted roundup from above or cutting a circle around the stem to kill roots kind of thing.
Edit: Isn't there already one that Zap's weed with a laser?
It hangs above the head — the space that is mostly unused. It pops in only when needed, and stows back otherwise. It’s also omni-present within the room.
The gripper can use a battery, its low draw I think compared to the motors.
could get tangled up in those wires...