Re: Humanoid Robots on the Mass Market

From: Franklin Wayne Poley (culturex@vcn.bc.ca)
Date: Mon May 22 2000 - 23:01:02 MDT


On Mon, 22 May 2000, Technotranscendence wrote:

> On Monday, May 22, 2000 3:41 PM Eugene Leitl
> eugene.leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de wrote:
> > I'm not expecting household-usable robot products before 2010. Floor
> > cleaners will mostl likely come first, will be just a box on wheels,
> > and they will be considerably cheaper than a car.
>
> I kind of agree, though I think such floor cleaner robots could be built
> cheaply now. If you just need a vacuum cleaner that can guide itself, one
> could borrow Rodney Brooks model of robotics. That is build simple,
> basically "stupid" robots that can only do not very complex things like not
> bump into a wall.
>
> Since this seems so easy (from my computer desk chair:), I wonder why
> someone hasn't done it. After all, there are a lot of big lobbies -- Grand
> Central Station, NYC, for example -- and such that could cleaned by such
> robots. (I think the average house or apartment would be a bit too much
> here, but I could be wrong. Not my area, you know?)

I'll probably buy one of those Husqvarana solar-robotic lawn mowers this
summer. If a machine can use perimeter guide wires to mow a lawn (it goes
around trees etc.) why not vacuum a room unless it is cluttered?
FWP.

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