Humanoid Robots in the Next 10 Years

[robosavvynews]

RoboSavvy founder Limor Schweitzer discusses what humanoid robots will bring us in the next 10 years in Informilo magazine:

RoboSavvy has decided to concentrate on the entertainment and research side of robotics. Schweitzer says that for the foreseeable future, to be financially sustainable a robot has to meet the needs of one of those two markets. RoboSavvy is also meshing robotics with 3D printing, its other line of business, in a bid to reduce productions and maintenance costs.
"The plan is to take advanced robotics away from the Ivy League of MIT and the labs that have all the money and bring it to the younger generations, to schools and to developing countries where it would not be possible due to cost," says Schweitzer.
While the structural parts can be printed, electronics and the motors have to be acquired. He says the total cost of the material to produce a small humanoid robot to a large one that can functions effectively as a servant in the home is still far off. Schweitzer says.
But that doesn't mean we won't be friending robots in the next 10 years. RoboSavvy recently developed a small robots that can interact with humans by gleaning information from Facebook. The robot asks the person to become his friend on Facebook after which he plays music the person likes and makes comments based on information in the profile. It can be as innocuous as a complimentary remark about the city you live in or as personal as, "I'm sorry you are no longer in a relationship, but you are invited to a party at my place on Friday night."
If Aldebaran and RoboSavvy are right, it's a safe bet that in the future many of us will not only be interacting with humanoid robots, but "liking" them as well.

[PaulL offline]

Yup. Hardware will continue to be quite expensive the bigger you go. Somewhere in the robotics equation, there is an optimal size based on the physics involved (height, weight, strength, longevity, durability). Somehow, I don't think the optimal size is as big as an adult human - certainly not with today's technology. Meanwhile, for those serious about robotics, smaller seems to be more optimal - particularly from a cost perspective.

Durability is a big factor, and there aren't many (any?) big bipeds I know of that can take a fall. Robots have not yet mastered "falling gracefully" - and even when they do, mass will continue to be an issue, there will be failures. Electronics tend not to last forever, and as complexity increases, MTBF decreases.

And of course, there's the "the bigger they are, the harder they fall" truism - taller bots fall harder. Bad for hardware, bad for electronics.

Software absolutely can scale, hardware doesn't scale well if at all - so, it makes sense to work with 'bots slight in stature for the sake of developing software. In this case, miniaturization is key - to pack in as much as possible in as small a form as possible in the most lightweight and yet strong configuration as possible. The trick is to do so in a way that is practical and achievable.