From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Mon May 22 2000 - 23:46:02 MDT
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?)
Also, I believe making robots look humanoid would mostly be a waste.
Designs should be based on cost (including design, manufacturing, and
maintenance) versus functional efficiency. Even an all around robot
probably would not be humanoid. The only reasons I can see for making some
consumer robots humanoid is for esthetics and for marketing. Like tail fins
on cars.
My two cents!
Daniel Ust
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/
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