“You look at other robotics peers that have spent over a billion dollars in a decade to build a robot dog that has no job,” said Andrew Ashur, founder of Lucid Bots. We sometimes feel frustration at the number of unemployed robots hitting the headlines, too.
Proof of concept
Sure, innovation requires open-minded research and development. Many of the amazing things robots can actually do now grew from pointless things robots were made to do years ago. Still, when we see that researchers have taught robots to copy the actions of humans, we are not, as the authors of the linked article are, excited about the idea of robots that can copy the motions of humans playing a piano, wearing a shoe, or greeting other robots. We’re thinking that sounds worthless. We haven’t heard the robots playing the piano, but we’re not sanguine about the quality of the music. A robot putting on a shoe or greeting another robot? That’s an unemployed robot fooling around.
We look forward to seeing those robots learn to do something more valuable in future, and we have no doubt that the research will eventually contribute to big changes. Even so, we like Ashur’s idea, which is to use embodied AI to build robots that can take on dull, dirty, dangerous jobs.
Practical value
LucidBot makes a power washing drone. It can do exterior cleaning, and expects to be able to do things like spray painting bridges in the future.
They also make the LavoBot surface cleaner. The Sherpa drone can handle the exterior walls and the LavoBot can handle the ground-level surfaces.
In a presentation, Lucid Bots pointed out the safety benefits for workers who will no longer be doing death-defying (or bone-crushing) feats in their efforts to clean buildings and grounds. These bots are 70% faster than humans and meet requirements for urban and suburban use. They’re affordable, too, and U.S. made.
We’re glad to meet some working robots using AI, as LucidBots products will soon begin doing.
In the meantime, you can count on us when you need service or support for your Indramat motion control systems. Call (479) 422-0390 for immediate assistance