Can you imagine a world where chores are a thing of the past? In the 50s and 60s, we imagined we’d be driving hover cars and have maid robots to cater to our every need by now; we’d have robo-dogs too and our homes would automatically cook us dinner when we walked through the door.
Sadly, all we have is a robot that cleans the floor for us, but occasionally it will get stuck and say, “Help!” Oh, how far we have come.
Ok, let’s be realistic. It’s not the technological advances that are the problem here, after all scientists and engineers have invented some miracle robots in the past few decades. In Japan, there’s a military robot that can enter radioactive areas and conduct analysis. In the US, there’s a butler robot that can serve you a drink and predict your actions so it can help you with your day-to-day life – it even knows when your glass is empty.
No, the real reason we don’t all have butler-bots and conveyor belts in our homes is because of the mass-production engineering challenges we face with them. The robots developed haven’t quite been perfected for our everyday lives yet, and those that have, haven’t been made at an accessible price point for the average Joe yet.
Greg Shirakyan, a Microsoft Robotics Engineer, recently said the true definition of a domestic robot is a device that is not being continuously controlled by a person and doesn’t get stuck. Most of the devices on this infographic below by NCF Furnishings, however cool and futuristic, aren’t quite capable of that, and they still cost a considerable amount.
So even though engineers very well might have created some fantastic domestic robots, their slight downfalls compared to their price are putting a few people off. Therefore, there’s a smaller budget for future development and these robot producers can’t obtain an economy of scale on their parts.
But there is hope. Read the infographic further and you’ll discover that demand is indeed rising … slowly and steadily. The ‘world of tomorrow’ might not be tomorrow, but it is eventually making its way towards us.
The Rise Of The Domestic Robots. Source: www.
