<story><title>Ex-Googler&apos;s startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design</title><url>https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/home-robots/hello-robots-stretch-mobile-manipulator</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>spyckie2</author><text>Things it can&amp;#x27;t do:&lt;p&gt;- go up stairs&lt;p&gt;- get up after a fall &amp;#x2F; reset itself&lt;p&gt;- pick up heavy objects&lt;p&gt;- precise motion (so no cooking)&lt;p&gt;- interact with buttons or touch screens (so laundry might be hard)&lt;p&gt;The one use case I think it might be worth it is if the robot can take a room full of toys and return everything back to where it belongs. Kind of like a one click, reset this room. If it can help me keep organized and clean around the house that would be a big win. Also, if it can help me detect which clothes are still wearable and which I should probably wash, that&amp;#x27;d be nice.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d gladly pay 5k for a robot that can auto-organize my stuff around the house, even if it involves a lot of customization and setup. Imagine leaving your groceries next to the fridge and coming back to a perfectly organized fridge. Or letting your kids play in the play room and then the robot comes in and puts all the toys back. Or if you just tend to leave stuff out (throw your clothes on the floor or forget to return stuff), the robot can put it back.&lt;p&gt;I think that&amp;#x27;s a legit use case.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>espadrine</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;I&amp;#x27;d gladly pay 5k for a robot that can auto-organize my stuff around the house&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;The main equation for general-use household robots is: can it beat human fares?&lt;p&gt;A good weekly cleaner (4 hours) is about €22&amp;#x2F;h in Paris, or €4.5k&amp;#x2F;year.&lt;p&gt;Let’s say your robot lives 4 years, similar to your computer (which seems fair, since it is one, and an abused one at that). Since you amortize its price over 4 years, its initial cost must be below €18.3k ($21k) with human-quality-parity.&lt;p&gt;Personally, though, I would bet on dedicated, single-purpose robots, working together through wireless communication. Simpler to build, less costly, easier to replace. One small wheeled quadcopter for cleaning surfaces, one wheeled laundry box to carry it to the washing machine, one arm attached to the washing machine to put it in, etc.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ex-Googler&apos;s startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design</title><url>https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/home-robots/hello-robots-stretch-mobile-manipulator</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>spyckie2</author><text>Things it can&amp;#x27;t do:&lt;p&gt;- go up stairs&lt;p&gt;- get up after a fall &amp;#x2F; reset itself&lt;p&gt;- pick up heavy objects&lt;p&gt;- precise motion (so no cooking)&lt;p&gt;- interact with buttons or touch screens (so laundry might be hard)&lt;p&gt;The one use case I think it might be worth it is if the robot can take a room full of toys and return everything back to where it belongs. Kind of like a one click, reset this room. If it can help me keep organized and clean around the house that would be a big win. Also, if it can help me detect which clothes are still wearable and which I should probably wash, that&amp;#x27;d be nice.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d gladly pay 5k for a robot that can auto-organize my stuff around the house, even if it involves a lot of customization and setup. Imagine leaving your groceries next to the fridge and coming back to a perfectly organized fridge. Or letting your kids play in the play room and then the robot comes in and puts all the toys back. Or if you just tend to leave stuff out (throw your clothes on the floor or forget to return stuff), the robot can put it back.&lt;p&gt;I think that&amp;#x27;s a legit use case.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mosselman</author><text>Or you could teach your kids to clean up their toys themselves. Make it a fun game for example.&lt;p&gt;Set an example by putting away your own groceries as soon as you put them in the kitchen. Boom 5k saved.&lt;p&gt;Maybe they will grow up to not be the type of person who leaves all of their crap on the table of the university table after they are done studying.&lt;p&gt;To be clear: I am not shifting on you as a parent. I am making fun of owning robots to do the specific things you mentioned. Obviously if you are immobile in some sense it would be great to have a cleaning robot</text></comment>