Do We Need Human-like Robots?
2023-11-09
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1Building a robot that is both human-like and useful has been a goal of engineers for many years.
2Interest in the idea of artificial intelligence (AI) has created another wave of investment in robot technology to build a human-like robot.
3But most of the current robot models that aim to look like people are not too effective.
4They appear to work well in planned performances but not in real life.
5However, this has not stopped some startups from continuing to develop human-like, or humanoid, robots.
6"The intention is not to start from the beginning,'" said Jonathan Hurst.
7He is co-founder and chief robot officer at Agility Robotics.
8"We're trying to make robots that can operate in human spaces."
9Hurst said Agility's robot Digit is designed to do human things.
10It is not designed to look like a human.
11What it does is pick up objects and move them.
12Amazon announced in October that the company will begin testing the Digit robot for use in some of its storage buildings.
13Agility opened a factory in the western state of Oregon in September to mass produce their robot.
14Digit has a head containing cameras, other sensors, animated eyes, and an upper body that provides power.
15It has two arms and two legs, but its legs are not human-like.
16It looks similar to cats and dogs that walk on the very end of their feet, rather than on flat feet.
17Competing robot-makers, like Figure AI, are designing robots differently.
18The company believes that only human-like robots can effectively work in places built for humans.
19Figure AI also plans to start developing robots for simpler uses.
20But it aims to build robots that can perform more than one job to help take over work from humans.
21"There's not enough people doing these jobs, so the market's massive," said Figure AI chief Brett Adcock.
22He said he believes his company can sell millions or even billions of humanoid robots if it can make a robot do a human's work.
23At the moment, however, Adcock's company does not have a model that is ready.
24The company was founded just over a year ago after it raised tens of millions of dollars.
25Figure AI released a 38-second video of its robot, Figure, walking through its building in California.
26Elon Musk, head of Tesla, is also trying to build a human-like robot, called Optimus, in the electric carmaker's robotics division.
27But a presentation of the robot's walking last year did not win over experts in the field.
28Agility's Digit robot caught Amazon's attention because it can walk and move in a way that would work well with the robots the company already uses.
29Those robots look like vehicles and work in large buildings carrying heavy loads.
30Tye Brady is Amazon's chief technologist for robotics.
31He said the way the robot moves "is more interesting" than the way it looks.
32Agility Robotics co-founder and chief Damion Shelton said its Digit robot is "just the first use case" of a new generation of robots.
33He hopes people will embrace robots rather than fear them as they enter businesses and homes.
34"So, in 10, 20 years, you're going to see these robots everywhere," Shelton said.
35He added: "...Human-centric robots like that are going to be part of human life."
36I'm Gregory Stachel.