Hungry? Reach for the Remote
Financial Times, October 9/10, 2004
Vacuum the living room. Clean the fridge. Prepare dinner. Look in on the children.
Nowadays, wealthy people have maids and nannies to help them with their household tasks. But futurists say it is only a matter of time before the work is passed on to machines: robotic servants that may occasionally pop a rivet and get sick but who generally follow directions and never ask for a raise.
So far, consumer robots are mostly limited to vacuum cleaners, lawn mowers and pet dogs and cats. But electronics companies have also created a handful of multiskilled multitasking prototypes that will yield important products tomorrow.
Some of the first products to offer robotic household help to the mass market were self-propelling vacuum cleaners. They appeared nearly 10 years ago and performed pretty much as expected for beginners—banging into walls and table legs, missing corners and falling down stairs.
But the model has improved in recent rears. The Trilobite from Electrolux is named after the prehistoric insect it resembles but it relies on computer technology and ultra-sound to determined the size and shape of a room, avoid obstacles, return to its docking station, recharge its batteries, and resume where it left off. Its list price is £999.
Considerably cheaper is America’s Roomba, developed by Massachusetts newcomer iRobot with help from the artificial intelligence division of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Roomba models range in price from $149.99 to $269.99.
But robots are being designed to handle much more than household cleaning. One device, called the Power Assist Suit, is a wire-laden computer-controlled apparatus worn like a jacket, due to be marketed next year which makes users look like ridiculous Arnold Schwarzenegger wannabes but also enables them to move considerably more than their own body weight. Sensors detect the muscles being used and activate a battery-powered air pump and air bags, making it easier to move big pieces of furniture and appliances, although nurses and other professional heavy-lifters will be the primary users.
Cooking is another task now being tackled by specialised computers. The TMIO — Tonight’s Menu Intelligent Ovens—is a combination refrigerator and cooker with separate, well-insulated compartments that can heat and cool independently of each other. Anyone heading out to work in the morning can leave his or her dinner in a compartment that keeps it cold during the day but changes into a cooker at a preset time so dinner is ready at the end of they day. When plans change, the device can be contacted and the settings changed by phone.
Other worthy home robots include the iBot Mobility System, an advanced wheelchair that climbs stairs, raises the user to eye- (or counter- or mirror-) level and navigates uneven terrain. A blind couple are currently testing a talking washing machine developed by engineering students at Michigan State University.
Of course, most of these early examples are just highly advanced machines, more appliance than android. But fully fledged household robots—the kind that walk and talk like people—may not be far off.
Honda’s Asimo is 4ft tall and humanlike in physique and can turn sideways, walk forwards and backwards, negotiate corners and climb up and down stairs. Meanwhile. Fujitsu’s smaller bug-eyed Maron-1, already available commercially, can take pictures, be operated remotely by mobile phone and remember a home’s layout. Sony also has an improved model of its pet dog, Aibo, which understands dozens of voice commands and can engage in two-way communication with mobile phones and other computing devices. The company also makes the humanoid Qrio, which walks, sings and dances. These are manufactured in Sony’s entertainment division, but could eventually be modified to take on household tasks.
Derek Seward, professor of engineering at Lancaster University, says it’s possible that homes of the future will rely on robot help. “There is no problem technically. As we get increasingly wealthy, we might want a series of housework robots to do various security tasks.”
But he does not anticipate a mass roll-out of domestic robots, adding: “there is not really enough justification for using robots in this way, and with current computer technology we can already achieve the same results by simpler means.”
Clive Longbottom of UK technology industry analyst group Quocirca disagrees. “They didn’t take off as they were supposed to in the 1960s and 1970s, but we are finally getting close to robots becoming mass market products,” he says. “The tipping point for robots is only about ten years away.”
He acknowledges that quality and functionality need to improve a prices need to come down: “A robot pet might be wonderful but not for £2,000.” Still, “good robots with the right kind of marketing will go from being specialists items to products with much wider general appeal. In the next year or so, I expect to see devices that will interest leading edge consumers to buy them. This will generate press coverage and, as prices come down because of economies of scale, mainstream buyers will take a look. This Christmas there will not be much around, but the Christmas after that, I expect to see some fairly serious home gadgetry.”
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