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Show HN: OK-Robot: open, modular home robot framework for pick-and-drop anywhere

ok-robot.github.io

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Re: Show HN: OK-Robot: open, modular home robot framework for pick-and-drop anywhere

#111

Post by ponderings »

garblegarble wrote: post #79
ctoth wrote: post #76

For solving long term tasks like finding things that aren't there, you can turn the annotated scene into a templated description and feed it to a large-enough model trained on interactive fiction. You are standing in a kitchen. Ahead of you to your right there is a large refrigerator with the handle on the right side. There is a set of cabinets to your left with a plate sitting on the counter above them. > get beer Y…

Great, now we can teach robots to wander around rooms looking for things, saying "keys, keys, keys... where would I put keys?"

I can pick up and place objects myself if only I could remember where I put them.

You could take video data and have fuzzy identification of objects moving around, then throw away the video and keep track of the objects, the blue floppy thing (gloves) and the metal shiny deforming things (keys) then have a more constructive dialog about the keys. A voice responding, what do the keys look like? Is there a blue square thing on the key ring? The less identifiable the object the funnier the discussion. What shirt? You have many shirts! Oh, the blue one, you have 4 of those, one in the sink, one behind the bed, one in the laundry basket, one in the closet. Oh the one with stripes! Why didn't you say so, it's behind the bed bro.

It could also ask you if they are suppose to be on the outside in the front door after you close it.

Re: Show HN: OK-Robot: open, modular home robot framework for pick-and-drop anywhere

#112

Post by exe34 »

garblegarble wrote: post #79
ctoth wrote: post #76

For solving long term tasks like finding things that aren't there, you can turn the annotated scene into a templated description and feed it to a large-enough model trained on interactive fiction. You are standing in a kitchen. Ahead of you to your right there is a large refrigerator with the handle on the right side. There is a set of cabinets to your left with a plate sitting on the counter above them. > get beer Y…

Great, now we can teach robots to wander around rooms looking for things, saying "keys, keys, keys... where would I put keys?"

I have exactly one place I put my keys in the house - the handle of a certain door. As soon as I get into the house, I put the keys there. This hasn't failed me yet.

Re: Show HN: OK-Robot: open, modular home robot framework for pick-and-drop anywhere

#113

Post by stubish »

rapjr9 wrote: post #95

Robots like this will have a small market until they can handle obstacles. The cat toy that the cat left in the middle of the floor, the papers that an open window blew off the table, the toys the kids left scattered about, the pencil that rolled off the desk while you were away, the dirty laundry you left laying on the floor, the ridge between carpet and hardwood floors, doors left open or closed, and more. That mea…

Firstly, I think many people will want to make the sacrifices necessary for the convenience. You don't have to have cables stretching across the floor. You can put marker tape on furniture. You can have the robot picking stuff up and putting it away rather than leaving it as a trip hazard. You can even replace human-centric objects with ones that are both human-friendly and robot-friendly (say, dinnerware that the dishwasher can easily grasp, move and clean). We already do this by buying microwave and dishwasher friendly stuff, to the point we are shocked when we discover that something isn't. Or we go to the expense of putting pet-doors in our human-doors so pets can use them independently. We are a highly adaptable species.

Secondly, I always liked the idea where your robot is suspended under rails in the ceiling (which you can see in the excellent movie 'Moon'). Advantage is it has more mobility than you because it can hover over furniture.

Re: Show HN: OK-Robot: open, modular home robot framework for pick-and-drop anywhere

#114

Post by sandworm101 »

exe34 wrote: post #104
sandworm101 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We generally understand that disabled people have a right to access the spaces that everyone else does. But climbing/caving is different, different than most any other activity: Access to space is controlled by ability. I have stood on ledges that are impossible to get to without a certain set of skills. If there was a ladder or a staircase, standing on that ledge would mean nothing. We can make a pool or athletic fi…

I've never understood this argument. Why would somebody else getting to a point through a different easy way cause another to feel like the hard way lost its value?

Stand on a remote ledge, a few square feet of flat space half way up a thousand-foot cliff. Yes, putting a ladder up to that ledge would reduce its magic, just as offering helicopter rides up K2 would cheapen every summit photo taken there.

Re: Show HN: OK-Robot: open, modular home robot framework for pick-and-drop anywhere

#115

Post by stubish »

sonofhans wrote: post #19
happytiger wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to counterpoint, but just for the sake of discussion, i kind of want the opposite but for maybe similar reasons. I want flexible robots that can replace my human labor. I don’t want specialist robots that are obligate specialists. Laundry, cooking, dishes, sweeping, vacuuming, and other constantly recurring tasks are what I would love to see automated not just a “robot that sweeps” like the market has been trying…

I applaud — for real — your ideas and feelings here. I’ve had similar thoughts my whole life, growing up reading golden age science fiction. But I worry very much that tools like this will be used primarily to increase corporate profits and reduce money spent on humans, rather than remove drudgery from people’s lives and allow them to do things more aligned with their goals and natures. E.g., if we make a cleaning ro…

The end goal, which I think the vast bulk of humanity wants despite rationalizations to the contrary, is that nobody does anything for a living. People only do things for leisure. Getting from here to there is the problem, which I think is a political and economic problem. People only work in sweatshops when a) they have no choice and b) it is cheaper to hire people than automate. The Star Trek Utopia absolutely requires socialist policies such as social security or UBI or similar to get to the point where wealth and money is meaningless. The alternative is what you see, where more people are pushed out of work by automation, driving down the rate of pay in sweatshops because social security kind of sucks, making more things profitable to run as sweatshops. Automation happens only where it is most profitable, leaving humans working harder for less doing the other jobs, including some of the most menial, degrading and harmful.

Re: Show HN: OK-Robot: open, modular home robot framework for pick-and-drop anywhere

#116

Post by EnigmaFlare »

rsync wrote: post #51

I very much want a stabilized platform vehicle that I can send point-to-point with a payload on it. So, a gyro-stabilized platform like a segway that I can send back and forth from point A to point B on a not-terrible-but-rough (walking path) route. I have tried to stay abreast of the options in the past and have never seen anything that matches this ... does anyone know if there is anything new that matches this use…

You can carry drinks on a plate suspended on strings. Keeps g pointing towards the bottom of the glasses. No electronic stabilizing needed.

Re: Show HN: OK-Robot: open, modular home robot framework for pick-and-drop anywhere

#117

Post by exe34 »

sandworm101 wrote: post #114
exe34 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never understood this argument. Why would somebody else getting to a point through a different easy way cause another to feel like the hard way lost its value?

Stand on a remote ledge, a few square feet of flat space half way up a thousand-foot cliff. Yes, putting a ladder up to that ledge would reduce its magic, just as offering helicopter rides up K2 would cheapen every summit photo taken there.

You have repeated the point as if it were self-evident, but you haven't explained it.

Re: Show HN: OK-Robot: open, modular home robot framework for pick-and-drop anywhere

#118

Post by jfim »

exe34 wrote: post #117
sandworm101 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stand on a remote ledge, a few square feet of flat space half way up a thousand-foot cliff. Yes, putting a ladder up to that ledge would reduce its magic, just as offering helicopter rides up K2 would cheapen every summit photo taken there.

You have repeated the point as if it were self-evident, but you haven't explained it.

The value is showing that one has reached that destination by overcoming obstacles and having sufficient skill to get there. Removing the need for skill and overcoming obstacles makes reaching the destination pointless.

Re: Show HN: OK-Robot: open, modular home robot framework for pick-and-drop anywhere

#119

Post by exe34 »

jfim wrote: post #118
exe34 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have repeated the point as if it were self-evident, but you haven't explained it.

The value is showing that one has reached that destination by overcoming obstacles and having sufficient skill to get there. Removing the need for skill and overcoming obstacles makes reaching the destination pointless.

The obstacles are still there.

Just because we have Linux, Python and JavaScript doesn't mean nobody's playing with assembly and experimenting with new ideas at a more fundamental level.

I have a suspicion that the sort of people who think they wouldn't do something hard just because other people have it too easy weren't going to do it in the first place.

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