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Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design

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Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design

#251

Post by zurfer »

zwischenzug wrote: post #135

That's funny. Just yesterday I wrote a blog post that mentioned telerobotics [1], as I've become interested in how the global economy has changed since 1990. The book I was reading that inspired it (which I thoroughly recommend) [2] talked about how telerobotics was going to help break down the last of three constraints on globalisation: moving people. The other two are: cost of movement of goods (1st modern industri…

That's an interesting train of thought, but I hope it is not the future. The world population is still growing. Labour is still the biggest wealth distribution system for most people. To eliminate "low-skill" jobs seems like an inhumane way forward. It will likely increase inequality.

Also to take your example: walking a dog can also be considered a high-skill job. Sure you don't need a degree, but you need empathy and kindness. Pretty hard to teach to some people.

Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design

#253

Post by sobellian »

espadrine wrote: post #201
fizixer wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- The robot is in your house the whole 168 hours a week, not just 4. You're assuming a good cleaning robot would be absolutely useless for anything else, like cooking, laundry, etc. - 4-year robot lifetime is overly pessimistic. If upgrade is not the reason (which has nothing to do with lifetime, it's your choice to upgrade), a robot could last way more than 4-years (especially with right-to-repair laws in place). -…

The first point has an obvious response and the last is speculative. I find interesting to address the middle one statistically. A given machine has a number of random events that can kill it. Each possible event type i can be modeled as a Poisson process Xᵢ with, in a given year, probability λᵢ. The machine survives in a given year if no occurrence of event i happens, with probability Pr(Xᵢ = 0) = exp(-λᵢ). For inst…

Engineers take this phenomenon into consideration and design systems with redundancy and/or easily replaceable parts. You need specific numbers for the design in order to treat this mathematically.

Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design

#254

Post by kylebenzle »

mrfusion wrote: post #185
al3xandre wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Things it can do: - stick a knife in your throat while you sleep (Assuming it is always-on and connected to the internet, and has zero-day vulnerabilities which it obviously will)

We need the three laws ASAP.

DARPA has done this long ago. I know you are making a dumb joke but the problem has been solved.

Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design

#255

Post by a_bonobo »

cosmodisk wrote: post #102
LarvaFX wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, the latency...

It would have challenges if it worked with people nearly,as then it can go south pretty quickly. However,the demo was some digging im mines,which isn't too bad if there are no peopl around.

A lot of the huge equipment (trucks etc.) in Australian mines is already either remotely controlled or completely autonomous, precisely because there are no people around and the mines are so remote there are no surprises

Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design

#256

Post by stevesimmons »

chosenbreed37 wrote: post #156
aptwebapps wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another possible angle is integrations, i.e. robot-friendly appliances. Maybe the washing machine has a powered door and an API that the robot (or some other software) uses to control it. No need to push buttons. Obviously, this won't cover all scenarios, but as someone upthread said, to be useful it doesn't have to do everything. The bigger issue, IMO, is avoiding distasters like Roombas trying to vacuum dog poop.

This sounds like a good idea. As you said it doesn't have to cover all scenarios. I'm happy with our Roomba. We don't have any dogs but is it really that bad!? :-)

Yes it is that bad.

Two months ago, my partner vacuumed up fox poop. No idea why he thought it was a good idea. We realised it wasn't when the soft, sticky debris coated the inside of the vacuum cleaner's flexible hose. :(

The smell only improved after I cleaned every internal crevice. Including submerging the crinkly part of the hose in a half-full bath and pulling through a sponge three or four times.

We still have to put deodorant beads inside the vacuum cleaner bag.

Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design

#257

Post by ansible »

rightbyte wrote: post #248
leetcrew wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a human cleaner isn't really a perfect substitute for a robot. people might feel uncomfortable with having a human worker in their house for a variety of reasons. most people I know actually clean their whole house before the cleaning service shows up. you don't have to feel guilt/embarrassment at the state of your house when the robot starts working. I could imagine a lot of people might be willing to pay a premium…

At least a human cleaner wouldn't spy on you by default.

Given the proliferation of always-on microphones in people's homes (Google Nest, Amazon Alexa, etc), I'd say we're not avoiding the spying issues...

Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design

#258

Post by [deleted] »

espadrine wrote: post #201
fizixer wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- The robot is in your house the whole 168 hours a week, not just 4. You're assuming a good cleaning robot would be absolutely useless for anything else, like cooking, laundry, etc. - 4-year robot lifetime is overly pessimistic. If upgrade is not the reason (which has nothing to do with lifetime, it's your choice to upgrade), a robot could last way more than 4-years (especially with right-to-repair laws in place). -…

The first point has an obvious response and the last is speculative. I find interesting to address the middle one statistically. A given machine has a number of random events that can kill it. Each possible event type i can be modeled as a Poisson process Xᵢ with, in a given year, probability λᵢ. The machine survives in a given year if no occurrence of event i happens, with probability Pr(Xᵢ = 0) = exp(-λᵢ). For inst…

[deleted]

Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design

#259

Post by easytiger »

ragebol wrote: post #62
spyckie2 wrote: post #26

Things it can't do: - go up stairs - get up after a fall / reset itself - pick up heavy objects - precise motion (so no cooking) - interact with buttons or touch screens (so laundry might be hard) 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 clea…

- Set the table - Gather & sort laundry, maybe even put in the washing machine - Gather dishes and maybe put them in the washer All chores easy for an able bodies human. But imagine having some disability or getting older. Getting back that autonomy in your life is definitely worth the money. Heck, if I have to pick between playing with my newborn son or doing the above and the likes, I'd trade my car for a robot tha…

I'd imagine getting a robot to do laundry from start to finish in the way my housekeeper does effectively impossible. I'm not au fait with how the complexity of automated tasks is estimated ala algorithmic complexity, but I imagine is pretty much beyond impossible. Especially given living space constraints in most homes

Re: Ex-Googler's startup comes out of stealth with simple, clever robot design

#260

Post by ideals »

bArray wrote: post #61
spyckie2 wrote: post #26

Things it can't do: - go up stairs - get up after a fall / reset itself - pick up heavy objects - precise motion (so no cooking) - interact with buttons or touch screens (so laundry might be hard) 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 clea…

Things it can't do (extended): - operate in your particular setting (it's likely over-trained for that specific environment) - run for long periods of time as a fully autonomous robot - be anywhere near small humans or animals - do any of the tasks in the video with any kind of speed or precision - learn new tasks - handle multiple objectives, or even process the request of a single objective reliably This is nowhere…

Let's build a list of things it can do:

Record all conversations in your house

Record all movement in your house

Record every time you enter or leave your house

Record how long you spend doing tasks (watching TV, shitting, cooking breakfast)

Recommend products for you to purchase based on actions within your house

Recommend products to replace the previously recommended product you purchased

Send all of your recorded speech and movements to law enforcement

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