{"id":566017,"date":"2024-10-19T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-19T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=566017"},"modified":"2024-10-19T13:01:23","modified_gmt":"2024-10-19T11:01:23","slug":"housebot-reality-check","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/ai\/566017-housebot-reality-check.html","title":{"rendered":"Housebot reality check"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The walking, talking, dancing Optimus robots at the recent Tesla demonstration generated huge excitement<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this turned to disappointment<\/a> as it became apparent<\/a> that much of<\/a> what was happening was actually being controlled remotely by humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As much as this might still be a fascinating glimpse of the future, it\u2019s not the first time that robots have turned out to be a little too good to be true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take Sophia, for instance, the robot created by Texas-based Hanson Robotics back in 2016. She was presented by the company as essentially an intelligent being, prompting numerous tech specialists<\/a> to call this out<\/a> as well beyond our capabilities at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly we\u2019ve seen carefully choreographed videos of pre-scripted action sequences like Boston Dynamics\u2019 Atlas gymnastics<\/a>, the English-made Ameca robot \u201cwaking up\u201d<\/a>, and most recently Tesla\u2019s Optimus in the factory<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously these are still impressive in different ways, but they\u2019re nowhere near the complete sentient package. Let Optimus or Atlas loose in a random home and you\u2019d see something very different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A humanoid robot capable of working in our homes needs to be capable of doing many different tasks, using our tools, navigating our environments and communicating with us like a human. If you thought this was just a year or two away, you\u2019re going to be disappointed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building robots able to interact and carry out complex tasks in our homes and streets is still a huge challenge. Designing them even to do one specific task well, such as opening a door, is phenomenally difficult.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are so many door handles with different shapes, weights and materials, not to mention the complexity of dealing with unforeseen circumstances such as a locked door or objects blocking the way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Developers have actually now created<\/a> a door-opening robot, but robots that can deal with hundreds of everyday tasks are still some way off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behind the curtain<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Tesla demonstration\u2019s \u201cWizard of Oz\u201d remote operation technique is a commonly used control method in this field, giving researchers a benchmark against which to test their real advances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Known as telemetric control, this has been around for some time, and is becoming more advanced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the authors of this article, Carl Strathearn, was at a conference in Japan earlier this year, where a keynote speaker from one of the top robotics labs demonstrated an advanced telemetrics system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It allowed a single human to simultaneously operate many humanoid robots semi-autonomously, using pre-scripted movements, conversation prompts and computerised speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly, this is very useful technology. Telemetric systems are used to control robots working in dangerous environments<\/a>, disability healthcare<\/a> and even in outer space<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the reason why a human is still at the helm is because even the most advanced humanoid robots, such as Atlas, are not yet reliable enough to operate completely independently in the real world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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