Toyota Research Demonstrates Ceiling-Mounted Home Robot
[Toyota Research Institute (TRI)] has been focusing heavily on home robots, which is reflective of the long-term nature of what TRI is trying to do, because home robots are both the place where we'll need robots the most at the same time as they're the place where it's going to be hardest to deploy them. The unpredictable nature of homes, and the fact that homes tend to have squishy fragile people in them, are robot-unfriendly characteristics, but as the population continues to age (an increasingly acute problem in Japan), homes offer an enormous amount of potential for helping us maintain our independence.
Today, Toyota is showing off some of the research that it's been working on recently, in the form of a virtual reality presentation in lieu of an in-person press event. For journalists, TRI pre-loaded the recording onto a VR headset, which was FedEx'ed to my house. You can watch the entire 40-minute presentation in 360 video on YouTube (or in VR if you have a headset of your own), but if you don't watch the whole thing, you should at least check out the full-on GLaDOS (with arms) that TRI thinks belongs in your home.
[...] The reason that we generally see robots mounted on the floor or on tables or on mobile bases is that we're bipeds, not bats, and giving a robot access to a human-like workspace is easiest to do if you also give that robot a human-like position and orientation. And if you want to be able to reach stuff high up, you do what TRI did with their previous generation of kitchen manipulator, and just give it the ability to make itself super tall. But TRI is convinced it's a good place to put our future home robots:
One innovative concept is a "gantry robot" that would descend from an overhead framework to perform tasks such as loading the dishwasher, wiping surfaces, and clearing clutter. By traveling on the ceiling, the robot avoids the problems of navigating household floor clutter and navigating cramped spaces. When not in use, the robot would tuck itself up out of the way. To further investigate this idea, the team has built a laboratory prototype robot that can do all the same tasks as a floor-based mobile robot but with the innovative overhead mobility system.
Another obvious problem with the gantry robot is that you have to install all kinds of stuff in your ceiling for this to work, which makes it very impractical (if not totally impossible) to introduce a system like this into a home that wasn't built specifically for it. If, however, you do build a home with a robot like this in mind, the animation below from TRI shows how it could be extra useful. Suddenly, stairs are a non-issue. Payload is presumably also a non-issue, since loads can be transferred to the ceiling. Batteries become unnecessary, so the whole robot can be much lighter weight, which in turn makes it safer. Sensors get a fantastic view, and obstacle avoidance becomes trivial.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday October 01 2020, @11:10AM (4 children)
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 01 2020, @11:16AM (1 child)
The robot should be the one cooking bacon, eggs, and beans in that kitchen.
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(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday October 02 2020, @06:18AM
/me drifts off to sleep dreaming of frying eggs with a smile on his face...
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2, Funny) by khallow on Thursday October 01 2020, @01:42PM (1 child)
And then bring by some young kids to eat at the kitchen counter.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday October 01 2020, @04:48PM
My kiddo sure knows how to make a mess, without even trying.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 3, Insightful) by looorg on Thursday October 01 2020, @01:43PM (1 child)
Unless it's a new home, as stated, it will probably require some rebuilding, or you will be limited to one robot per room since most door frames are not open all the way up towards the ceiling. Or you have to build the rails so the little robo-critters can move about more freely. Perhaps like robo-doors in the walls sort of like a cat/dog-door in the door so they can move in and out on their own. Also make sure your ceiling can support the weight and strain of the rail system. Still it might be kind of creepy having them hang there in the corners of the ceiling like some kind of creepy spiders preparing to go to task.
Also it sounds like this will be the new home hazard for tall people. Ceiling robots slamming into your dome or you into theirs as you walk about your house.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday October 01 2020, @01:46PM
Sufficiently advanced robots will avoid bonking any humans (or will enthusiastically assault humans).
If the ceiling isn't high enough for you to avoid hitting your head while the robot is in idle mode, you need a bigger house.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Friday October 02 2020, @01:55AM (2 children)
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the ceiling-mounted home robot that 'stars' in the Soviet animated short film based on Bradbury's There Will Come Soft Rains:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LNHYz89sNc [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday October 02 2020, @06:46AM
We even had them in the UK at the time, as proved by this TV advert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU-tuY0Z7nQ
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Sunday October 04 2020, @07:33PM
/There Will Come Soft Rains/ = Sci-fi allows torment here
Not great, but I only spent a few minutes on it.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by sonamchauhan on Friday October 02 2020, @09:22AM
I'd often wondered how a ceiling shod with a thin steel plate-like ribboned surface would fare as a combined attachment base and power source for an overhead robot. I think it may need to be supplemented by rails.
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