A Norwegian robotics firm has unveiled a knitted-nylon-covered humanoid robot designed to complete household chores.
"Neo Gamma," built by robotics company 1X, is a bipedal android equipped to perform everyday tasks such as vacuuming, tidying clothes and making coffee.
In a promotional video released Feb 21. On YouTube, the machine is shown serving tea, fixing a wonky picture frame, carrying laundry, hoovering, wiping windows and collecting groceries, before taking a seat as its human owners eat.
Although the company has said the humanoid robot is not ready to go on sale to the public, they claim the new model has been made available for limited testing in some homes. This will enable engineers to test the robot's navigational, speech and body language artificial intelligence (AI) features. These capabilities are being developed in-house, although ChatGPT developer OpenAI was an early investor.
"There is a not-so-distant future where we all have our own robot helper at home, like Rosey the Robot or Baymax," Bernt Børnich, the CEO of 1X, said in a statement. "But for humanoid robots to truly integrate into everyday life, they must be developed alongside humans, not in isolation."
"The home provides real-world context and the diversity of data needed for humanoids to grow in intelligence and autonomy. It also teaches them the nuances of human life — how to open the door for the elderly, move carefully around pets, or adapt to the unpredictability of the surrounding world," Børnich said.
[...] Its multi-joined hands use elastic motors that mimic human tendons, and it has four microphones and a speaker system integrated into its body to communicate with humans. Its knitted exterior was designed to reduce the force of potential impacts with the exterior environment and increase its overall safety.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Mojibake Tengu on Monday March 10, @06:16AM (1 child)
Can it handle an axe?
I mean, woodchopping, of course...
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday March 10, @06:46PM
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Monday March 10, @10:15AM (1 child)
Because it's made in Norway and not in the US.
Because unlike the US, Norway has very strong privacy laws. And it's not a dictatorship.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by RamiK on Monday March 10, @12:38PM
Well, technically it sorta is: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elverum_Authorization [wikipedia.org] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarchy_of_Norway [wikipedia.org]
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 10, @11:09AM (4 children)
Just read tfl and watched the short robot video. Why does the nearly-all-gray robot have a black "face"?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by looorg on Monday March 10, @12:07PM (2 children)
So they can find it when it's working outside in a snowstorm. That said a bright shining colour would have been better for that, but it would be weird when it's inside.
But it's not racist, give up on that fantasy. It's an esthetic choice. People like the colour. It's not so they can feel racially superior to the bot as it toils on their fish farms.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 10, @12:27PM (1 child)
Maybe it's so that facial recognition won't work on the robot...
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 10, @06:15PM
Can't robots have QR codes on their chest so that humans can know which robot is which?
The server will be down for replacement of vacuum tubes, belts, worn parts and lubrication of gears and bearings.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Spamalope on Tuesday March 11, @01:17AM
IR sensors working through the faceplate?
(Score: 5, Informative) by ledow on Monday March 10, @12:26PM (13 children)
And in 10 years nobody will have one of these in their homes, still.
And for the billionaires that bother to, it still won't actually be as useful or as cheap as... just hiring a maid or other help.
And it's completely defeated by far, far, far simpler and cheaper automation.
And when it does get to that level of complexity, you can be sure I will go totally Will-Smith-in-iRobot on them (yes, that's not accurate to the books, but etc. etc.).
What I want is a robot that I can put a bunch of plates in a certain assigned place, and it'll load them into the dishwasher, take them out and put them back into the cupboard. I don't need it to be able to walk AT ALL. In fact, that's just tons of unnecessary complexity. If anything, what I really want is a dishwasher with a "loading" part on the top, that takes the plates in, washes them, and then provides them in a stack so I can just take another clean plate whenever I like. Like a hotel plate stack, but automated. And handles cutlery and pans etc. the same. That would be more useful than any walking robot and it's perfectly doable for the last 50 years. We don't have it because it's more engineering hassle than it's worth so people don't want to pay for it.
Helping move my laundry? A cart on wheels. Put some smart in it if you like so you can control it. How does it manage stairs?
Helping bring in the shopping? Same.
What you don't see? It sorting the laundry, folding it, unfolding it. It collecting the laundry from around the house. It hanging the laundry out to dry. It putting the groceries away. It walking around the supermarket and getting the groceries (supermarkets have robots for online fulfillment... they're dumb robots on tracks that lift and drop boxes, that's all you need). It actually vacuuming the entire room, including under the sofa and getting all the edges.
Why? Because it's not capable of any of those things. And those things are either EXTREMELY difficult for a robot to do (and quite easy for a human) or there are already robots that do a good enough job and don't cost as much as a new car.
This is another "in the future" piece of nonsense that can barely shuffle around your house like an old granny but also has the potential for real damage and injury, while also being completely unable to understand what you want, or do it on its own, or just do a mildly complex manipulation task (a robot able ot tip a pot to pour coffee or shuffling across a house holding a basket is NOT anything we've been without for the last 50 years).
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Monday March 10, @12:35PM
You totally failed to see why this thing is humanoid:
Porn.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 10, @12:46PM (2 children)
> a dishwasher with a "loading" part on the top,...
This sounds like a good idea. In our case, we only run the dishwasher every few days, leaving plenty of time for food to dry/cake on. Thus, we have to rinse/scrub everything before putting in the dishwasher because just shooting water at the dried food doesn't work--really our dishwasher is more like a final sanitizing step, and, it's a "batch" process.
We replaced a ~30 year old dishwasher with a new one a few years ago. It's much quieter and probably uses less power than the old one...but it doesn't do any better on washing dishes with 3-day old food stuck on them. As proof that our manual pre-rinse & scrub is effective, the installers for the new one remarked that the old dishwasher drain hose was clear--most are full of food goo.
If your "loading part" dishwasher works "interactively", starting to wash as soon as a dirty item is inserted, that would remove our step of the pre-rinse & scrub. If you can make the unit fit into the standard opening for normal dishwashers I'd certainly consider one. The front load slot could be a big version of the old CD player loading slot in car players...
(Score: 2) by janrinok on Monday March 10, @01:05PM (1 child)
I agree with the recommendation. I wouldn't be without a dishwasher now. I do a single wash at the end of each day. It uses less water than doing it by hand, and less electricity than the main boiler does for the same quantity of water.
[nostyle RIP 06 May 2025]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 11, @12:37AM
> I do a single wash at the end of each day. It uses less water than doing it by hand, ...
The new dishwasher installers said that the average life of one has been pretty consistent at 10 years. Note that we got 30 years from our old one until the main motor bearings seized up, which I attribute to only running it every few days. We are on a 1/3 duty cycle compared to a busy household where it runs daily.
So you may be saving water (etc), but may be wearing your dishwasher out quicker than we are? Of course we are putting in more sweat equity with all the pre-scrub/rinsing. Not sure how to price that tradeoff...
One recommendation--if your dishwasher (like our 30 year old one, and our new one) has an electronic/computer control, make sure there is a surge suppressor somewhere on the electric feed to catch nasty line voltage spikes. As well as little protectors scattered around, we also have a "whole house" surge protector at the main circuit breaker panel.
(Score: -1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 10, @05:04PM (1 child)
Found that naysayer that shits all over everything while other people actually invent stuff. I bet your forefathers were saying the same when the cars, planes, computers, etc., were first being built. Hell, they probably poo-poo'd the wheel and continued to drag their shit around.
(Score: 2) by ledow on Tuesday March 11, @09:12AM
Or the guy who can point out a dozen articles going back several decades that claimed to have invented exactly this thing, with these kinds of limitations, and it never actually being as claimed, and this one is suspiciously absent of the kind of thing that's actually difficult and only shows things we've already seen a dozen times.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 10, @06:03PM
be able to afford it, even if it did exist.
(Score: 2) by Undefined on Monday March 10, @07:30PM (5 children)
I'm resigned to being very patient, as in, I'll probably die first. 😊
(Score: 2) by looorg on Monday March 10, @07:55PM (1 child)
It's not that I wouldn't want a lot of similar things done for me by my robot-servant. But what would you do with all your free time?
(Score: 4, Touché) by Undefined on Monday March 10, @08:33PM
In no particular order, and without specifically considering new activities:
Play guitar and bass; interact with the cats; read; listen to music; watch movies; play video games; visit with friends and family; photography; rock/mineral hunt; exercise; build models (ships and pinups); swim; write code; design hardware; learn.
(Score: 3, Funny) by acid andy on Tuesday March 11, @11:59AM (2 children)
Do you enjoy taking out the trash? ;)
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 11, @11:58PM (1 child)
> Do you enjoy taking out the trash? ;)
Yes, the kitchen smells so much better once the trash is out!
(Score: 2) by Undefined on Wednesday March 12, @03:39PM
This [amazon.com] might help you out. My wife got us one of these and it does a great job of keeping trash odor from getting obnoxious, which also means we take out fewer partially-full bags. Both a savings in money and a nod to the environment. Also, super convenient, which is not nothing.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Thexalon on Monday March 10, @01:13PM
* Promises the world: Check
* Sci-fi references: Check
* Not yet ready for release: Check
* Video available under highly controlled conditions: Check
When making the video, you can be damn sure that they ensured the robot never encountered anything it wasn't trained to handle.
This is yet another story in a genre of articles which are basically pitches for investor funding. Would something like this be quite useful if it exists? Yes. Does it exist yet? No.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Monday March 10, @09:09PM
This is very cool to me personally because when I read Issac Asimov's Foundation Series I fell in love with the idea of being a "roboticist". I'd love to have access and training and the opportunity to be part of the creation of such technology.
Sure, it's in its infancy but I think that's where the most developmental fun can be had, not to mention the possible impact on humanity. Combining robotics with LLM's should be very interesting in the near future.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A