Robot-Blog | Are We Ready for Humanoid Robots?
With the development of AI, robots have become much smarter. A quick Google or Youtube search will reveal many cases of people using sophisticated robots. For example, videos of robots packing shelves in factories or, more impressively, One Ocean Robot, a sophisticated humanoid exploring shipwrecks and plane crashes.
These videos make many people wonder how far we go with such robotics in our daily life. Learn what today’s robots are capable of, what potential challenges need to be solved, and whether humanoids are ready for everyday life.
3 Humanoid Robots Helping Humans Today
One reason advanced humanoid robots are in high demand is their ability to handle dangerous and repetitive operations. This frees humans to focus on other important, safer tasks. Today’s AI robots such as humanoids and cobots are already assisting humans by completing a variety of tasks — bomb disposal, surgery, packing groceries, driverless vehicles, and many more.
One industry that often uses AI robots is the manufacturing sector. They mostly finish over and over again tasks such as packing goods, material handling, assembly and welding. This accelerates production time and allows humans to handle more complex or demanding tasks. Here are three different humanoid robots that help people.
- Number
Agility Robotics has developed a the humanoid robot fits perfectly for many tedious operations. The humanoid is called Digit and has fully functional limbs making him excellent at unloading packages from trailers as well as delivering them. Digit is equipped with sensors on its body to help it navigate complex environments with ease.
- Nadine
Nadine is a realistic-looking social humanoid robot with a variety of facial expressions and movements. It was developed in Singapore by researchers from Nanyang Technological University. Nadine can recognize various gestures, faces, objects and is capable of performing various social tasks related to customer service.
- promobot
Promobot is a humanoid suitable for a variety of service-oriented roles. In hotels, promobots can recognize guests, print receipts, issue key cards, and check in guests. This humanoid is customizable and can even serve as a medical assistant — measuring blood oxygen and blood sugar levels.
Are Humanoids Ready for Everyday Life?
Today’s humanoids are no doubt impressive, but robotic AI has yet to reach the level of generative artificial intelligence — an advanced form of AI capable of carrying out detailed conversations on demand. Many companies aim to combine generative AI with advanced robotics to make it more applicable to a wider variety of use cases.
Since most AI engines are developed for single-task use, they tend to struggle when performing multiple operations simultaneously. In other words, they are not good at multitasking. These complex aspects need to be addressed for robotic AI to become a reality in everyday life. The most advanced form of robotic AI available today is self-driving cars, which have a long way to go before they can actually drive themselves.
It was the same with humanoid robots. Although many of The available AI robots are amazing, it is clear that improvement is still needed, especially in terms of processing capabilities. AI robots need to understand a wide variety of interactions no matter how they are performed — voices, keyboard commands, hand movements, and sometimes even facial expressions.
For humanoid AI to be applicable to everyday life, humans need a deeper understanding of how it works — training may be required.
Potential Challenges to Overcome With Future Humanoids
One of the biggest problems with humanoid AI right now is battery life. They usually only work for an hour or two and then require charging. While the goal is to use it for a few hours, another approach might be to increase the battery life by a few hours and add fast charging.
In terms of complex and challenging tasks, many humanoids and cobots are quite advanced and can solve them with relevant ease. However, this usually means they are lacking in other areas, such as movement. In most cases, humanoids have impressive forward movement or processing abilities, but not both.
In addition, the technology currently used by humanoids also needs further refinement. Better sensor capabilities are needed in terms of depth cameras, sound and visual sensors to make them more applicable in modern life. For humanoids to become more widely used, their movement and processing abilities needed further refinement.
Humanoids also need to operate safely and effectively when working with multiple humans simultaneously. Robots need to understand multiple interactions with different people simultaneously to react appropriately. Current training methods used with humanoids are currently slow and need further refinement to make them available for everyday life.
Humanoid Robots Still Have A Long Way To Go
Advances in technology and AI are staggering, especially when combined to create robots that assist humans in a variety of tasks. However, there are still some areas where the humanoid needs to be refined to make it suitable for everyday use. Undoubtedly, humans will benefit significantly from the use of advanced AI robotics in their daily lives, but to make this happen, the humanoid still has a long way to go.
Guest article by Ellie Gabel. Ellie is a writer living in Raleigh, NC. She's passionate about keeping up with the latest innovations in tech and science. She also works as an associate editor for Revolutionized.
