I defy you to not be seduced by this robot getting to grips with folding towels. It represents a major feat in the world of robotics and in bringing us a step closer to having our own personal cyber-butler!
Watch this video from the University of California, Berkeley.
There is something totally calming about watching this expensive machine complete this most menial of tasks.
Jump to more content from this blog
In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions. If you're reading via RSS, you'll need to visit the blog to access this content.
For the latest updates across BBC blogs,
visit the Blogs homepage.
You can stay up to date with dot.Maggie via these feeds.
dot.Maggie Feed(RSS)
dot.Maggie Feed(ATOM)
If you aren't sure what RSS is you'll find our beginner's guide to RSS useful.
|
Nick Robinson: |
|
|
Douglas Fraser: |
|
|
Brian Taylor: |
|
|
|
Richard Black: |
|
|
Jonathan Amos: |
|
BBC © 2012 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~11~RS~)
Comments
this is why we need to figure out the problems with "employment economy" and capitalism. The idea that people will have non-autonomous jobs in the future is very tenuous.
Complain about this comment
Major feat? I think not. The video is sped up fifty times. The robot takes 20 minutes to fold each towel, of which the first twelve minutes are spent trying to find the corners of the towel. I sincerely doubt we'll be welcoming our fastidious robotic overlords any decade soon - anyone entering the laundry industry today will be retired long before their job is replaced by a robot.
Complain about this comment
@2. Take into account that this robot didn't exist a few years ago. It's gonna get better, and fast.
Admittedly, yes, it's also a ridiculous idea, as it will inevitably be cheaper to employ someone to do this than build a robot. But this does quite nicely show the way pattern recognition is improving in artificial brains. It's a glimpse at the future. And the future is good at folding.
Complain about this comment
If they build a 'bot that can iron as well as fold then I want one.
Complain about this comment
This is the innocuous forerunner of the T-800. It's mission is to fold the towels of Sarah Connor.
Complain about this comment
Replying to Andrew Oakley [Major feat? I think not ... robot takes 20 minutes to fold each towel ...]: Microprocessors now execute at tens of thousands of times the speed they did 30 years ago. Presumably in another 30 years the robot will take less than 1 second per towel :-)
Two other possibilities for life in 30 years' time: we all live inside a virtual world, where mundane tasks such as (washing and) drying are done by magic spells; we all have cybernetic bodies that aren't washed with water.
Complain about this comment
Although as a self-confessed old style techie with a severe case of shiny syndrome I find this robot fantastic, I can't help but point out that the same could be easily achieved with a few correctly placed cams, gears, pulleys and motors!
Complain about this comment
It is a very exciting video. It's like watching Wallace and Gromit for real! :)
Complain about this comment
I believe they call it the singularity. That's when we humans become less intelligent than machines. I believe that's supposed to occur before the year 2050. Frankly we are an Ape that exists in a world created by a small percentage of our most gifted people. Without them we would still be in the caves, eking out a hunter gather living. How many people can program a computer? How many people can fix a modern car? We are quickly becoming redundant in the world we are creating. What do we do when these marvelous creations refuse to do the laundry?
Complain about this comment
@9 - im sure it will be like riding a bike and we would just do the laundry.. i think the real scary thing about this is the way our society works at the moment, you need money to buy food, home etc. when these things take over everything, how the hell do we earn money to live. i suggest that society needs to evolve a lot faster than it is to cope with what technology may bring in the future. this said the T800 comment isnt too far from the probable truth..
Complain about this comment
This is exactly the kind of problem, conventional computers are very, very bad at; complex spacial awareness and co-ordination in a real world environment. My prediction is that while one day we may be able to produce a computer driven robot that can acomplish complex real world tasks using brute force, e.g. very fast multi-core processors an better and more economic model maybe a neural network based robotics.
Complain about this comment
...so, to fix the corner problem, just put a little flourescent dot in the corner of each towel....
Had no idea it was so tricky of course, being a human and all but let's make it easy for the machine - this is likely to be quite a bit faster than waiting for it to work it out!
Yes, the bot would need to be told, look for the flourescent dot. That would be comparatively easy, I suspect.
Complain about this comment
The thing we will really need in the years to come with our aging population is a reliable robot to help us in our homes with such tasks as bathing, carrying heavy things around and making beds etc. Also possibly reminding us to take pills at the right time. I'm 71 and I would love a robot for these sorts of tasks in my home, so much less embarrassing than asking someone human to help one in the bath. As long as it was able to take the weight without toppling into the bath on top of you it would be a boon. I would love this and be willing to sacrifice quite a few other things for this sort of robot. It wouldn't have to look like a human - after all cars didn't look like horses but they became popular very quickly.
Complain about this comment
A a young boy in school I had a teacher who tasked us with this simple assignment,write down the steps needed to make a peanut butter sandwhich, she chose several at random and began to follow our written instrucitons. What a mess, even as an adult this is a difficult program to script. and now with this amazing step and the new learning processors , this is going to get interesting. I'm not saying to update your Resume but, how long until a robot recognizes itself in a mirror?
Complain about this comment
View these comments in RSS