In the Star Wars movies, the droid R2-D2 carries messages, puts out fires, and while trapped on Jabba the Hutt’s sail barge, even carries a tray of drinks. R2-D2 also saves the heroes’ lives on several occasions . C-3PO and R2-D2 are both servants and friends. The idea that people might create machines to do tasks for them has been around for centuries— but only in myths and science fictions. Golems, animated clay statues, march through Jewish folklore. And Greek myths describe living metal statues called Automata.
Today, robot servants are real. Many people already have robots in their homes. However, these home robots aren’t as smart or capable as R2-D2 . They can’t yet take on any task we desire. Each home robot has a very specific job. It may vacuum floors, mow lawns, or provide reminders. Whatever it does, it makes people’s lives a bit easier. And astonishing new home robots—perhaps even ones as friendly and helpful as R2-D2 and C-3PO—are just around the corner.
Cleaning Dirt and Germs
Back in 2002, the company iRobot launched the first Roomba . This small, round robot rolls around, vacuuming the floor. It is probably the most iconic home robot ever built. As of 2020, more than thirty million Roombas had sold worldwide . “Its success rapidly eclipsed the dreams of all involved,” wrote Joe Jones in 2020. He is an inventor who designed an early version of the robot that would become Roomba.
The first Roombas simply drove until they bumped into something, then turned in place until the coast was clear and drove forward again . This resulted in random motion that would eventually cover an entire floor. New Roombas and other vacuuming robots are m uch smarter . They create maps and remember routes . A user can tell the robot to clean a certain room, and it will know how to get there . These robots charge themselves and empty out dirt automatically.
The 2021 Roomba j7+ can even notice and avoid certain objects—including power cords and dog poop. (You wouldn’t want a vacuum to roll over that mess and smear it all over!). The cameras on this and other new cleaning robots such as JetBot AI+ serve another purpose. A user who is away at work or on vacation can send the robot to different parts of the house to keep an eye on things, like a robot spy.
Home robots can assist with other cleaning tasks as well, such as robots that mop. There’s even a robotic wardrobe called the Samsung AirDresser that automatically dry cleans the clothing inside of it. Disinfecting robots clean surfaces like tables, desks, and doorknobs. Most shine UV light to kill germs (UV light damages all living things, so people typically can’t be in the room while disinfection is happening) . Hospitals have been using these robots for many years. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, other businesses such as malls, airports, and hotels started to use them to improve their cleaning routines.
Most UV light disinfection robots look like tall towers and roll around on flat floors shining light in all directions. But now researchers are developing versions that can clean harder-to- reach spaces. One has an arm with a light at the end, so it can reach over or around obstacles. Another looks a bit like a small dog. It sprays a chemical cleaner (instead of light) from a nozzle on top of its head. Since it has legs instead of wheels, “It can basically travel anywhere,” says Yiyu Chen, one of the robot’s designers. He’s a graduate student in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering.
Organizing and Tidying
Vacuuming up dirt or zapping germs turns out to be much easier for robots to accomplish than tidying up larger items such as children’s toys or clothing and towels. While it’s very easy to design a robot that can pick up a specific item from a specific location, it’s extremely difficult to make one that can pick up or manipulate any object of any shape, size, or texture in any location.
However, researchers are making great progress in this area. They are using deep learning to train robots in virtual worlds on how to securely grip many kinds of objects. Then, a robot with this training will figure out a good grip for a new object it has never encountered before. This type of robot will find a home in warehouses, where humans currently do most of the work of grabbing items to pack into boxes for shipping. But they’ll also be very useful in people’s homes.
Toyota’s Human Service Robot (HSR) completed a home trial in 2021. Its job was to assist Anthony Walsh, a man who had a disease that made moving around very difficult. The robot helped open doors and fetch objects that Walsh needed, such as a carton of juice or the remote control. Someone had to manually control the robot to get it to grab things. But future versions will work more automatically. “In the next 20 years, I see robots like HSR being deployed more and more in different environments—indoors, outdoors, and specifically in care settings where they would be placed in homes of those in need,” said Viktor Schmuck, a robotics PhD student at King’s College London who helped run the home trial.
Samsung unveiled a similar robot, named Bot Handy, in 2021. According to its designers, it can pour a drink, set the table, put away groceries, or empty the dishwasher. In the demo video, the company said, “Bot Handy uses AI to understand objects, like a glass cup or ceramic plate, taking note of their shape and materials to work as your trusted partner.” However, it’s not yet available for sale. In the next few years, robots like this one may begin to take on some tidying and fetching tasks in people’s homes.
However, one task that remains super difficult for robots is folding laundry. “It is one of the holy grails in robotics,” Barton Paulhamus, an expert in intelligent systems at Johns Hopkins University, told AARP. “That’s when I’m going to get excited, when I can dump laundry into a machine and it comes out folded.”
Cooking
One thing the makers of Roomba realized is that the best way for a robot to do a job is often very different from the best way for a human to do that job. This is why robot vacuums aren’t humanoids that push around a large vacuum cleaner. Similarly, the best cooking robots won’t be humanoids that walk around any kitchen, grabbing pots, pans, knives, and ingredients. Instead, the kitchens of the future will become more automatic, filled with machines that do more and more complex cooking tasks on their own.
Moley Robotics has developed what it calls the “world’s first robotic kitchen,” which costs a whopping $335 000. It includes a stovetop, refrigeration unit, cupboards, a sink, and a set of pans and utensils. A pair of robotic hands attached to a rail on the ceiling move around to perform all the tasks of cooking a recipe. The user just needs to supply the correct amounts of each ingredient. “It will take the cookware from the cookware storage, which is fully automated. He will put it on the induction stove and switch it on. He will put the water into the cookware automatically. He will take ingredients from the refrigerator. He will add the ingredients. He will store; he will blend; he will mix; he will mash. If it is needed, he will put the cookware in the oven and operate it. Until the end of the recipe, you need to do zero,” says Mark Oleynik, CEO of the company. Restaurants and hotels will likely install this automated kitchen first. As the technology becomes cheaper, though, it may become more common in people’s homes.
Caring for Families
Other robots help people at home by providing reminders, reading recipes step-by-step, answering questions, or managing schedules. The first generation of home assistant robots were smart speakers, such as Alexa or Google Home . They sat in one place, waiting for a wake-up command. They performed the same sorts of tasks as a smart phone, only you controlled them with your voice.
Tons of new home assistant robots come out every year . Many new ones move around and have cute appearances and even cuter names, such as Astro, Zeno, Pepper, Aido, Kuri, Buddy, and so on . They all have slightly different capabilities. But most do all the same jobs as a smart speaker while adding a few new features . Some play interactive or educational games with kids or elderly people, helping to keep them company . Some act as security cameras that can keep an eye on different rooms in a home. Some detect emotions on people’s faces and change their own expressions accordingly. Some help manage other smart home systems, such as lights or thermostats.
Mykie is a kitchen assistant robot from Bosch. It projects recipes and cooking videos onto a wall, so they are easy to see while preparing a meal. The robot can also command dishwashers and ovens that are the same brand.
Teaching robots fall into a special category. There are dozens of robots designed to help children learn while keeping them engaged and interested. Many of these—including Milo, Nao, Mox ie, and others—are specially designed for children with autism . Many with this condition find it difficult to interact with other people but enjoy interacting with technology. They can learn social skills from robots.
Several companies are working on humanoid robots. Most are too expensive for widespread use in people’s homes, and they still aren’t capable enough to accomplish many different tasks. One is Pepper, a robot designed to work as a receptionist. It can recognize and express basic emotions and help answer people’s questions. Another is the UBTECH Walker,which can pour a drink and hold some basic yoga poses. “When robots take a more human form, we interact with them more naturally like we would with any other person; the human-like form eases their integration into our normal daily routines,” Jeff Gordon of UBTECH Robotics told IEEE Spectrum.
Transforming Spaces
Robots won’t just care for people and their stuff. The stuff inside a home will also become more robotic and easily changeable. Right now, a table or a TV is a heavy, awkward object that never changes unless you put in a lot of effort. If you want to move a large TV, you’d better find a strong friend and roll up your sleeves. Some brand-new TVs have flexible screens that can roll away into a table or stand and then roll out when you want to watch. They aren’t cheap—one of them costs $100 000!
Furniture could also transform itself in similar ways. Some homes already come with beds that fold away into a closet,but these beds usually have to be folded and unfolded manually. Robotic furniture can transform itself into new shapes and arrangements. Ori Systems is a furniture unit that you control with an APP. Tap a button, and the unit rearranges itself to become either a bed, a desk, or an entertainment unit. It can even roll itself from one side of the room to another. In a video, Hasier Larrea, founder of Ori Systems and former head of Architectural Robotics research at MIT Media Lab, demonstrates how to control the system with a single tap. “I feel like Superman right now because with just one finger, I can push a whole system!”he says.
Moving transforming furniture will change how people use and think about the spaces in their homes. People will no longer need dedicated sleeping, eating, working, and resting spaces . One space could serve all these needs. This is especially relevant now that so many more people are working from home. Instead of leaving a resting space to go to a work space, a person could transform a resting space into a work space, or vice versa. The very space inside the home is a robot that responds to a person’s needs. Larrea says, “Urban spaces are too valuable to be static and unresponsive.”
In the future, we may even have programmable matter. Though it’s not possible yet, future advances could use physical units called voxels, the smallest cube unit in 3D space, that are like the pixels on a digital screen. Just as an array of pixels can display any image by altering each pixel’s colors, a group of voxels would be able to recreate any shape or texture by alerting the surface structure of each vox el to create a new arrangement. This may function sort of like automatic Lego bricks that can rearrange themselves into any form. An umbrella could become a bucket which could become a box . Or a sweater could transform into a blanket or a bathing suit.
Robots, Robots, Everywhere
Home robots are already making people’s lives easier, and they will continue to do so. They may someday be as widespread and indispensable as refrigerators and computers are today. Like any new technology, though, home robots may have some negative consequences. First of all, not everyone will be able to afford these new robots. This could worsen inequality. Today, people without computers or internet access must struggle to get a good education or career. People without home robots will likely face similar struggles.
Secondly, building and powering home robots and home robotic systems will devour a lot of electricity and bandwidth. This will put a strain on the electrical grid. Where will the additional electricity come from? Humanity’s hunger for power has already caused harmful changes to the climate that will only worsen over time. If we want more robots, we also need more sustainable ways to build and power them.
Finally, home robots will replace some human jobs . House cleaners, landscapers, chefs, nannies, nurses, office assistants, receptionists, and others may find that robots can do many of their tasks. Some may lose their jobs while others may train for new careers. In most cases, though, robots will work alongside people. The robot frees the person to do the more creative or interesting parts of the job while the robot does the dirty or repetitive parts. And when it comes to chores at home, very few people really want to wash dishes or fold laundry. That time could be spent relaxing, socializing, or doing hobbies. Bring on the real-life R2-D2 and C-3PO!
