On a crisp
Saturday morning late last fall, outside the Gates Center on the campus of
Carnegie Mellon University, Michael Clark thought he sensed something odd
behind him. Clark, an adjunct faculty member in CMU's Institute for Software
Research, looked over his shoulder to find 50 Girl Scouts, many with their
faces pressed against the building's glass doors, peering inside at a robot on
the other side of the glass.
"They all
wanted to see the 'Anybot,'" recalls Clark, who has used the robot to teach
classes at CMU. "After I brought them inside and gave them a tour, many of them
still wanted to walk past the Anybot and pat it on the head."
The robot,
specifically known as the QB and built by Anybots
Inc., has that kind of effect on people. Looking like a cross between a
Segway and an ET doll, the QB has the kind of appeal that many robots lack.
With its two big "eyes," it looks just human enough to give passersby the warm
fuzzies, but not so human that it gives them the creeps.
"Its mouth doesn't move and it has no resemblance to human form, other
than its 'eyes,'" Clark says. "It has no arms and hands, and with its low
torque motors, you can hold it back with just the push of a finger."
Indeed, the
QB is already starting to gain social acceptance, but its bigger task still
awaits. The product's designer, noted roboticist Trevor Blackwell, hopes to
place thousands of the QB robots in businesses around the world at $15,000
apiece. His vision: to have the robot serve as an "avatar" - a replacement for
a person who can't attend a meeting. His robot consists of a head, with the
aforementioned eyes, and a display screen that allows users to show their
faces. But it also goes a step farther - being an avatar, it serves as a
replacement body for its remote users, enabling them to move around a
conference table, wander from office to office, or just meet people in the
hallway.
"Everybody
has meetings and every meeting has a break where people go out in the hall and
drink coffee and talk," says Clark. "Speaker phones don't move, but an avatar
robot can. It can go out in the hall and allow you to talk to people. It does
everything except drink coffee."
Aiding the
Driver
Blackwell's
idea for the QB began taking shape about two-and-a-half years ago, after his
nine-year-old company had been experimenting with a 150-lb robot that
could lift objects and perform manual labor. Over time, though, Blackwell and
his colleagues noticed something curious about their manual labor robot: In
their own facility, they weren't using it for chores; they were using it for
communication.
"The 'aha'
moment occurred when we saw that we were using it to pop in and out of
offices and talk to people," Blackwell recalls. "So here we had this giant
150-pound robot, and we were using it to talk. We realized we could remove a
lot of the features and still be able to do that."
Ahh, but what if you could "rent" one of these for the various trade shows or other venues? I see this as a major potential market. And I can see many companies wanting one or two of these in their "stable" for guests to use, or to have access to a rental-bot company that could supply them as necessary. Include a cellular network connection, and you could go almost anywhere. (At least until you run into stairs, or a curb without a wheelchair-friendly access point.)
You could perhaps even call up the rental company, have one put into a cab to be dropped off anywhere, and then picked up later. There are many such possibilities.
This basic idea is nothing new, but this design is much more practical than most. I really like the thought put into the very functional design of the "head", not only with the sensors and display, but that hat-rim-like bumper and the general aesthetics. It looks like at least one of their design engineers is also an artist, with a good grasp of human psychology.
I'd like to offer a suggestion though. I'd want to be able to press an elevator button. Perhaps add an actuator that allows the vertical shaft to tilt from side to side, and either a raised bump on the front of the "hat-rim", or maybe even a "nose" on the face to push the buttons. Tied in with your camera and ranging sensor, the operator would just click on the button they want, and the robot would figure out how to move to press it.
It's got "eyes", and a screen to display the image of the person controlling the robot. To whom should we be speaking? If it's the person controlling the robot, then even the hint of anthropomorphism (the friendly eyes) should be removed. Consider the interaction when a human translator facilitates a conversation (whether foreign language, or sign language). The proper way to converse is to talk TO the person, NOT to the translator, even though the translator is speaking the words you understand.
I have this robot coming out soon that I need to sell thousands of and my price is only $1,999 (available for a limited time for only $19.99 a month). Unlike other robots, businesses can easily afford to buy one of these for every employee. While it isn't quite ready to fetch coffee or pretend to be you, it can sit by the break room and drink coffee (and pee on the floor later on). It's so cute when it says 'your next payment is due in [xx] days!'
Be serious people, what is the ROI when a company buys one of these?
I think these guys are onto something. Travel is getting very tiresome these days. With the advent of the new imaging systems at airports, we now have to remove our shoes, belts, phones, pens, eyeglasses, computers, bottles of liquid and even scraps of paper when we go through security. Planes are jammed; there's never an extra seat. Hotels and airfare are expensive. If engineers could find a way to alleviate some of that pain, I'd be all for it. My problem is that I would need to have avatar robots spread all over the country -- San Jose, Boston, Detroit -- and I'd never be able to afford that. I think this would work for people who have remote offices or manufacturing facilities that they frequently visit.
It sounds to me that this robot was designed and prototyped before the times of the existing video conference systems. At first, I couldn't come up with any situation in which a robot could be more efficient that me attending a video conference meeting. We can also create an avatar that looks just like us in virtual environments like Second Life and attend vistual meetings.
Then I though that the only way this robot could come useful would be if I have to attend two very important meetings at the same time. In that case, I would send my avatar robot to one and I would attend the other one in the real or vistual world. Closing two important deals at the same time? :)
I agree, I don't think we need a bunch of Shelbots running around our halls. Most of the goals would be accomplished by a good video conf system. Now, if we add an arm so it could get me some coffee... there might have something useful to this.
Won't take long before Dilbert, Alice, Wally and the PHB all send their avatars to the meeting room while they get some work done, and there will be no one outside to drink cofee with Asok. Defeats the purpose.
I agree. Facial design of robots may matter for tasks that are humanly. However, there are those tasks (you cited few examples), which no human being wants to do such as handling hazardous materials or cleaning in nuclear facilities. There, I think flexibility of robots to maneuver different tasks or situations at hand would be more important than their look. Right?
There seems to be two tracks for robot development: Robots that can conduct extraordinary tasks in production (while not looking the least bit human), and robots that look slightly human and perform tasks (such as talking and walking) less efficiently than humans.
We're fascinated by the semi-human aspects of robotics, while the really fascinating robot development is conducted by very non-human-looking robots.
The auto industry is deploying an inspection robot with multiple "eyes" that examine the inside of a cab for welding accuracies and parts-in-place. The robot has five eyes, each with a different task. They can scan or "see" more accurately than human vision (besides retaining a much higher level of focus than humans). These robots don't look human, so they don't get the pats on the head. Yet these robots demonstrate real value of robotics -- doing tasks that exceed human ability.
Very cool story, Chuck, but really--a robot as an avatar replacement in meetings and in place of a CEO to communicate to his or her employees. While I applaud the technology and definitely can see robots finding a real home in business, I just don't think even this cute ET-like guy (or gal) can replace a person in terms of the value of human-to-human communication in meetings or coffee breaks or any where else, for that matter. Social media and texting are bad enough in terms of serving as a substitute; throw robots into the mix and things really get scary!
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