Intel: Robo-butlers within 10 years

 

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By Nicole Kobie

Posted on 2 May 2008 at 08:30

Robo-butlers are just a decade away, according to Intel researchers - but they've got to work out a bit of mug-dropping clumsiness first.

The technology was demonstrated at Intel's robotics research labs in Seattle and Pittsburgh, with the aim of showing its potential, and limitations.

Researchers Dave Ferguson and Siddhartha Srinivasa demonstrated a robotic arm attached to the base of a Segway scooter. Its laser-guided hand featured multiple cameras, letting it see and identify objects. This particular arm was trained to pick up mugs from a table and transfer them to a dishwasher rack - which it did successfully most of the time, though the odd mug did fall victim to butter fingers.

The arm is currently powered by two standard PCs, which are mounted to the machine. The eventual goal is to have the robot run from a standard home PC using a wireless connection.

Ferguson explained that the mobile robot will eventually be able to move around a house, picking up and retrieving objects such as keys or fetching a glass of wine - because, as Srinivasa notes: "everyone needs a robotic barkeep."

The goal is for the robot to function at human speed, seeing and understanding objects as quickly as we do. It's also designed to be stopped with very little human interaction, so it can be used by elderly or ill people without safety fears. "It will break before it breaks anything," Srinivasa claims, admitting that the multi-jointed arm was rather scary looking.

Ubiquitous robots

Currently, the robot must be shown objects to know what they are, but the researchers hope to one day simply let it loose in an environment to take pictures for the first few days to learn.

The researchers say robotics are still in an early stage - a point proven by the mugs on the ground - but that they have the potential to become as ubiquitous as computers are now. Indeed, they predicted robo-butlers could be cleaning up our homes or helping with medical applications in ten years.

They compare the current revenue of the more successful robotics firms with that of Apple's $100 million turnover in the early 1980s, suggesting the robot market will follow a similar growth.

To see the robo butler in action click here.

For another video from Intel of the robot picking out a Rubik's cube from several objects, click here.