Sometimes you wish robots had already taken over the world. For example, if your mother calls, to say that she fell into the bathroom and can no longer get up. How nice it would be if a vigilant home robot could immediately shoot, with strong, yet cautious arms.
Help is on the road, American companies such as Tesla, Figure and their Chinese competitors BYD, Agibot and Unitree. They build humanoids: robots with two arms, two legs and a brain full AI.
Nothing human is strange to these humanoids. It is raining demonstration videos of robots that unpackdo the laundry or you water. They even lubricate your sandwiches-model 4NE1 of the German start-up nera robotics cuts vegetables immediately for one Healthy sandwich.
In addition to household jobs, the humanoids are prepared for the real work, in a factory or in the healthcare sector. Learning new tasks goes smoothly: thanks to new AI technology, robots immediately recognize their environment and the objects they have to use. Foundation models, the core of the applications such as Chatgpt, help to estimate the spatial relationships and movements.
Most physical limitations have already conquered humanoids. For example, Boston Dynamics – known for Robothond Spot – lets the humanoid atlas one SALTO to make. In China, robots visit martial arts Or do they run one half -marathon With two fingers in the imaginary nose.
The tech world hopes for one ‘Chat-GPT moment for robots’. Such as taking over human tasks in the digital domain-writing texts, programming computer code or playing for help desk-AI robots will soon be responsible for physical work. That would be a solution for an aging society that lacks human hands, to the production line or at the bed.
A bulk From investment bank Morgan Stanley maps the ‘Humanoid value chain’ up to the year 2050. The estimate: robots could do 70 percent of all the unskilled work that is ‘simple, boring or dangerous’. For slightly higher -quality jobs, half of the human workers could be replaced, the investment bank is wet.
If everyone has a robot, labor becomes an option
The same report quotes Tesla boss Elon Musk, who counts on a ‘human robot ratio’ from one in two. There will soon be at least ten billion humanoids on earth, says Musk. He is often wrong with his predictions, but his optimism is matched by Brett Adcock, founder of Figure. According to him, the humanoid becomes just as normal as a phone or a car. All humanity will soon be in possession of a alloy home slave, multi-usable, good at flower arranging and concrete pouring. “If everyone has a robot, labor becomes an option,” he said in an interview With professional Futurist Peter Diamandis.
The Humanoid-Hausse shows all the characteristics of a hype. He now also gets a political touch through the trade war between the US and China. Of Dark Factories – factories where the light is not needed because there are no more people working anymore – the US could retrieve production work, as President Trump wants. One but: most robotics ingredients come from China. And measured in patent requests The Chinese humanoids run for their American competitors.
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Where do those legs go?
Nobody doubts the usefulness of robots in the factories, but the semi-human packaging is not necessary there. It is even a disadvantage, says Ming Cao. He is a professor of robotics at the University of Groningen. According to him, a robot on wheels or on rails is safer and more stable than a walking robot and evokes less resistance from human colleagues.
The argument of the humanoid builders is that a robot with ‘normal’ arms and legs navigates more easily in a world that is designed for people, with stairs, door buttons and worksheets at gripping height. But yes, Humanoids cost tens of thousands of euros each. Cao: “If you modernize and automate a factory, it is more efficient to move some tables and cupboards.”
One of the largest robot customers in the world is Amazon. This uses in its most advanced logistics centers for 75 percent of the orders, not robots, but fully automatic roboses. This week Amazon showed A new versionthose items no longer holds with suction cups. Instead, there will be a hand that knows exactly how hard it can squeeze an object without anything breaking.
Really fingersgefühl do not yet have robots. Human fingers and hands are full of fine -mesh receptors that, for example, register movements, friction, pressure and texture. “To simulate that you need thousands of sensors,” says Laura Marchal-Crespo. She is an associate professor at TU Delft and runs the Neurorehaalidation Lab, which develops robots that assist a patient in recovery therapy after a stroke or an injury.
Her lab developed a method to make virtual objects feel ‘real’, for example by stretching the skin of the fingers slightly. For example, patients with VR glasses learn to grab objects again.
The rehabilitation of muscles and nerves is a repetitive task that a robot can partly take over from a human therapist. That should be done with small variations, otherwise the patient does not teach new functions. For that, in addition to repetition, is also Trial and Error necessary. “You don’t learn to play the piano in an afternoon either.”
Experts such as CAO and Marchal-Crespo are convinced that specialized, simple robots have the best chance of success. They are cheaper and are more easily accepted as a tool or device. That’s the famous Uncanny Valley: As soon as machines look too much like people, people drop out.
All extra help is welcome in the healthcare sector, but no robot with limbs is required. Robots are already bringing medicines around or Lift patients out of bed. Those helpers have no legs. Humanoids will not come in in healthcare for the time being, thinks Marchal-Crespo. “My experience is that therapists do not accept decisions from a black box. But perhaps the next generation thinks differently.”
In open environments, such as offices or households, you can’t let Humanoids let go. You shouldn’t think that a robot is going to ‘hallucinate’ on its own, such as chatgpt sometimes does.
That limits the deployment in home care. If your mother falls unexpectedly in the house, a humanoid is not a solution, says Ming Cao. “It is better to wear a fal sensor that sounds alarm and activates a camera that takes a look, via a cart or minidrone.” After that, human help must still be added.
Fortunately it was available at my mother. An attentive neighbor heard the blow and rushed to her. Nothing broken, but shocked. That assistance cost nothing, but was priceless.