The most useful home robots

The 21st century is the century of robotics. The region attracts more and more developers, investors, and ordinary users. Robots not only do not take jobs - the industry creates a huge number of new jobs, developing the economy. Amazon introduced 15 thousand robots, without reducing a single employee. Uber opened an office in Pittsburgh to allow Pittsburgh to test the autopilot, creating parallel jobs. An ordinary robot vacuum cleaner will not take the job of a cleaner, but will become an important helper at home.

There is no doubt that robotics will be the driver of economic growth throughout the world. But it concerns industrial production. But at home, robots still occupy a special place - something between a smart machine and a pet. Right now, there are many interesting things happening in home robotics. Robots become things about which we could not even think that they were robots: chairs, cups, windows, and so on. But the most interesting and useful robots still have a recognizable look.

Home Assistants

Japanese company Vinclu Inc. released her version of a virtual assistant. The system shows the weather forecast, has the functions of a smart alarm clock, controls the lighting, the microclimate of the apartment, household appliances, and is ready to correspond with its owner during the day. If you are over thirty and loneliness with your paws hugging your shoulders, then it is nice to receive the message “I can't wait” from an anime-like girl.
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The Gatebox device plays the role of the central hub of a smart home, but unlike traditional soulless sensors and automation systems, a virtual girl has her own character and reacts emotionally to human messages. The device costs $ 2580.


The assistant robot Peeqo responds to the interlocutor's voice, reads his request and responds with gifs. In addition, Peeqo plays the role of a programmable desktop assistant: if a person begins to be distracted from working at a computer and spends too much time on entertainment sites, Peeqo reminds him of the need to do business, and if he does not listen, he becomes angry. In addition, the robot can play music on demand and even control simple electrical appliances.

Peeqo is a DIY project and you can do it yourself if you have a 3D printer.


Another robot for those who did not dare to get yourself even a fish. The companion robot from Panasonic understands natural speech, is able to respond, but most importantly, it shows video. It has a built-in projector that gives an image of 854 × 480 pixels. Moving at a speed of 3.5 km / h, the robot will follow you around the apartment everywhere, projecting your favorite movie onto the walls.


ASUS Zenbo - an attempt by Taiwanese to jump into the accelerating train of home assistants. Judging by the appearance, the creators of Zenbo were clearly inspired by the cartoon "Valley". The robot works in conjunction with a large number of devices - from smart watches to smart door lock. He is able to display images from CCTV cameras on his screen (both from external cameras at home and from his internal), remind of meetings, recognize faces, interact with smart home devices. The cost of the robot is $ 620.


For the most hardcore geeks, robotized pets will appear in the future. Scientists from the laboratory of adaptive robotics at Osaka University are already engaged in the creation of prototypes of future robot dogs.


Almost all the largest companies, one way or another, are drawn into the production of robots. So Toyota introduced the cutest Kirobo Mini. The robot, 10 centimeters high, can act as an interlocutor, search for information on the Internet, order goods and services, book tickets. It is noted that a device worth $ 400 catches the emotions of the owner and adapts to them. That is, apparently, with a hangover will not be boring talk.

Pick up the house

If you do not need a smartphone crawling around the house, then you should pay attention to the robots, sharpened to perform one function. FoldiMate can only fold and iron clothes. They tried to raise money through Kickstarter back in 2012, but then the campaign failed. However, the developers did not despair and finalized the device, which now represents a small box (71 x 81 x 79 cm), capable of independently smoothing, cleaning and folding clothes. The price for FoldiMate ranges from 700 to 850 dollars.


The little Zooids helper robots have to cope with the creative mess on the table. The open-source project Zooids, created by a non-profit group of scientists, involves the use of a swarm of small autonomous robots as an input-output interface. Each robot is autonomous and able to act both alone and with its "comrades". Robots are able to reflect information, lining up in certain icons and pictures. You can draw using a pair of Zooids, and the rest of the robots will display the image you are drawing at the same time. Also, robots are capable of a crowd of dragging a phone towards you (throwing off all the garbage from the table).


And if the phone is not needed at all, then it can be disassembled into its component parts using the Liam robot created by Apple. This robot is able to dismantle 1.2 million smartphones per year, but you cannot buy it yet.


ATLAS is one of the most advanced robots in the world, but soulless scientists forced him to do housework. In the video, his actions were sped up 20 times.

Robots - the owners of the kitchen

Tired of waiting for your order in a restaurant? The robot of the Japanese company Kawasaki will prepare you sushi in 45 seconds. In fact, we are being deceived here, because beforehand a person blinded rice balls and cut fish. And the robot simply collected sushi from ready-made components.


Dobot, worth $ 1500, decorates cakes and whips dough. But unlike conventional culinary robots preparing pancakes, this almost industrial device is capable of printing 3D-printers toys, helps children learn programming and geometry, does engraving, participates in the creation of jewelry and much more. Not surprisingly, with such opportunities, the project quickly attracted $ 400,000 to Kickstarter.


Somabar - the robot bartender, who for only $ 400 will become your lifelong drinking companion. With its capabilities, life will be greatly reduced.


A mechanical hand will make you a cup of coffee in the morning and, if it reaches it, will put it to bed. In fact, this manipulator is able to make almost 200 cups of coffee per hour.


DIY project of a 69-year-old retiree who built a machine in three months, capable of making toasts, soft-boiled eggs, as well as tea and coffee.

Courier Robots

The Dmitry Grishin Foundation Grishin Robotics recently invested in a British start-up Starship Technologies, engaged in the production of robots couriers.

Robots are designed to carry small loads and can travel more than 5 km in 30 minutes. Now they are being tested as food delivery couriers.


Intel and the Google Ventures and AME Cloud Ventures funds have invested in another supplier who plays the role of a butler in a hotel. Savioke Robot is such a bedside table on wheels, which over the past year has made more than 11 thousand deliveries in several hotels.


A few years ago, every second new robot was either a home assistant or a semi-medical device recording your every sneeze. Now the vector has changed and it seems that every second robot wants to carry baggage for you. The Gita robot porter has distinguished himself here - he can carry up to 18 kilograms of cargo, balancing on two wheels. After a sudden fall, the robot can independently rise and continue moving.

Gita will follow you everywhere - escape will not work. Even if you turn the corner of the street, the robot will find you thanks to a special belt that you will have to wear. A camera is installed on the belt, transmitting a picture to the robot. In addition, he has another camera - thanks to two data streams, he makes a detailed three-dimensional map of the nearby space. After delivering the luggage to the destination, Gita will return home on the map.

Other

Mabu monitors the state of health and transmits data to doctors. When he suddenly grabs his heart, Mabu is the first to call an ambulance ... Actually, no. Unfortunately, this useful feature is not yet implemented. The robot just keeps track of your lifestyle and taking the pills correctly. He will also brighten up loneliness by asking about your mood and well-being. This is someone who can complain about life!


For those who can not live without beautiful photos in social networks, a whole group of industrial robots can arrange a full-fledged photo session! And this is not a staged trick - the whole survey was carried out by real industrial machines of the KUKA company, which were specially programmed to prepare the scene.


And the only robot in the selection that looks like a man - moreover, looks like a man! Realbotix is ​​an intellectual doll for intimate communication with a person. You can communicate with the doll in the usual way, or using a virtual reality helmet, and special software gives it a customizable personality. Dolls will be on sale already this year at a price of about 10 thousand dollars.

That's all for today. The selection included some of the most talked about home devices over the past year and a half - as you can see, almost all of them are not humanoid bodies, hanging around in search of what to do, but smart, non-functional devices that perform useful actions under complete human control. In fact, so far most of the household assistants are elements of the smart home that have learned at least to move, but in their “intelligence” they are not far from the smartphone. Let's see what awaits the industry in 2017.