Meet Aeolus Robot, a clever little prototype bot that brings us a bit closer to Rosie, the Jetson's long-suffering maid bot.
(Aeolus robot prototype handy around the house)
The robot performed domestic duties such as mopping, picking up stuffed animals off the floor and moving furniture, and, perhaps most impressively, retrieving drinks from the fridge using an intricate-looking grabbing arm — all without human assistance.
“This is the first multi-functional robot that can act like a human being,” said Alexander Huang, Global chief executive of Aeolus Robotics. “Right now it’s like a child, but we will continue to grow its capability so that it grows from a child to an adult. The more people that use the robot, the stronger it becomes.”
The reason for that, Huang explained, is that each robot the company sells will be connected to a network that allows the machines to share information about thousands of objects, using artificial intelligence to make the robot increasingly intelligent over time as it adapts to your home and your routines.
(Rosie the robot maid from the Jetson's [circa 1960])
What Hired Girl would do (the first model, not the semi-intelligent robot I developed it into) was to clean floors . . . any floor, all day long and without supervision. And there never was a floor that didn't need cleaning. It swept, or mopped, or vacuum-cleaned, or polished, consulting tapes in its idiot memory to decide which.
(Read more about Heinlein's hired girl robot maid)
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