one to change the bulb and one to program the first one to do it.ah har har har.
but seriously, let's keep it real: the whole reason we all robots in the first place is not for the shiny stainless steel bucket of personality, but because we all want gadgets capable of making our lives easier. I tell you that this is one of the troubles with robots – they do not make life easier! quite the contrary my organ-stuffed friend. let's just take the changing of a light bulb for example, I mean, after all, this chore is one of the most annoying and least gratifying. if you have your heart set on having a robot do all of your light bulb changing, here are a few thoughts to consider:
1. robots lack manual dexterity -- robots a clumsy electronic folk. while they can be programmed to move with ever most slight degree of motion, they are not a delicate kind. handling a thin-walled, vacuum-containing, ball of blown glass takes intuition and finesse if it is to be achieved successfully. the simple fact is that most robots have metal fingers. have you ever taken a butter knife in each hand and tried to use them to unscrew a light bulb? well i have. it is not too easily accomplished.
2. robots have difficulty in climbing step-stools and ladders -- again with the clumsiness. bipedal robots can barely walk across the ground, let alone climb a ladder. the next time you see a drunk, stumbling down the street at night, walking with the skill of a robot, ask yourself this: "i wonder how well this gentleman would do on a ladder?" exactly. you see, the robots that are most capable of traversing the average walkway are completely incapable of mounting a step-stool. this pretty much rules them out for reaching the burned out bulb.
3. it is very dangerous to have metal fingers close to light sockets -- i'm not sure if you realize this, but robots are composed largely of metal and circuitry. it is very dangerous, not only to the robot, but to those around the robot, to put a robot in a position where they could possible expose themselves to large voltages (i.e. the 110V @ 60Hz coming outta your local light socket). in the event that the robot recieves this voltage, it certainly could fry all of it's most important circuits and processors either leaving it "dead" or "damaged." now, i probably don't need to tell you this, but a damaged robot could be FAR WORSE than a dead robot. think about it.
and that my freinds, is just one more example of the troubles with robots.
Couldn't the robut have 1. Rubber covered metal fingers, 2. an elevation system similar to hospital beds and old man recliners, and 3. Surger Protector.
ReplyDeletei thank you for your enthusiastic approach to solving the problems of the robot movement, however:
ReplyDelete1. robots very rarely have four fingers and a thumb, thus making gloves nearly impossible to fit. if o.j. can't get gloves to fit, what makes you think your budget $15,000 KX-2000 can?
2.have you seen how slowly those "elevation systems" work? you'd have more light bulbs burned out by the time the robot was done changing the first one! also, those systems contribute to a large portion of the wieght of those machines, making it problematic for practical robot design.
3.the surge protectors you are referring to only work on units that are plugged into an electrical receptacle. in theory, robots would require an internal power storage device (more on this in future blogs).