The Reason Amazon's New Home Robot Cannot Fetch You a Beer
Or much of anything. Because it doesn't have arms.
So while incrementalism in innovation is a nice theory, it doesnt solve the immediate problem. JL
Alex Cranz reports in The Verge:
While the $1,000 Astro could very well have a wide variety of
capabilities beyond home surveillance, it’s not gonna be fetching you
anything. It’s also unclear how well it can see anything. How long would it take Astro to recognize a beer? And what happens when
that beer recognition technology fails? You could find yourself with a
refreshing bottle of ranch dressing instead. The real problem is the robot has no arms! There is no way for it to open a fridge, freezer, or even open a door. It certainly cannot reach into a crowded
fridge and pull out a cold one.
But friend, a pair of cupholders does not a robowaiter make.
While the $1,000 Astro could very well have a wide variety of capabilities beyond home surveillance, it’s not gonna be fetching you anything. For one, it reportedly sucks. “Astro is terrible and will almost certainly throw itself down a flight of stairs if presented the opportunity,”a source who claimed to work on the project told Vice. Another source told Vice “it’s a disaster that’s not ready for release.” A robot more prone to tossing itself into the void than performing expected functions is not gonna be grabbing that Heineken from the fridge.
It’s also unclear how well it can see anything. Google andSnapchathave both heavily invested in creating a way for computers to interpret the real world without guideposts like bar codes. Amazon has not. It might be the maker ofRekognition, acontroversial facial recognition service, but its Ring ecosystem only got the ability to recognize packages...today. How long would it take Astro to recognize a beer? And what happens when that beer recognition technology fails? You could find yourself with a refreshing bottle of ranch dressing instead.
But the biggest problem isn’t the reports that it sucks, or the failure to prove it can distinguish between the various contents of your fridge. The real problem is the robot has no arms!
There is no way for it to open a fridge, freezer, or even a Yeti cooler. It can’t even open a door. It certainly cannot reach into a crowded fridge and pull out a cold one. I fear people assume it's got some Doc Ock arms tucked away behind its face or are hoping those two cupholders rise out of the robot to open the fridge via suction. They’ve seen the cupholders and assumed there is a way to get things into them that don’t involve someone in the other room helping out.
Who gave you that beer, Astro?!?!?!Image: Amazon
But there isn’t. Currently, there appear to be no plans to build it a pair of grabbers — or even a single appendage. The payload area the cupholders occupydoeshave a USB-C port, though! Theoretically, someone could build an arm. That arm could replace the cupholders.
But that arm does not yet exist. Unless you want to be shouting to housemates to stick a beer in your bot, the Astro will not be fetching you any kind of beverage.
As a Partner and Co-Founder of Predictiv and PredictivAsia, Jon specializes in management performance and organizational effectiveness for both domestic and international clients. He is an editor and author whose works include Invisible Advantage: How Intangilbles are Driving Business Performance. Learn more...
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