Just wait until the sex industry figures this out. When that happens, this might be a good investment due to deep market penetration of the product.
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According to you they are here now, after all you said they only needed to have a handful and they have now sold 150 humanoid robots. So you can now say you have seen humanoid robots being implemented in your life time.
Andy
Another humanoid droid.
Andy
You made me post this.
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As usual, economics rears it’s dismal head.
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Lol. Touche, I guess - EVE doesn’t have legs or hands, there’s no indication that it’s operating autonomously or using its arms. If that’s what a “humanoid robot” is to you, then arguably we’ve had humanoid robots for decades now (I see them every time I go to Disney World). I’ve tried to distinguish humanoid robots from robots that are shaped like humans for purely cosmetic or aesthetic reasons - because I think we both agree that the audio-animatronic robots at Disney are not what we’re talking about when we talk about this subject.
Part of me is wondering if the humanoid design also helps with training the robots. They can literally mimic us and learn a chore by watching what we do.
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Do you have to have legs or hands to be a humanoid? Does people without legs and hands make them any less human?
That is a good point, I think in order to be a humanoid robot it would have to be able to interact with a human. Like the Kime robot, another robot that has been sold, or the nao and Pepper. Even though the Pepper robot does not seem to be that useful.
Andy
That is part of it BJ but the most important part is “we” have designed the world around humans. Everything we have built has been designed to work around our form. So the thought is to design a robot around our form rather than design another world around multiple robots. After all, if it is safe enough for us, it will be safe enough to have those robots working around us.
Andy
Perhaps there’s a need to add a layer to the differentiation matrix? Perhaps the differentiation criteria should also include heuristics vs neural net?
Many bots are still based on heuristics (every action/reaction is coded) while the newer humanoids are neural network controlled.
ralph
I got that. The idea is to have the machine approach a problem and work it out. The machine is give plenty of opportunity to solve the problem.
Problem meet machine.
Do something.
10 chance of a round peg going in a round hole.
That is not bad. That is not promising.
It is probably serendipity.
This might be Freudian but imagine those teeth.
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Like Y2K our imaginations were helped along as the money flowed.
There is no expiration date this time.
Not at all. If a person had their legs and arms removed (a la the protagonist in Johnny Got His Gun), he would still be a human being. But we wouldn’t regard a robot that was nothing but a rectangle as having a humanoid shape. “Humanoid” in this context means being shaped like a “typical” human.
I don’t think it’s the ability of the robot to interact that makes the robot humanoid - after all, an ATM or a welding robot or a smartphone will interact with humans, too, but I don’t think that’s what we mean when we say a robot is “humanoid.” It’s the form of the robot.
I think when we talk about humanoid robots, we’re talking about robots that are generally shaped like a “typical” human. We don’t usually mean the Disney robots, so I think we also mean that the robot not only looks like a human, but can perform the same general physical functions/tasks as a typical human can. Ie. they can walk, pick up and manipulate objects, push and pull and press things, etc.
There’s no single definition of a humanoid robot, but I don’t know that something like the Kime is a good example of one. The Kime has no lower body. We’ve had robots that consist (roughly) of an arm or multiple arms, with either a tool or a grasping device ad the end, which arms are attached to a box for decades - it’s one of the most basic types of industrial robots. But no one would really refer to those as humanoid, even the ones that the arm is approximately the length of a human arm. A humanoid robot has to have the general features that correspond to the human form - a box that sits on a counter with two armatures attached wouldn’t necessarily cut it.
I’ve thought the term generally describes a robot that’s been designed for universal human functions. A “typical” human in good physical shape and basic mental acuity can do a security guard’s rounds, make cocktails or snacks at a bar, pick items of a shelf to pack into a box, empty a dishwasher, and carve a chicken into parts. The optimal shape of a robot designed to do only one of the above tasks at a single job site would probably not look like a human - but the optimal shape of a robot that has to be able to do any of the above tasks would likely have most of the features that a human body would. The idea is that by making a universal robot (apologies to Rossum), rather than bespoke robots for each task, you gain efficiencies in manufacture or flexibility that make up for the inefficiency of not having a form tailored for the single job.
I see what you did there.
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Robots that are intended to interact in the typical human world will always have arms/hands and leg/feet. Otherwise, it would be hard to sell it as a “humanoid” robot.
I am not so sure jerry, I could see someone coming into a courtroom and taking a Humanoid robot out of a briefcase, put it on the table and claim it to be the second chair. Possibly even the first chair.
Andy
Must be one MEGA-sized briefcase !!!
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Not if it is just the head. Just like a bowling bag. 
Andy
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Side comment. At the Cars & Coffee show this past weekend a guy rode by me on what I can only describe as “a briefcase with wheels.” It actually completely folds up into a large briefcase size package which you can throw in your trunk or carry into the office. Electric, about 12 miles range, top speed 15mph, It was *vastly cool.”
The Honda MotoCompacto. The whole thing folds up into itself.
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