As robots become more powerful and do more work, their battery drain should increase. We already have battery powered fork lift trucks. Most use lead acid batteries and weigh over 400 lb. A humanoid robot is probably limited to about 100 lb and a 20 lb battery. What is the power available in a lithium battery the size of a lawnmower battery?
I would guess battery life is much less than 8 hours. More likely one hour.
Maybe it depends upon how much activity the robot is performing?
For example, you might have a robot to help you move your son. The robot might be active for (say) 5 or 10 minutes out of every hour and plugged into a charger when not active. Does that seem realistic?
The home assistant scenario is different from industrial robots which operate 24/7, right?
Wendy
What is the “battery life” of a human? We have to stop every 3-4 hours for a meal to recharge. And that’s even if we aren’t doing anything.
I suspect the robots, assuming we ever find something useful for them to do, will be more efficient than us. Not perfect mind you, but a step up.
If a robot had two or more battery packs couldn’t it unplug one and put it on a charger and plug in a fresh one. Think of battery packs something like those used for power tools or lawn equipment.
Mike
And sleep one third of the time to digest our daily recharge.
The Captain
Robots on wheels like Roomba can probably run for an hour before they stop to recharge. The robots that run on wheels an observe–like the ones that inventory grocery store shelves or glide down the aisle to collect info in a hospital ward are mostly mobile observers. They are not the same as robots with arms that lift things.
Robots in factories are stationary and hard wired. Humanoid robots that move require a whole different system. Yes, they can dock like Roomba and recharge. But then what faction of their time is available for service. Yes, plug in battery packs might work.
This seems to be a design problem. Details to be worked out. And if they play basketball, do they switch batteries at the quarter or half? Or do they last the whole game?
Great, we already have energy challenges with AI sucking the life outta our grids. Now we’re going to introduce multitudes of inefficient humanoid robots? To do what?
Humans are an amazingly stupid species.
The Chinese are having a big show of humanoid robots. Looks like they are leaders and plan to dominate the field.
Like it or not humanoid robots are coming. Places like Japan with declining birth rates may very well come to depend on them.
Places like Japan may continue to have declining birth rates because of “companion” robots.
Why have a relationship with a real person who has their own thoughts, feelings, and desires when you can hook up with a sycophantic AI robot? Sounds crazy, but it’s happening.
Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think? We need robots because of our declining birth rate, but the robots will only make our declining birth rate worse and worse.
Never underestimate humans’ ability to use technology in the most self-destructive ways.