Mitsubishi's Wakamaru bot isn't ready to integrate into society
Things didn't turn out so well for Mitsubishi's cute little Wakamaru house bot, which the company introduced in 2005. Initially expecting to sell 100 of the $14k+ bots, Mitsubishi received only a few dozen orders, and shipped even fewer, since certain customers with multi-story homes or no internet access wouldn't have gotten much mileage out of the yellow robot. Other problems further limited Wakamaru's acceptance in the home, like limited conversational abilities and lack of support for internet content beyond weather forecasts and email. People also expected Wakamaru to take over household duties like sweeping and cooking, and while the bot's heart is in the right place, he's not exactly handy with a broom. For now Mitsubishi is going to rent Wakamaru out to corporations, and is working on expanding arm functionality to allow for the carrying of drinks or newspapers, and to let him open doors. Teach him how to perform petty crime and spew cutesy catch phrases and we're sold. [Warning: subscription required]
Filed under: Robots
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
kev @ Jul 29th 2007 9:05AM
Haha...oh you don't want to know what working on that thing was like. MHI really needs to learn to listen to the developers...
Ignacio @ Jul 29th 2007 9:22AM
"People also expected Wakamaru to take over household duties like sweeping and cooking"
That is actually annoyingly common. Lots of people have no idea of how hard those "basic" things are for AI. Funny story: my aunt (age 50) thinks that those "Johnny 5"-like robots, that are remote controlled and whose voice is simply the operator taking into a microphone, can ACTUALLY TALK AND UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING YOU SAY!
I blame Hollywood.... :P
Chuckles McGee @ Jul 29th 2007 1:04PM
Though I couldn't justify spending $14,000 on a robot for household chores that can't even sweep...or vacuum. Wait, having it open doors is an future upgrade? What CAN it do? Weather forecasts and email? My Pentium 1 can do that...
The market is certainly there for a robot that can cook and clean. It's just a matter of getting AI up to snuff while keeping battery life acceptable.
kev @ Jul 29th 2007 9:24AM
Basically, if you need it to do anything else, you need to program it in. The API is effing terrible though...
Fireman54 @ Jul 29th 2007 10:47AM
Put a Roomba type vacuum in it. Then, at least, it can clean the carpet.
kevin @ Jul 29th 2007 6:44PM
Any one else think of the robot snl skit where they have a robot and then it has a repair bot and it repays it with 45 minute robot intercourse but then they break so the repair repair bot comes and goes -do you know what this means- -SUPER ROBOT THREE WAY!!!-
Jared @ Jul 29th 2007 9:31PM
I'd rather spend that 14k on a sport bike or the 3 b's. I mean... it does make for a really cute door man. Says hello, tells you the weather, and if you get lucky... might open the door. That or it will just rip the door knob into a wall and you'll be stuck w/ a 14K P.O.S. and a hole in the wall.
Eric @ Jul 31st 2007 2:16AM
In term of programming, it's probably like the Aibo who had a very complicated API too. I hope those guys will consider stuffs like URBI in the future. That would help to grow a contributing community which is not exlusively made of PhDs!