Domestic Robots May be Available in 18 Months

 Robotics  

The research team behind the iCub project is now developing a new model, that will be ready for mass production, with the aim of bringing domestic robotic companions to elderly users for less than the price of a subcompact car.

Owning your own domestic robot may be on the verge of escaping from the realm of science fiction, but the goal which is preparing one of the most advanced robotics laboratories in the world.

"We just started the project that tends to develop low-cost technologies, in theory translatable to make robotics  products to be manufactured in series and able to enter our homes, '' Giorgio Metta, director of iCub Facility of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) has told ANSA.

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The next step, requires the involvement of industry to ramp up the mass production of the robots. But before that it is essential to have the results of a project, called "Robot Badanti," (Robot Carers) just started IIT and that could end in a year and a half.

"We just started the project that tends to develop low-cost technologies, in theory translatable to make robotics  products to be manufactured in series and able to enter our homes."

The project involves developing the characteristics of future domestic robots, to reduce costs, unsustainable today for what promises to be the most sophisticated electrical appliances.

Metta and his team are behind the iCub, the 'robot baby' who knows how to learn and 'grow' and is now, walking on two legs.

iCub will not get into houses, but an anthropomorphic robot will soon according to Metta. His team is now designing the new domestic robot, said Metta, and, like the iCub, will look '' reassuring and pleasant."

Like the iCub, the new robot will come with two arms, but will  move on wheels to reduce costs.

"Today a robot costs about €250,000 and is of course out of any market. Robots of this type," explains Metta, "can only be used in laboratories. We would like to get to a product that does not cost more than a small car, which is below  €10,000 and if possibly even less. For this we are studying new plastic materials to replace the metal and designing components that can be produced on a large scale."

According to Metta, robot companions, are ideal for the elderly, which in advanced societies are likely to become more and more numerous, while fewer and fewer young people and adults will be able to assist them. "The robots we are working on will be able to perform simple tasks, like taking objects, picking them up off the ground, and bringing them to people," says Metta. "They will be also a communication tool, with functions similar to those of a smartphone."


SOURCE  ANSA 

By 33rd Square

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