Maybe. But if it is a worse design for tasks A, B and C and harder to build, why not go with the simpler and more specialized design for each separate task? Is the economy of scale really that much better with the general design? I’m not convinced.
If you’re talking about industrial tasks then you want efficiency and precision. If you’re talking about mundane variety of tasks then you want generalizeability.
Having a robot bake A cake and then wash the dishes. Not sensical to build a custom bot.
I’m still not convinced a human form factor is the best solution there. Why not fixed articulating arms at the laundry/sink locations instead of bipedal robots that must maintain balance and locomotion between the spots? Maybe if that were possible to do perfectly, but the engineering effort to get there is enormous compared to tech we’ve already had on assembly lines for decades. I’m not even saying we that we absolutely shouldn’t explore the tech, I’m just questioning if it’s objectively the best solution. A humanoid robot wouldn’t completely remove the need for human effort involved in eating or getting dressed and undressed… so is it really a problem that we need to physically place dishes or clothes in a certain spot ourselves for them to be dealt with?
Nobody wants mechanical arms attached to their sink and every other object that may require work. Mind you they may not want an android in their home either.
Laundry and washing dishes is not just “putting things in a spot”. Perhaps you don’t fold your clothes or separate your clothes or scrub dishes but many people do. Even loading the dish washer is fairly annoying when it’s a large crowd. Cooking is of course a huge one.
The question is really just how much would you pay for a 24/7 live in maid that can cook, clean, repair, etc. with a real human you’re paying them for availability. With a remote operated robot you’re paying for just the labor hours and none of the downtime.
It seems kind of fucked up but I do think the economics could work. People do have servants today. I tend to imagine such a service would be cheaper than a servant even at $20k up front cost. I do agree the bipedal legs seem unlikely be cost effective.
If I could pay $20K once and then never have to worry about doing any household chores ever again, I'd be whipping my credit card out at light speed.
If it's a robot that needs to be able to work in any room, including navigating stairs, I'd think being bipedal is the simplest way to achieve it. Maybe make it tripedal to make walking/balancing easier.
