Boston Dynamics employees were frustrated by Google's plan for a household robot

Re:Boston Dynamics employees were frustrated by Google's pla... by robotresearcher on Sunday May 29, 2016 @05:02PM (#11798206)

Cellphones have no moving parts and do not exert large forces on things. High quality high power motors are expensive and will always be expensive compared to the consumer electronics we are used to.

Roomba etc can be cheap because the forces are small and required accuracy is low. An arm that can e.g. load a dishwasher or plug itself into an electrical socket is another beast. Consider that to lift 1kg payload the arm also has to lift itself, and arms typically weigh several kilograms.

Mass producing robots will help costs, but they will still be expensive like a car, not like a TV.

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Re:Boston Dynamics employees were frustrated by Google's pla... by cm2187 on Sunday May 29, 2016 @08:36PM (#11798949)

Probably. But you wouldn't buy one of these robots every year. You would replace them at the same rythm as any other mature technology (fridge, dish washer, etc). Obviously not the early models, but democratisation is not about the early models.

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