My definition of robot is that it’s operating decision-making principles shouldn’t be obvious from inspection.
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So a refrigerator that turns a compressor and light on and off using simple sensors isn’t a robot. A rice cooker with fuzzy logic is probably where the spectrum starts.
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I think there should be at least one fairly general sensor-actuator pair adapted to an open environment rather than a closed event set. Like camera and mobility. Roomba has IR obstacle detection and mobility.
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Interesting that many near-robots control a contained environment (fridge, bread machine, rice cooker). And temperature, moisture are intensive property scalar measures where a point measure will characterize extensive state of a whole contained, well-mixed space.
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A real robot sees an unbounded containing environment in full 4d: 3 space plus time. Kitchen appliances are really 1.5 d in a bounded space they contain: time and a set of point measures like temperature. Roomba is 3d (2d plus time). Flatland robot.
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Appliances are like plants.
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The robotics phase shift in factories is a good dividing line. Even high end CNC machines seem qualitatively different from general robotic manipulators. The philosophy of movement is more open-ended and general.
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Dumb home, robotic appliances or smart home, dumb appliances? 🤔
I’m gonna bet: first one, then the other.
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Basically robots are the answer. We need lots more robots everywhere.
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Replying to
Maybe grunt work is hard if robots takes a four-person-tall stack
Gelled robotics teams are rare?
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