For decades, science fiction has presented a robotic future dominated by human-shaped machines. They’ve come in a range of assistants, entertainers, caregivers or deadly soldiers sent to exterminate us mortal humans. They can be shiny metal or have biological human like skin and hair and be unrecognizable amongst us. They offer so much promise and one day in the future they will fulfill our each and every need and desire. It easy to imagine a world with them all around us helping, assisting even protecting us from others. The mind races to all sorts of scenarios from the utopian to the down-right dystopian. But here’s a bold prediction for someone who works in this field: the real robotic revolution is already underway and will be largely driven by the non-humanoid bots. I’ll explain why thats not a bad thing.
We are Living in a Human Built World
First of all the world wasn’t built for humanoids. Our built world has evolved over thousands of years adding different materials, technologies and even machines to provide our modern way of life. It has been designed for humans by humans with intricate spaces, and places that our human bodies can easily navigate. To this day, most doors have knobs, shelves are at average arm height, and tools are built for our two highly evolved eyes and our very dexterous hands. The hand-eye coordination with opposable thumbs is why we are the apex species of our time.
Humanoid Bi-pedal Robots Are Hard. Really Hard.
While most places built after the 1950s are pretty standard in their form a huge part of our built world isn’t and there are so many variations ( from door, window, ceiling switches and even stairs heights). Add to the fact that no one room is furnished the same and there are so many wildly differing furnishing a.k.a “obstacles” ( think of all your cluttered spaces) for robots to bump and trip. Humanoid robots entering this world are going to have to adapt to these incredibly diverse structures, essentially replicating the same human movements with much more complex and expensive machinery. This is not unsurmountable but it will take time.
Building a truly balanced and dexterous humanoid robot requires breakthroughs in both artificial intelligence software, hardware and battery science. While AI advances are promising and making strides, the hardware and battery technology needed for a truly robust, agile and energy efficient humanoid robot remains a a major hurdle. Companies like Figure , Tesla and others promise a world where these humanoids could do the work of a billion field and factory hands, be your personal assistant around the home, even your companion. One day in the future they may just do that. In the interim, there are incredible obstacles to overcome and we’re seeing that specialized robots are far more capable and ready to tackle the many use cases mentioned.
Humanoids for some, the holy grail of embodied AI through robotics and energy storage. Who can argue with that? Sometimes, however copying nature isn’t always the best solution. Human bodies have evolved over a million years and are great for traversing highly varying and diverse environments, but for specific tasks, wheels or tracks offer superior stability and efficiency. Now, consider specialized robots. Instead of legs, think of wheels and tracks for warehouses, arms for factories and fields, and flight via drones for inspection. These robots, designed for specific tasks, leverage existing infrastructure and automated tools. Not only is this approach far more efficient, its already here and rapidly evolving and being applied to use cases in real-time.
Sometimes sci-fi contradicts itself too. A fairly recent UK television series called Humans had lifelike humanoids or “synthetics” pretty much taking on every human role ( yes, even intimate partners!) and yet they drove around in regular cars. Like the producers were saying we can imagine a future world where humanoids exist among us more then we can believe in AI-powered self-driving robotaxis! And unlike in that future, Waymo, today is offering robotaxi service in San Francisco but we’re yet to see humanoid conductors operating the Muni cable cars.
The Future of Robotics is Collaborative
The most impactful robots will work alongside humans, not replace them. The fear that robots will take our jobs is far-fetched. There are going to be tasks within jobs that will be replaced and frankly should be replaced. Those tasks within jobs that are the most dangerous, or cause repetitive strain or are just plain drudgery are much better suited to machines doing the most dreadful, repetitive, monotonous and laborious tasks.
The future has already eschewed in a series of cobots (collaborative robots) that can assist in factories, construction, hospitals, and even homes. These robots, with their specialized design, form and function, leverage existing infrastructure and human expertise to unlock true productivity gains. We might not even recognize the robots of the future as they may be in the background. Dishwashers, Roombas, and automated lawnmowers and hospital cleaners are already prime examples. Even in most sci-fi while some humanoids have the most important human facing specific roles, the vast majority of the tasks are performed by the specialized bots.
In the very near future each industry will have their unique versions of cobots from construction, transportation, energy, mining, agriculture, hospitality, medical and waste management the use cases keep only growing. These non-humanoid robots are quietly improving our lives, and their capabilities will only continue to expand.
The future of robotics isn’t about replicating humans, it’s about specialization and collaboration. By focusing on the right tools for the job, we can unlock a future where robots seamlessly integrate into our lives, making them invisible helpers in a world built for us, assisting us to be better and reach our potential to be more human.
