Google's Atlas robot can clean your home…a little

Google is working on bringing humanoid robots that can do household chores to the world, but we might just have to wait a little longer. A video of the robot Atlas from Google subsidiary Boston Mechanics was recently put online. It shows the robot doing various tasks such as moving furniture and sweeping. Nick Statt from the Verge notes that Atlas is not great at cleaning yet compared with robot vacuum cleaners such as the Roomba. Robots such as the Atlas still need human help and there is a lot of work required to increase the number of tasks Atlas can perform autonomously. While the progress in robotics is admirable, the technology’s current limitations are a reminder that, as Statt puts it, “We humans are far off from creating the humanoid robots we so often see in Hollywood.”

The biggest advancement in robots for now is artificial intelligence. Again, this is not the kind of AI we have come to expect from Hollywood films, but rather it allows home robots to assist people by answering questions and controlling other connected devices. This technology is being put into humanoid robots for the home as well, supporting a trend seen in a report on home robots in 2016. A humanoid form is perhaps more comfortable for people to interact with, which is why it has remained so popular. However, As Atlas has shown, it is not yet the most ideal form for robots to take for all tasks.