Domestic Worker Replaced By Robot

At one point in the future, all the household chores like preparing meals and clean the house, which has for some people in the country is handed over to domestic workers (domestic workers), may be dealt with robots. Older people who live alone or have physical limitations, can use the services of such robots. Busy people who do not have a domestic worker can also rely on robots like this.

It did not seem too futuristic for a robot programmer at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, has been created, though still to be developed in order to really be ready to use. The project has received support from the Intel Science and Technology Center.

HERB robot dubbed, stands for Home Exploring Robotics Butler, was shown to the dozens of journalists from various countries, including Kompas.com, at the CMU campus in Pittsburgh, Wednesday (05/16/2012). At that time, HERB is placed in the kitchen to demonstrate his skill to enter the frozen food in the microwave, heat the food, then remove it, then leave it to those around him.

Intel and CMU-party state, the duties of that kind of service that they think could be done as HERB robots in everyday life in the future.

The robot, which cost nearly half a million dollars making the United States, developed jointly by Intel and Quality of Life Technologies in the CMU Personal Robotics Lab at the university. The lab focuses on developing algorithms that allow such HERB robot capable of performing tasks in a demanding and complex environment of human habitation and a mess of uncertainty such as home and office.

HERB uses six multi-core computers along with a number of sensors in order to do various jobs around the kitchen. To complete the task, such as how to use the microwave, HERB uses a rotating lasers. It helped in building three-dimensional model of the surrounding environment. The robot also has a number of cameras to recognize objects and two arms to perform the action. The sleeves have a sensor, which allows it to know the neighborhood. Sensors that help the robot to know where an object is located.

That way, the robot can work safely in addition to humans and to navigate in the kitchen or other environments, such as offices, designed for humans.

Although very promising, the robot still needs a lot of touches. When doing a demo, HERB flailing long enough frozen food boxes on the kitchen table to put in the microwave.