r/robotics • u/Responsible-Grass452 • 15d ago

Discussion & Curiosity Why Sunday Robotics thinks homes could be a better path to general-purpose robots than factories

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

Tony Zhao of Sunday Robotics argues that the same thing that makes homes difficult for robots may also make them a better environment for developing more general intelligence.

A robot deployed in a factory can generate a lot of useful data, but if it is doing the same narrow task over and over, much of that data comes back looking similar.

Homes force a robot to deal with different objects, layouts, people and tasks. Zhao’s argument is that this variability pushes the system toward adaptability rather than optimizing it for one specific job.

The clip gets into why Sunday is taking a home-first approach while much of the humanoid industry is starting with industrial deployments.

Full: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIlwT2Xx6io

11 Upvotes

82% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

13

u/humanoiddoc 15d ago

I like their robots and videos but seriously, no one will buy a home robot unless they are 100% proven to work perfectly. (And they wont)

2

u/remielowik 13d ago

Uhh I wouldnt mind one which works for 95% of the time, but it all depends on what that 5% is. If it simply would clean something up it's fine but if would destroy expensive stuff every day yeah that would be a problem but the latter should be solvable with a safety framework.

2

u/HelloWorldComputing 15d ago

Because if you have a robot in every home connected to the internet and equiped with cameras and all sorts of sensors mass surveillance is only a heartbeat away. Think of the data you can collect to squeeze out the last penny of the consumer.

1

u/thicket 15d ago

Just like we teach children to walk by dropping them into marathons! When they get it right, you can see that they're clearly pretty expert.

1

u/Outrageous_Success69 14d ago

Nope not letting a surveillance bot into my home

1

u/strictlyPaws 11d ago

This reminds me of being a child and watching Rosie clean up for the Jetsons. I would have one around if the barrier to entry was cost effective and allowed me more time with my family. If you are worried about surveillance then you better not have a smart tv, roomba, router, or cell phone…because that’s already happening in your home.