What’s Your Dream Robot? I Have a Few, Do You?
What’s Your Dream Robot? I Have a Few, Do You?
No, not that!
Do you want a robotic butler? Yeah, so do I, but I think that’s a long, long way from happening. For now, let’s see what we might be able to get before the robot funeral home disposes of us oh-so environmentally responsibly.
Make the bed, Bed-o
No, it’s not the most taxing chore I do all week, but it is just one more thing and it doesn’t seem that it would be all that hard to automate. Maybe the sheets come on a roll that you slide into the end of the bed. Internal machinery grabs the sheets and pulls fresh coverings over the bed, cutting them off to the appropriate length and tucking in the bottom. The next morning, something grabs last night’s sheets, and rolls them up; that roll will eventually come out and be sent off for washing.
There would be different rolls for the seasons, of course. I’m not sure how to handle the pillows, and this thing would probably be an entire bed unit rather than a retrofit. Surely Johnny Ives could make this slick and beautiful rather than the ungainly contraption I’m certain you are imagining?
Brica-brac shelfer
Oh, this is a tough one. Or is it? All we need is the right amount of miniaturization. What I’m thinking of is tiny dusting robots, maybe the size of a dime. They can’t scoop up a lot of dust individually, and can’t scoot around all that long with their teeny batteries, but a handful of them might be able to handle a reasonably sized surface. They’d need to be smart enough not to plunge off the edge, though the best models would have gecko-like “feet” so they could climb in search of dust. When they have filled their bins, they signal you to push them into a collection bin where they will expel the dust and recharge themselves.
The Refriga-Cleaner
This is a brica-brac duster designed to make it’s way around a refrigerator or a freezer. It can climb, of course, but it is seeking food scraps, not dust. Does it grind those scraps up and dry them to make them more easily disposable? Would it need to wet some things like dried spilled milk? I don’t know.
Can it scout out expiration dates or find rotting food? Maybe, though it would have to wait for its collection bin to be able to report. Or would it? Not if the refrigerator itself was the home base for the little critters, the storage, charging, and dumping station.
Window/Mirror/Shower cleaner
This guy doesn’t need to be all that tiny, but it does need the gecko ability. And it better be really good at that, because I’m sending it up to the second floor windows to get the grimy outside.
Maybe it could crawl through the gutters while it was there?
The Roof Bot
Or maybe this guy could do the gutters after it’s done inspecting the roof for loose shingles and anything else that shouldn’t be there. Stuff that shouldn’t be there includes heavy snow, by the way.
The Rodent Chaser
This robot needs to be small, quick, and flexible. He’s going in the walls, the drop ceilings, under sinks, in the garage, anywhere where rodents might get in. He probably smells like a cat and can make menacing noises. He’s not a killer, though: I don’t want rotting corpses. His job is to convince the critters that outdoors may be cold, but inside is scary as hell.
And he should pick up and dispose of any droppings he finds in his travels.
Okay, these are my robotic dreams. Let me know yours in the comments or, if you have subscribed to receive these posts by email, you can respond privately from your mailbox. Be sure to let me know if I can add your robot dream to this article and how you’d like to be credited!
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