Humanoid construction robot installs drywall by itself
Category: Health, Science & Technology
Via: split-personality • 6 years ago • 75 comments
If Japan's Advanced Industrial Science and Technology Institute has its way, construction workers might be a thing of the past. Researchers have built HRP-5P, a humanoid bot that can handle a variety of construction tasks when there's either a staffing shortage or serious hazards. The prototype uses a mix of environment detection, object recognition and careful movement planning to install drywall by itself -- it can hoist up boards and fasten them with a screwdriver.
The design doesn't have as much freedom of movement as a human being, but makes up for that with numerous joints that flex to degrees you wouldn't see in real people. It won't always look the most natural when doing its job, but it'll be effective. It can also correct for slips, and it's not deterred when it has a limited field of view.
AIST's robot is methodical, but you can't call it quick given its tendency to take baby steps and otherwise act cautiously. The potential is huge, however. In addition to typical building construction work, robots like this could also help assemble aircraft and ships. The team is aiming for collaboration with private companies that would treat HRP-5P as a development "platform" that could lead to further breakthroughs.
However, the machine also fits into a familiar pattern for Japan: its determination to address population shortfalls through technology instead of immigration. AIST is quick to declare that robots like HRP-5P are meant to tackle the "manual shortages" expected to stem from Japan's aging residents and shrinking birth rate. This would free the shrinking number of human workers to focus on lighter and less dangerous work, according to AIST. It could be useful far beyond Japan, but it's meant to address a far deeper issue that robots can't fix.
the article states that the robot is slow and careful
but it operates just as fast as I would if I were alone installing 4x8 sheets of drywall, lol
shades of terminator?
a humanoid bot that can handle a variety of construction tasks when there's either a staffing shortage or serious hazards
Serious hazards? For when you're drywalling the edge of the Grand Canyon, or drywalling during an insurrection? It would be cheaper to use an undocumented worker than send in your fifty million dollar robot.
If they can be programmed to cuss, spit, brink beer and tell off color jokes, I'm all for it.
Ohh, they need to be able to hit their thumbs with a hammer or other violent device sometimes too...followed by a good round of cussing.
I think in the film "he" actually missed the drywall with the screw one time - just like real life, lol
I missed that.
Now I have to go back and watch.
Can the robot be programmed to drive screws into Romex or ABS drain lines?
I am sure those are premium priced dealer installed options with limited warranties.
Dave' suggests that skill would be a premium option. I don't think that I would want the robot on the framing, electrical or the taping crew. He could be useful lugging bundles of shingles up a ladder or on the concrete crew.
epi, you're every guy's dream girl. I can hear it now:
epi's boyfriend: It's only October, but I already got my girl the perfect gift!
his friend: Dude! Shut the fuck up!! My bae is hinting at wanting jewelry ... not any jewelry, but it has to come in a Tiffany's box.
epi's boyfriend: Start saving now and maybe you can get it by 2035.
his friend: What'd you get so fuckin' perfect for epi??
epi's boyfriend: For starters, I got her 250' of 12/2 ground and 250' 14/3 solid SIMpull CU NM-B W/G. And for a stocking stuffer, I'm getting her 45' of corrugated PA 12 1/4" tubing.
his friend: Fuck you ... I'm breaking up with my chick tonight.
I know know about this because I have worked as an architectural designer in the past. It's embarrassing to tell a homeowner of an almost million dollar house that their move-in date has been moved back 2 weeks because we discovered that one of the drywall monkeys perforated the drain pipe or drove screws into the Romex with ther screw guns, but only after we spent a week painting their skimcoat plaster walls and staining the finish woods. We developed practices to pressue test the plumbing and continuity test the wiring after the drywall has been hung to prevent that from happening in the future so these problems weren't discovered at the finish stage.
My Bfs know that my preferred gifts are shoes, expensive kitchen toys, books or art stuff.
Don't let my newish boyfriend see this. This is porn to him! My contributions to his work around our house (he works from home in a mundane job like the rest of us, but loves laying flooring, tiles and me for fun) is saying "I want a white kitchen." Presto chango, I get a white kitchen!!
I have a yard long list of stuff for him to do if you ever run out of honey-dos. My home repair abilities stop at painting and cleaning. I'm just the person who draws the prints that are too often ignored or changed without my permission. "We always do it this way"
BF is a superintendent who plays with big dirt stuff when he isn't in the office cussing at late sub-contractors or filling out paperwork.
And when it bends over, it MUST show at least 3 inches of ass crack.
LMAO.
Absolute must, otherwise it won't get past OSHA inspection.
Oh dear god ... that made me snort laugh! Everyone loves when I snort laugh ... doesn't happen often, but when it does everyone is glad it happened. They don't even care what I snort-laughed at.
I laugh so hard at my newish boyfriend's ass-crack! He never believed it until we put a Ring in the back yard and he saw it for himself! Omigawwwd ... cannot ... stop ... laughing....
LOL, exactly.
I'm gonna start a fake organization that isn't as stringent as OSHA. I'm gonna name it O-PSHA.
LOL
This article should be renamed as Meet your replacement.
Sooner or later most labor jobs will become obsolete. Robots dont ask for raises, take off weekends and holidays, nor do they talk back or take bathroom breaks, We're screwed !
If I were 50 years younger I'd be studying the engineering and manufacturing of robots someday I think that may be all we are needed for.
Lol the engineering maybe (till AI kicks in anyway) but the manufacturing will be done by robots.
Yep then maybe robot maintenance or repair, run it down till there are NO jobs left for humans.
Gosh I'm glad I'm old....lol
Just another step down the road of the demise of blue collar workers. Anyone who thinks that their skills won't, at some point, be able to be replicated by a machine are deluding themselves.
So will white collar jobs like lawyer in the court room. Watson is 'aging' itself since its debut on Jeopardy!
I have some work that needs done. Come on over robot.
Come On-A My House!
I wonder if, when you take them in for service, the dealership gives you a bunch of shiyte about
"play in the ball joints" or "those pneumatic hoses are only good for 50,000 steps"
or "yes, you need to change the synthetic oil just as often... "
“I’m afraid he’s gonna need a new Johnson rod.”
Oh. My. Gawwwwwwwd... a Seinfeld revisit!
Johnson rod is funnier in the context of a humanoid robot. It's easier to picture where that part might fit.
I want a robot that washes balls..........so when I go golfing...
I'm already looking in the catalog for a Cylon Number 6.
That would work for me.
Ooops, i just got the last one. The rest are on back order.
The standard clothing package includes the red dress.
I am as hetero as they come but even I admired Trisha Helfer in that red dress
mmmmm tasty
What is about you guys that love full firm breasts, femininely muscular bodies, taut stomach muscles, and solid asses and tight thighs? What if she had no soul? Or sense of humor?
Yeah, she's pretty fuckin' hot.
hmmmm? She has a nice, honest smile.
To be honest, when i was in a not so good situation, a quirk of fate, space, time and dimension gave me the most wonderful gift I never could have imagined.
(The spacing below screwed up the word placements with the pictures. Coal black is her true hair color)
A little hair tinting below
She's beautiful, Dave
Aw. You're wonderful. But something musta screwed up. You accidentally put up some pictures that aren't me.
I kid. She's gorgeous and has happy eyes and a gorgeous dimple. You must be pretty special yourself.
Thank you Trout.
Who would have thought? Certainly, not me.
shhhhhh. Are you crazy? I can't keep those pictures locally.
Seriously, thank you.
Along with that priceless smile, she has all those other qualities too.
P.S. I'm just an old guy with a lot of broken bones and hardware keeping me together. However, smarter that the average stupid young guy who who has no idea how to treat a lady.
You go nuts when you go golfing? I know what I'm putting in your Halloween stocking this year ...
That is one slow drywall hanger so he better work cheap.
Machines are taking over...will it ever end!???!?
(Modern Times - Charlie Chaplin Eating Machine)
Reminds me of the America Off Line/Oath take over of what was once Verizon email.
I used to have a Verizon email address! The first time I ever went online (on my own computer) I used Prodigy. Logged onto AOL for a brief time, but mainly used Prodigy. On a 386 computer running DOS! (It has Windows 3.1 but didn't have enough memory to use it...)
I had a Prodigy account too. But by them I had graduated from my Commodore 128 to a first gen 486 Pentium with Windows 3.1. Of course I used DOS a lot too. can't remember which version it was.
I also used AOL for a while.
The internet has come a long way. I even used the DARPA protocol specs to write interfaces and today I must keep a locked down farcebook account open as the "only means"of proving I know how to use the internet...idiotic modern hiring standards.
I learned BASIC and the Fortran on university 386s. We thought that we were employees of IBM when the school received their first batch of 486s whose keyboard time was limited to the engineering and CS majors. I know C++ and some Python. I've never been asked about my computer knowledge because experience in various CAD standards is required.
That's pretty cool.
My first BASIC experience was with an early-mid 70s era Ti SR51 calculator. Paid $120 for it. Good thing I worked after school, just about every day.
This calculator had magnetic memory strips that could store Ti BASIC programs which were the first of the automation of my engine algorithms.
To this day, the one I use as a performance benchmark is the calculation, storage and retrieval of instantaneous piston velocities through the total arc of crankshaft rotations for various crankshaft stroke, connecting rod lengths and rpms ranges.
I can't recall how long it took the SR51 to run through it and I had to break of the steps into parts.
The Commodore 128 blew away the IBM PCs I was able to borrow from the office.
It ran through the loop in about 00:01:30. The IBM 8088 about 00:02:30 and the IBM 8086 with the improved 16 bit fetch about 00:01:40 04 50.
These days i need to trap the time internally, which unfortunately affects the performance of the of the loop.
Wish I still had that 128.
Hawking was right :
"AI could eventually "destroy" humanity if we are not careful about it."
Drywallers beware !