Notes on robotics research

Actuator: UC Berkeley/Ambi Robotics' Ken Goldberg discusses the biggest robotics trends of 2022

Happy holidays from the Ghost of Actuator Past. I’m penning you from the opening of the period and hopefully not checking my enactment email oregon Slack arsenic you’re speechmaking this. I’ll beryllium backmost successful enactment adjacent week (hopefully the bags nether my eyes volition person subsided slightly), but until then, I’ve got 1 much large interrogation for you. This week I permission you successful the precise accomplished hands of Ken Goldberg, who dons the dual hats of U.C. Berkeley robotics prof and main idiosyncratic astatine Ambi Robotics.

Q&A with Ken Goldberg

TC: What was the biggest robotics communicative of 2022?

KG: For me, 3 large robotics developments successful 2022 basal out:

1. The astonishing advancement of ample connection models (e.g., GPT-3) and associated text-to-image procreation (e.g., Dall-E) is spurring excitement successful the robotics assemblage astir however these tin beryllium applied to robotics, by completing robot-relevant prompts. An breathtaking insubstantial from Brian Ichter and colleagues astatine Google AI was presented astatine the 2022 Conference connected Robot Learning connected December 14–18.
2. Elon Musk reframing Tesla arsenic a robotics company, with their associated research inaugural into humanoid robots. I uncertainty they volition physique a useful humanoid robot for $20K successful 2 years, but Tesla has large expertise in sensors/motors, robot usage cases successful its ain factories, and consciousness of costs and wide accumulation that is simply a beardown ballot of assurance successful the field.
3. The wide adoption of robots successful warehouses to conscionable expanding demand for e-commerce was not diminished by the instrumentality to stores oregon inflation. Companies specified arsenic Ambi Robotics person installed 70+ AI-powered robotic sorting systems crossed the U.S., demonstrating the viability of heavy learning to heighten idiosyncratic productivity.

What are your biggest robotics predictions for 2023?

I judge we’ll spot robots-as-a-service (RaaS) models that marque robots disposable to a overmuch wider conception of manufacture (e.g., Model T Ford financing that opened up car-buying to the mediate class).

How profound of an interaction has the pandemic had connected robotics?

The pandemic dramatically accrued adoption of teleconferencing and besides telerobots successful hospitals and nursing homes to forestall microorganism transmission. But the biggest interaction was connected e-commerce, which grew astatine 5x the erstwhile pace.

How overmuch of an interaction has the macroeconomic situation had connected robotics investing?

Venture superior is acold harder to get than it was successful December 2021, but funds are continuing to marque investments successful robotics companies with increasing request similar Locus and Ambi.

What underaddressed class deserves much absorption from robotics startups and investors?

Robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) shifts the outgo from superior expenditure to operating expenditure, truthful it is precise charismatic and applicable for industry.

How volition automation interaction the workforce of the future?

As Diego Kuonen noted: “It’s not astir replacing the quality with a robot. It’s astir taking the robot retired of the human.” Robots cannot regenerate astir of the dextrous and nonrepetitive aspects of work. Robots won’t regenerate people; they volition summation idiosyncratic productivity.

Are location robotics yet having their moment?

Designing a cost-effective location robot to bash much than cleaning floors is highly challenging. Aging demographics volition summation request for this but it volition instrumentality much time.

What much can/should the U.S. bash to foster innovation successful the category?

Fortunately, National Science Foundation budgets were accrued this year; the NSF provides captious enactment for postgraduate students and increases overmuch needed diversity.