With robots, you can have them do a lot of things like move heavy objects, balance a load while walking on unsteady ground. Unfortunately, sometimes a task as seemingly easy as turning a door handle can stump a machine not created for that purpose.
Boston Dynamics
In this case, robot developer Boston Dynamics¡¯ SpotMini is pretty good at moving around like a dog, the animal that inspired its design. Unfortunately, it¡¯s squat body isn¡¯t capable of even reaching the door handle, let alone turn it. So instead, it just calls a buddy to help.
The second bot deftly raises a crane arm to grip and turn the handle, and then even elbows its way half in to stop the door from shutting and lets its friend through, just like you and I would. By itself, it¡¯s a pretty impressive feat of engineering. But you¡¯ve also got to realise that this is exactly the direction robotics needs to go.
You could build a robot housekeeper perfectly suited to all your home cleaning needs, but it would be useless if it couldn¡¯t step over a carpet or navigate stairs. That¡¯s why robotics developers have to look at not just building robots that can work, but ones that can move seamlessly in a world tailored for humans.
That¡¯s also why animal-themed robots like the SpotMini are so promising, because they¡¯re just so much better equipped to deal with these obstacles than humanoid robots. This new model of the bot combines the stability of four legs with the dexterity of an arm as well. Our robots in the future are likely to be similar, featuring multiple arms and treads instead of legs perhaps, as required for the conditions they¡¯ll be used in.?
And this kind of ¡°Eureka¡± development happens because of things like door handles.