Comment by eru
6 hours ago
The cleaning robot might still be a good test bed. But I suspect if you are only in it for efficiency, you would use something like a street sweeper truck. Just like the dishwashing robot that everyone uses at home (the humble 'dishwasher') doesn't use robot arms to mimic how humans wash dishes.
Btw, Singapore shows that we already have proven, low cost techniques for keeping cities clean without robots.
On some level, you must also be into humanoid robots for the cool factor.
There is no reason to ever have a humanoid, except to make humans feel warm and fuzzy.
I wouldn't be so categorical. There might be some applications, or combination of applications for which a humanoid form factor would be useful. It's just that for most applications, more specialised forms are better suited.
Exactly. Existing paths, entryways, factories, etc. are human-sized and -shaped (or car, or other vehicle).
Only once you build greenfield, e.g. new factories, making specially shaped and sized robots for automation jobs becomes worth considering, IMO.