If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: Oregon-based Agility Robotics doesn’t get the local attention it so richly deserves. They’re one of the leading companies in the humanoid robotics space and they’re right here in Oregon. Oh well. At least the Wall Street Journal gets it.
The WSJ spent time with Agility Robotics getting their perspective on the concept of everyday humanoid robots that would intermingle with us in real life, doing a variety of tasks. But according to Pras Velagapudi, chief technology officer at Agility Robotics, that may still be a bit of pipedream.
Velagapudi is skeptical. Getting human-shaped robots into warehouses or industrial sites to move boxes is one thing, he said; building a robot butler is beyond the industry’s current capabilities, with current robots too unreliable to perform complex tasks.
Then there is safety. According to a survey of executives, the cost of installing robots is the biggest reason companies avoid deploying robots, said Ani Kelkar, a partner at McKinsey. For every $100 spent on deploying robots today, only around $20 is the actual machine, with the rest being spent on equipment and systems designed to protect humans from injury, Kelkar said.
For more, read “Even the Companies Making Humanoid Robots Think They’re Overhyped.”
