Norwegian robotics startup 1X Technology has launched the NEO Beta, a household bipedal humanoid robot that can make coffee, fold clothes, and deliver items, acting like a "robot butler"; Stanford University and others in the United States have launched a prototype of a household robot called Mobile ALOHA, which can complete "high-level tasks" such as making slippery shrimp, pulling zippers, and helping people shave; China's Ulrich Robotics Technology Company is gradually promoting the "bringing robots into the home" plan... Robots that have gradually landed in factories, supermarkets, restaurants and other scenarios have not yet "knocked on" ordinary people's homes, but the new developments in this field in the past year have reignited people's hope for robots to "enter the home". Faced with a huge demand gap in areas such as home economics, parenting, and elderly care, people's expectations for household robots are becoming increasingly high. However, previously, household robots mainly stayed in the laboratories and promotional videos of manufacturers and research institutions, and their appearances at major exhibitions were only a glimpse. Why haven't household robots been able to enter the house for a long time? If we summarize the challenges faced by household robots in one sentence, it would be "complex and varied household scenarios, with vastly different human needs", which requires extremely high generalization ability for robots. Compared to industrial scenarios, robots in home scenarios need to have strong adaptability, able to handle different tasks while ensuring that prices fall within an acceptable range for users Yang Fengyu, founder and CEO of Ulrich Robotics Technology, said in an interview with reporters. Industrial robots have been widely used in automation production, automobile manufacturing, logistics and other fields, and service robots are gradually being used in some supermarkets and restaurants for shopping guidance and ordering. Due to the higher technical difficulty and safety requirements, although the landing of consumer oriented home robots is relatively lagging behind, there is huge room for development. In the view of Zhou Jian, founder, chairman, and CEO of Ubiquitous Technology, intelligent manufacturing is the first large-scale application field for humanoid robots, commercial service scenarios are the fastest market for robot applications, and home landing scenarios are the most potential application markets for robots. Diversified roadmap promotes the landing of household robots, what is the "optimal route"? Different enterprises have different implementation paths, but the general consensus is that in the next 3 to 5 years, home robots will definitely be implemented in some household scenarios. For household robots, household chores are like "upgrading and fighting monsters". Xu Huazhe, assistant professor at the Institute of Interdisciplinary Information Research at Tsinghua University, predicts that in the next five years, household robots' entry into the home is likely to start with the simplest single scene tasks, with the easiest to achieve being "grabbing and placing". For example, there may be an upgraded version of a sweeping machine that can perform simple tasks such as tidying up the desktop and throwing garbage in addition to sweeping, and then transition to more complex high-precision operations such as folding clothes and making beds. Yang Fengyu also believes that household robots will gradually enter more households within 3 to 5 years, demonstrating their value in specific task scenarios such as cleaning and laundry. The focus of this stage is to reduce costs through large-scale production and continuously optimize user experience. In terms of appearance design, future household robots may not necessarily adopt humanoid robot forms, which require bipedal hands with high motion control capabilities. Home robots do not need to completely imitate human form, but rather focus on the integration of functionality with the home environment Yang Fengyu said that for convenience and cost considerations, the robot Wanda developed by his company adopts a wheeled chassis design. The household robot Isaac, released by the American robotics startup Weave Robotics, also features a wheeled chassis and dual arm gripper design. Its gripper can pick up toys, replace food bowls for pets, and serve red wine to people. These two companies are among the few robotics companies that have chosen to directly target home customers. The former plans to deliver the first batch of 30 Isaacs by the fall of 2025, while the latter is also delivering products in batches to target home users. If robots can solve problems on the consumer side with high generalization requirements, it will be relatively easy to enter the commercial side with low generalization requirements to achieve more tasks Yang Fengyu said. For safety reasons, some manufacturers also choose to let robots test the waters in "intermediate places" such as nursing homes before entering households. China Leju Robotics Company is exploring cooperation with elderly care institutions. The company's "Kuafu" robot is undergoing training for tasks such as delivering water, food, and medicine. Industry experts predict that in the next 5 to 10 years, with the advancement of perception systems such as vision, hearing, and touch, as well as the level of terminal generalization operations, household robots are expected to become popular. This not only requires technological breakthroughs, but also depends on the improvement of consumer acceptance and the gradual maturity of the market. To pave the way for robots to enter the home, a lot of forward-looking thinking and preparation are needed. Firstly, there is the issue of safety. When robots come into close contact with humans at home day and night, it is necessary to ensure alignment with human interests at the technical level. We need to establish strict safety standards and regulations to ensure that robots do not cause harm to humans in various situations, including physical security, data security, privacy protection, etc Jiao Jichao, Vice President of Ubiquitous Technology, said that when setting task goals for robots, it is necessary to ensure that these goals are consistent with human expectations and interests. In the future, when robots become a part of the family, the relationship between humans and machines will undergo profound changes, and may even reconstruct our understanding of social interaction. Prospective research in related fields should be conducted as early as possible. Yang Fengyu said that taking children's education as an example, if robots are designed properly and used reasonably, they can become tools for cultivating empathy and cooperation. But if parents overly rely on robots in their children's education and companionship, children who interact with robots for a long time may lack emotional resonance, empathy, and other aspects. (New Society)