There are still a number of people out there who doubt the powers of VR. But gradually, one by one, everyone encounters a VR title they can’t resist. For many traditional gamers, that title will be the new Half-Life: Alyx game from Valve.
The team at Google’s X Lab have been hard at work, this time on robots. Specifically, robots that can function in a wide variety of environments.
So far, most functional robots work on factory floors, to the Google X Lab team set out to free such robots from those specialized task and try to bring them in to everyday environments alongside humans.
Fittingly, the project is called the Everyday Robot Project.
“The Everyday Robot project is making robots that can safely operate in human environments, where things change every day, people show up unexpectedly, and obstacles appear out of nowhere,” said the team in a statement released this week.
“In order for robots to be useful day to day, they need to understand and make sense of the spaces where we live and work, and adapt to them as they gain experience. This requires new forms of machine intelligence.”
Hans Peter Brondmo, the leader of the X Lab, says, “Building cool robot technology is not an end in itself; instead, we see robots as tools that we can put to work to help us extend our own capabilities. It will be years before the helpful robots we imagine are here, but we’re looking forward to sharing more robot adventures along the way.”
You can follow the project at the X Lab team’s website.
Cover image via X