“Personal robots cannot get here soon enough,” Sheldon Cooper tells Leonard Hofstadter on the CBS comedy The Big Bang Theory. The source of his frustration is next-door-neighbor Penny. It turns out that Sheldon forgot to bring a flash drive with him to San Francisco and has thus recruited the Omaha-raised female cornhusker to retrieve the item from his bedroom and then e-mail the contents to his personal account.
The problem is that Penny has a short attention span, reacts slower to his instructions than Sheldon would like, and gets sidetracked by letters from Sheldon’s grandmother, who affectionately refers to him as “Moonpie.” Having a personal robot, Sheldon therefore reasons, would be more effective than relying on another human being for assistance.
Apparently Sheldon Cooper is not the only one dreaming of the day that robotic companions become the norm, as freelance journalist David H. Freeman shared a similar belief in the May 2012 issue of Discover magazine.
“Like many people with limited social skills, I’ve always wanted a robot,” he writes in an article entitled Impatient Futurist. “It hasn’t been the fear of betrayal that’s kept me from having a robot helper. It’s been the lack of their existence, in spite of a century of big talk. And this has left me not only without the sort of non-emotional-experiencing companion who could really understand me but also with a lot more laundry, cooking, dirty dishes, and child care than a technophilic citizen of the twenty-first century should have to put up with.”
Despite Freeman’s impatience, there has actually been a substantial amount of progress within the technological field in recent years. Willow Garage, for instance, began developing hardware and open source software for robotic applications in 2006 and made its fully-functional PR2 device available for purchase in 2010. The PR2 looks exactly like one would expect a robot to look, with a vacuum cleaner-style base, basic torso with two flexible arms – each equipped with a two-pronged “gripper” for hands – and makeshift head.
The Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University, meanwhile, has HERB, which stands for “Home Exploring Robotic Butler.” Containing a base similar to a wheelchair, telescopic “eyes” protruding from the top and rotating hands capable of securing any item within reach, the design is more futuristic than its PR2 counterpart but equally effective nonetheless.
Then there’s Luna from RoboDynamics. Billed as the “world’s first personal robot for mainstream consumer adoption,” Luna has the appearance of an alien, with a base similar to the PR2 but a body that curves inward to form a long, thin neck with a small, oval shaped head on top and a pair of bicycle-handle arms that descend from the torso.
iRobot, a company formed in 1990 by a trio of alumni from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has their own version of Luna – named Ava – which replaces the oval head of the former with an iPad-like device. Although its features lack arms, the height of an Ava is adjustable and contains customizable voice and gestural controls.
While David Freeman asserts in Discover magazine that each of these robots are unable to do “much more than try not to bump into furniture and senior citizens as it desultorily wheels itself around your home,” both RoboDynamics and iRobot see their products differently. Neither Luna nor Ava was designed for the average consumer after all, but are being marketed instead to fellow engineers intent on creating applications for future designs.
“Our objective is to aggressively remove cost and complexity, thereby facilitating widespread consumer adoption while simultaneously providing a unique ground floor opportunity for the developer community to bring innovative ideas to a financially viable robotics ecosystem,” RoboDynamics CEO Fred Nikgohar explains.
Within the confines of The Big Bang Theory, Sheldon Cooper builds a similar device during the episode “The Cruciferous Vegetable Amplification” when he fears that an unforeseen accident could cause his premature physical demise. He thus constructs a male version of the aforementioned robots, with a television screen head that transmits his own image as it makes its way through the apartment via remote control.
Although the pseudo-robotic version of Sheldon Cooper fails to bump into furniture – fortunately both home and office are devoid of any senior citizens – its limitations become more apparent as the installment rolls along, including an inability to open doors on its own.
Willow Garage’s PR2, meanwhile, is considered more useful by David Freeman, who writes that the robot “can fold laundry, walk and pick up after dogs, and cook a complete breakfast.” Willow Garage has also released a number of YouTube videos showcasing the PR2’s ability to serve beer and even shoot a game of pool.
The developers at Carnegie Mellon University, meanwhile, have likewise developed their own series of videos for HERB. While the distribution of alcohol is apparently a prerequisite for any robotic devise, HERB can be seen on YouTube preparing basic meals and microwaving frozen dinners.
Despite these abilities, it is doubtful that either the PR2 or HERB are the types of personal robots that Sheldon Cooper had in mind when he frustratingly remarked that such items could not arrive soon enough. Sheldon, after all, is extremely finicky. He uses a folding board, for instance, while doing laundry, and his food must be prepared in a very regiment fashion.
Sheldon also has a strict routine. Saturday nights are laundry night, for instance, while Monday mornings are meant for oatmeal. When Penny makes French toast during season three of The Big Bang Theory, for instance, Sheldon remarks, “Boy, that does smell good – too bad it’s Monday,” before tossing the meal into the garbage. It’s thus hard to imagine the current crop of personal robots fulfilling the daily requirements of Sheldon when those human beings that he surrounds himself with have such difficulty understanding his needs.
That does not mean, however, that the accomplishments of Carnegie Mellon University, iRobot, RoboDynamics and Willow Garage are for naught. The achievements made by the current crop of robotic engineers are truly outstanding, and will no doubt pave the way for even more far-reaching advancements within the technological realm. HERB, PR2, Luna and Ava are in many ways the Adam and Eve to a host of potential newcomers, and while it still might be decades before they meet the personal needs of either Sheldon Cooper of The Big Bang Theory or David Freeman of Discover magazine, it is safe to assume that robots will someday be part of our twenty-first century lifestyle nonetheless.
Anthony Letizia