Skip to main content

Blue the robot could help fold clothes or unload your dishes for under $5,000

Project Blue

The idea of having your own assistive robot in the home has been around for at least half a century, promising to usher us into a Jetsons-like future in which we can assign all manner of everyday tasks to a helpful machine. But while such robots have existed in research labs and industry for some time, they’ve not yet made it past our front doors — and the cost is a big reason for this.

That’s something that a team of roboticists at the University of California, Berkeley, have been working to change. They have developed a general-purpose robot, called Blue, able to carry out a range of activities — but also manufacturable at a reasonable cost.

“Blue is a robot designed from the ground-up for the A.I. era,” Pieter Abbeel, project lead, told Digital Trends. “Traditional industrial robots are designed for blind high-speed, sub-millimeter repeatability; they are unsafe around humans, and they tend to cost tens of thousands of dollars — often even hundreds of thousands. Blue sits in a very different part of the design space. [It] is designed to be controlled through visual feedback, to be naturally compliant while still having functional payload, [and] is anticipated to cost only $5,000.”

Although $5,000 is still a large amount of money, it’s far closer to the amount that an average person might have to spend on a labor-saving device. (Consider as a comparison that the Apple II, one of the first personal computers, cost $2,638 when it launched in 1977.)

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Stephen McKinley and David Gealy, two of the other researchers on the project, gave us some indication of the types of tasks they expect Blue to excel at. These are likely to be things like in-home automation, such as unloading a dishwasher or putting away groceries. It could also be used as a physical rehabilitation tool.

The team is currently assembling a batch of 10 robots to be sold to early adopters. “Part of this release process has been gauging interest from the research community to see if people actually want what we have made available,” McKinley said. “[Right now], interest is looking strong. The first users will be researchers who will use this system as a platform for development of A.I. algorithms in labs or at their own homes.”

And in the future? “Our sci-fi future — at least the one that we want to see — involves having A.I.-controlled humanoid robots in the world around us,” McKinley said. “We don’t think that can be solved by any one group in existence today, [but] we think that a low-cost shared platform for research will push the field of robotics forward in the right direction.”

Editors' Recommendations

Luke Dormehl
I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…
Bouncing robot reaches new heights, artfully dodges moving obstacles
bouncing robot salto upgrade justin and bn 1

SALTO - Teaching an old robot new tricks

Meet Salto, a tiny and adorable bouncing robot developed at UC Berkeley. The bot weighs just 100 grams (3.5 ounces) and is about a foot long, and it can move through an environment by bouncing and jumping.

Read more
Smart clothes could let you change your temperature with the touch of a button
uc irvine smart material temperature gettyimages 691051643

Anyone who has ever worked in an open-plan office will have be aware of just how drastically different people’s individual temperature preferences are. It’s one reason why the thermostat is arguably the biggest source of conflict in offices around the world. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a material that could more easily adapt to temperature requirements; either trapping in or releasing heat as required?

That’s exactly what researchers from the University of California, Irvine, have been developing. Inspired by the so-called “space blanket,” the reflective blanket you often see marathon runners wrapping themselves in after a race, they have created a new type of material able to change its reflective properties upon stretching. Rather than having to take off or add layers of clothing to change temperatures, this dynamic material comes with the promise of regulating or controlling the temperature with just one garment. It would even be possible to link it up to a mobile device so you could control the property of your smart clothes with the tap of a smartphone display.

Read more
This sleek new exoskeleton makes walking easier, fits under your clothes
vanderbilt ankle exoskeleton legs exosuit

When it comes to robotic exoskeletons, many of the rigs on the market put the fact that users are wearing a mobile robot front and center. These are tools like LG’s SuitBot, supportive robot tech that’s as noticeable as having a muscular personal trainer spotting your every exercise in the gym. And why not? If the goal of these exosuits is to help workers carry out heavy lifting tasks in places like warehouses, a conspicuous wearable robot is just another type of uniform to be worn on the job.

But how about supportive tech that is designed to be utilized in everyday life, such as helping elderly people to walk when they have age-related impaired lower-leg muscle strength? In these scenarios, customers may well seek a lightweight, low-profile alternative; preferably one that can be worn under everyday clothing. That’s what mechanical engineering researchers from Vanderbilt University have created with a new ankle exoskeleton developed to help people to walk without fatiguing -- and, crucially, without restricting natural motion or drawing attention to itself.

Read more