gizmodo.com: There are lots of incredibly capable robots in research labs around the world, but very few handling real world jobs. Purpose-built bots, like robovacs, have so far been the most successful, but HP’s new robot does the exact opposite of cleaning floors. It instead draws all over them, on purpose, and could potentially become an invaluable tool on construction sites.
10 comments:
I think that it is really amazing that engineers and scientists are finally putting their expertise towards more common jobs. Usually, you see efforts in robotics going towards the military or space efforts. To see a common job being helped by modern technology feels like society is finally recognizing the importance of spreading and sharing information rather than keeping it to minute populations.
Besides that point, I think that this robot’s applications to theater could be REVOLUTIONARY. Imagine a technical director making their design on CAD, uploading it to the robot, and the robot printing the floor plan on the stage. That could save hours of human labor that would go into laying out the floor plan, making sure it fits the stage, etc. This robot would do all of that. It would allow more time to build the actual set pieces rather than worrying about “where this piece goes” or “how was this supposed to go again?”
So there are a couple of things that jump out to me as potentially useful in the world of theater. In our world, laying out the floorplan on the stage could potentially be super useful and save a lot of time. More stuff could be marked on the floor and very little would have to be measured during load-in. The other thing that I was thinking about was that if stage management produced a CAD drawing for spike marks based on the designers ground plan, the robot could mark in chalk (or something else temporary) on the floor and the stage manager could then easily swap out the chalk for some spike tape. I can’t find a publicly listed price, but I imagine that it is rather expensive. At the CMU SOD, it probably isn’t a worthwhile purchase (as cool as it would be) because no one else has one so we wouldn’t get practice laying out a ground plan like people really do in theater.
Layouts on a stage would be incredibly useful. However this definitely seems like the perfect case of trying to fix something that isn't broken as far as our industry goes. Like of course for layouts or spike marks it would be a neat little gimmick. But I think it wouldn't get enough use to be useful for the pricetag. Regardless of how cheap it is. I think it would be difficult to convince anyone that it is worth training people to set CAD up for this thing to operate when it requires such a higher level of technical training in comparison to just showing somebody how to just tape out a stage without robotic assistance.
That said, I like seeing tech like this because these technologies are paving the way for future techs that might actually be a viable option to use within the entertainment industry. I don't know. It's Saturday.
I think this invention is absolute amazing and I’m looking forward in it being used in theater or just commonly used across different industry. With this invention, it will not only help to save up some time, even though limited, and help designers to create things that they want to see faster but also will make measurements more accurate and detailed as it is being run by a computer. As mentioned in the article, if the prints and ink get washed away in outdoor settings, the robot will need to do it over again and will not save time. This made me think that if it is being used in indoor theaters, it might be able to be used to its maximum ability where the prints will get washed away. Siteprinter robot has been used in many situations but not theater and I’m looking towards it being used or tested in theater settings. - It should be in this article! I'm not really sure when I posted this it went into another article :(
If I’m being completely honest, a few days ago I was thinking of something that would do exactly what this robot would do. I was thinking about what goes into laying out a ground plan or taping out a set or painting the floor for a set. We as humans have to visualize the entire floor or surface or whatever it is we’re working on and keep the scale of that space in our minds the entire time, making sure something isn’t too big or too small, or “oh man it’s supposed to directly line up with this wall 5 ft over here but it doesn’t”. This little robot can do exactly what we need it to, whether it be in theatre or construction. It’s such a neat invention, though it might take away human hands and labor, but it would reduce errors, and save time too. -Hailey Garza
This robot is genuinely really cool. It is honestly such a simple yet effective idea. For years now we have had robotic vacuums and mops like the Roomba, robotic lawnmowers, hell, even robotic hosts and servers at restaurants. This layout robot is a simple twist on any of the above, but it is one of the most productive uses for this kind of technology that I have seen. Over the summer, I did a small bit of site surveying, and I can affirm the fact that it is a relatively slow and arduous process, which leaves a lot of room for human error. This robot, on the other hand, can not only do the job much faster, but also probably more accurately. This robot could easily be implemented into out industry – instead of taping out a set in a rehearsal room? This robot has got you. Trying to puzzle over an install ground plan and use distances from the center line and plaster line? This robot will just draw the ground plan full scale for you. This piece of technology can have many uses, across many industries. I would love to see one of these in action myelf.
This seems like an interesting invention, but to be honest I'm a little worried about how much easier it would become to make a mistake. It only takes one misplaced line to screw up the entire project, and as cool and efficient a robot would make this job, how do you double check the robot’s lines? What do you do if the robot draws something incorrectly? The potential for human error is always great, but I think it would be a lot harder to check for machine error. However, I am interested in seeing how this project and these robots develop, and if they change how construction sites work. As someone who’s dorm window faces a construction site that seems to be perpetually not getting worked on, I have a very large appreciation for tools and machines that can help speed up a construction project.
How are we not afraid robots are going to take our jobs? And how do we know any of these robots account for any kind of error? What if it bumps into something and skews away from its mark? There's so many different things I can think about that a robot wouldn't be able to just intuitively do or know. There's no way this kind of machine can replace my job I guess, but like I can see its utility somewhere that's not theater related. It's also like, if you can get it to lay down spike tape or marley tape while mapping out those groundplans, then we're talking about something completely different. But I'm pretty sure it just lays down like paint or chalk and that wouldn't hold up in a rehearsal room or stage. Also like, who wants to interact with a robot versus interacting with a stagehand laying things out.
Alright this is such a cool thing, and it can really have a big affect on theater. However, first of all fuck Gizmodo for implying research labs don’t have real world jobs. That’s such a reverse intelligent elitism mentality and I find this way of thinking, so Andrew Liszewski: do better. Regardless, the implementations this kind of robot could have in theater would be amazing. Right from the beginning, a stage manager could use this to mark out a rehearsal room with the exact layout the sets going to have. This would let directors and actors get blocking down that is going to be much more precise and not need tweaking once rehearsals move into the space. During load in, this would be so useful for marking where things like platforms or trusses need to go. My only concern is that this kind of thing is going to be built for standards much higher than our own and we would probably rather have a faster, less precise robot since in theater, time is always lacking.
This is amazing. I totally agree that there does seem to be a lot of robot development that doesn’t seem to serve a lot of real people in real situations. The design of this robot seems super practical, the shape of it isn’t even unsettling. It kind of seems like this is something that has always been around a construction site. I think that the different inks are also a great idea and I am interested to hear hopefully one day how those were developed in way that could go on in such a fine line but also last as long at the construction team needs it to build. I only wish that I had a reason to have one for myself. I do wonder how much programming will be needed to implement something like this and it will create more jobs of that nature of if it will be too much trouble than it’s worth. I am also interested to see how much these things are going to cost and how accessible they will be in the future.
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