Are household humanoid robots getting cheaper already? We’ve only just begun seeing companies start to make promises and accept pre-orders for machines that can do your laundry and tidy up the living room. A San Francisco-based startup is now making one that you can bring home for just US$1,688.
Nori Robotics, a Y Combinator-backed outfit, says its A3 robot – a rather basic-looking machine on a wheeled platform – can help you cook, fetch items from the fridge, put things away, load up the dishwasher, fold clothes, and pour ingredients.
It’s got two arms with claws that can grip things and lift a couple of pounds each, and uses LiDAR and cameras to help get around your home. A full charge will keep it running for up to 8 hours.
Nori Launch Video
The company says it’s already sold out of its first batch of A3 bots (over a hundred units by my rough calculation). Does that mean you need to line up for its second lot this (Northern Hemisphere) fall?
It really depends on whether you like to get your hands dirty. Nori describes the A3 as a robot “built for people who want to actually build with one.”
It’s unlike, say, a robot vacuum cleaner that has a specific set of capabilities, and you know exactly what to expect from it. Instead, the A3 is meant to be trained by its owners, who can then package that training into skills and make them available to the Nori community via an online marketplace.
Nori Robotics
The company hopes people will deeply customize their A3s and refine its abilities. They can either write code for it to use, or train it via a desktop app that simulates the robot’s movements and actions on screen.
The robot’s capabilities are therefore, not limited to housework. In one example, it’s seen flipping pages of sheet music on a stand as a guitarist plays the score.
What isn’t yet clear is how the A3 will fare in comparison to something like Weave Robotics’ Isaac 1, which has a more cutesy appearance and is being designed to fold clothes and make beds. That model costs $8,000, and is slated to begin shipping this (Northern Hemisphere) fall. There’s also the bipedal 1X Neo, which costs $20,000 and is coming next year.
Commenting on the launch, Nori founder Antonio Li said, “We’re excited to see what developers, researchers, and teams build when capable humanoid hardware becomes this accessible.”
Nori Robotics
I can’t yet confirm it because details are presently sparse, but it appears that Nori is taking a wholly different approach to those companies by empowering users to train its bots.
That might mean you won’t get a lot of functionality – and the guarantee that the robot will perform its tasks without making mistakes – right out of the box.
But it might also mean that, unlike the robots from 1X and Weave, it may not rely on teleoperation. That’s when a human peers through the robot’s cameras to observe the task at hand and remotely controls the machine to complete it. It’s both a lot less impressive and a lot more intrusive than most people might bargain for when considering a household bot.
Nori Robotics
If you’ve got the coding chops, or the enthusiasm to learn how to train a robot using your computer, you can order one of 100 A3 units that are being built for its second batch now; it’ll ship this (Northern Hemisphere) fall. In the meantime, I’m staying tuned to Nori’s Discord community chat to learn more about how the project is shaping up.
Source: Nori Robotics (Y Combinator)
