Willow Garage Introduces Discount PR2 SE, a One-Armed Personal Robot for the Rest of Us

"$400,000!", I suppose some company believes if you build it, they will come. Sorry buddy, I am not spending $285,000 on a robotic back scratchier, now way, no how. Good luck towards you ventures though.

im sorry your not rich enough to buy one of our personal robotic butlers. but if you come back tomorrow we can offer you one for half price
well... almost half price

Guys, there's a market price for everything. And there will be people willing to buy these things. (multi-millionaires etc.) If the company makes money on these robots, they can re-invest the profits to try to figure out a cheaper, more efficient way to produce the robots (they're incentive to do this is wanting to make more money). Greater production efficiency = lower price, and so more people will be able to afford them (and the cycle repeats).

The big question comes down to, do people want them?

What sort of tasks is this robot capable of performing that one can justify the $285,000 price? Also, what do they do with one of these in an academic environment other than perhaps use it a teaching tool? I can not see it replacing “Graduate Student” labor…which is one of the cheapest forms of labor going.

Other than picking up light objects and moving them around and perhaps being a mobile security observer to alert a central base if an intruder is detected in the area, I can not think of any other application for this robot.

Does anybody have any other applications that can justify the price?

Robots are good for things that are too dangerous for humans to do. Like say handling acid for example. or very repetitive tasks.

I think a lot of people think this is for the home. But if you read the short four paragraph article it states it's for all kinds of labs and institutions.

R2D2 IT IS ALMOST HERE!!!!!!

The most expensive back scratch ever!
But I am fairly sure this is meant for research labs, " -only about two dozen commercial and academic labs have their own PR2s."

On another note, if you are a billionaire and you have got money to burn. Get the two armed robot and you have a beer fetcher, billiards opponent, laundry folder, and ummm it can probably pick up the litter you drop. It better have good warranty!

I have personally seen the PR2 in action. I also am working on a project to build a similar robot (albeit not nearly as high quality) for around $20,000 - Thats just the raw materials cost though, not to mention the months we have put into it. One of the things I noticed about PR2 is just how durable and well built it is. I could take a bit of a beating, and it at least has $150,000 worth of raw parts cost. Talking with one of their engineers, the camera 3D imaging platform costs WillowGarage $30,000 to build. And doubling the price for the countless hours engineers have put into this machine is fair in my mind. Even though some of use (myself included) can't afford this in the foreseeable future, the price is fair. I guess it falls under the clause - No one will sell one to you for less....

I have a use for this... Buy one, scan every part with a 3D imager, then program this thing to assemble what was just CNC'ed, Vacuformed or stamped (perhaps each step performed by this robot). Then sell the new units for half the listed price of the original. See, simple reason to justify buying one!

“Robots are good for things that are too dangerous for humans to do. Like say handling acid for example. or very repetitive tasks.”

Acids are not sooooo…dangerous….unless you do something unsafe. I work regularly with a very strong one Aqua Rigea ….a 1 to 3 mix of HNO3 and HCl. I use it in an “Acid Wash” to remove any metal contamination on the ceramic lab ware that I am using. If there is an accidental spill, I have about 3 gallons of NaHCO3 solution on the lab shelf that can be dumped on the accident fast.

Don’t get me wrong… I am not knocking the advances that this group has made. I applaud it!!! Actually, one of the projects that our research group is involved in is piezo-electric materials that can, if the engineers want to use it in this application, improve the tactile sensation of the robot grippers. .. a higher voltage to pressure ratio equals more sensitivity

Actually, I find it quite fascinating. Do you perhaps know of the electronic cigarette lighter? CLICK*SPARK*FIRE…..that is a piezo-electric material….put it under pressure (The Click) and it makes a voltage and a “Spark” that ignites the gas.

This voltage to pressure ratio is the same thing that can be used to help robots understand when they are squeezing an object to much…but we do not want to light a fire in this application.

patience people, this is just the beginning, robots must be built to push the tech forward, they wiil get better (probably too much so) and cheaper and do everything, to complain about these early robots is like complaining about the wright brothers plane not breaking the spead of sound, a lack of vision and ignorance