We do not need robots that look like us. We need robots to do things for us

Every time I see a humanoid robot dancing in an exhibition (now it is very fashionable to put them in any event, they wear a lot) or stumbled clickingly while trying to run a marathon, I cannot avoid thinking that we are chasing a mirage. A technological chimera that responds more to our cultural fantasies than to real industrial needs.

As explained by Wall Street JournalChina and the United States are engaged in A race to dominate the field of humanoid robotswith the Chinese government designating it as strategic priority backed by an investment fund of 138,000 million dollars. The CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, has not been cut: “The time of humanoid robots has arrived. This could be the largest industry of all. “A formidable statement supported by formidable investments.

The obsession with replicating our body shape in machines seems an echo of our collective vanity, a technological narcissism very antiquate that dates back to the work ‘Rur‘by Karel čopek, who coined the term “robot” in 1920.

• Why do we insist on robots with two legs when the wheels are more efficient In most environments? Boston Dynamics He has invested decades and hundreds of millions to get Atlas to walk like a human, when a robot with mechanical traction would have exceeded the same obstacles with a fraction of the energy cost.
• Why arms and hands that mimic ours when specialized appendices could make certain tasks better? The history of industrial robotics shows us that Specialization exceeds generalization. A six -axis industrial robotic arm specifically designed for welding is infinitely more precise than any attempt to replicate human skill.

The answer says more about our psychology than about pragmatic engineering. There is something atavistic in our desire to create in image and likeness.

According to the article WSJ, Ubtech humanoid robots It takes four times more than a human to load a simple container (twelve seconds vs. three). A fact that should be an alarm signal for anyone with a critical sense. Perhaps we are confusing the map with the territory, aesthetics with functionality.

Let’s look where something interesting is really happening: in those same Chinese factories, success does not come from the isolated humanoid, but from ecosystems where robots live in all possible formseach specialized in what he knows best. Automated guided vehicles, robotic arms, intelligent conveyor belts, interior drones … an entire artificial biodiversity that operates together. Nature did not choose a single way for all animals, why should we fall into that morphological trap?

Image: Asianroboticsreview.

Humanoid robots promoters argue that they will better adapt to environments designed for humans without modifying them. A reasoning that seems impeccable until we deepen: not We constantly modify our environments to adapt them to new technologies? Yes Instagram is changing cities. The history of industrialization is precisely to adapt spaces to machines, not the other way around.

It is the same mirage that we still see with autonomous cars, determine to maintain that layout of seats looking at the front when there is no longer steering wheel or driver. What a waste of possibilities. Zoox, the autonomous vehicle company bought by Amazon, understood it well when he designed Its robotic taxi: Without a steering wheel, with confronted seats and an experience designed from scratch, not as a compensation of what already existed.

Innovation will require that we stop contemplating the robotic navel and start thinking about specific needs and specific solutions, not anthropomorphic nostalgia. Tesla, with Your optimusneed Human operators to control their humanoids While they pretended autonomy in their October event. A perfect metaphor of how our obstinacy for human form leads us to theatricalize what we still cannot achieve.

In the end the race that matters is not that of the robot that best imitates our stumbling blocks when lowering stairs, but of the one that solves problems of ways that we cannot even imagine. The real revolutionary robot may not look like us, and that will be its greatness.

Perhaps we should remember that the wheel – the invention that our civilization has transformed the most – does not exist in nature. Real innovation begins when we stop imitating ourselves.

In Xataka | The US robots manufacturers have asked their government for help. If you do not get China, you will win this race

Outstanding image | Xataka