James Pero

Samsung is all-in on wacky home robots

Need a robot to shuttle your dishes to the dishwasher? Samsung bots like Handy may one day have you covered.

If you're at all familiar with CES, you know the show would be nothing without its weird, wonky, and sometimes completely inane robots.

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Luckily, even if this year's show was derailed by COVID-19, Samsung was there to make sure that CES maintains its commitment to pushing the limits of consumer robotics through machines like...

Handy

Since the very dawn of robots, humans have been dreaming of making them do our bidding. Handy, a newly unveiled helper from Samsung, is no exception.

Handy is a wheeled robo-assistant equipped with a single robotic hand and an AI camera that can recognize different objects. While the details on handy are sparse, Samsung suggests in its video that it could be used to handle your laundry or pour you wine (among other things).

"Samsung Bot Handy will rely on advanced AI to recognize and pick up objects of varying sizes, shapes and weights, becoming an extension of you and helping you with work around the house. Samsung Bot Handy will be able to tell the difference between the material composition of various objects, utilizing the appropriate amount of force to grab and move around household items and objects..."

Samsung

Samsung hasn't offered much in the way of evidence on whether Handy is ready to be released to the world, but if you're in a rush to flood your home with robot assistants, the tech giant also had some less ambitious offerings for us like...

Jetbot

Jetbot 90 AI+ definitely falls into a more realistic category than Handy. The bot, a robot vacuum cleaner is slated to be released in the US this year and will utilize a few, pretty advanced technologies to further its mission of keeping your home dust-free.

Samsung says Jetbot will come with an AI camera with object recognition that will help it identify items in a room and chart the best course for cleaning. The bot will couple that AI with LiDAR and 3D sensors to (hopefully) help it avoid getting marooned on a rug or some other uneven surface in your house.

Care

If you've ever felt that you need your robot assistant to aid you in a more, emotional or logistical capacity, Samsung has you covered there too.

Care is a robot assistant in pretty much the truest sense of the phrase. The bot is designed to act as both a companion and a sort of secretary that reminds you about appointments or other events throughout the day.

Like with Handy, the details on Care are pretty sparse, but by far the most futuristic aspect is Samsung's claim that the bot will "respond to your behavior." Exactly how Care does that is unclear, but a demonstration from last year suggested the machine is capable of having at least basic conversations.

As with most robots unveiled or teased at CES, Samsung's latest machines might end up being more conceptual than consumer-ready, but that doesn't make them any less fun to gawk at.

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Here's to hoping they fare better than Ballie.

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