From Space Travel To Washing Dishes: Nimble Bot Is First Real All-Purpose Robot
TheBeomni 1.0 was unveiled for the first time in public at the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month.
It is said to be the world’s first fully functional general-purpose robotic system.
Built by US-based firm Beyond Imagination, Inc., Beomni resembles a human with a form depicting a head, shoulders, waist, arms and hands with opposable thumbs.
The humanoid can lift up to 15.88kg of weight per arm like gym-worked muscles, as well as perform finesse, delicate tasks like pinching salt when cooking, opening a bottle top, or injecting someone with a needle. The bot aims to assist in manufacturing, maintenance and, eventually, space construction
Four wheels at its base carts the nimble bot around, even through sand, mud and snow. While at first it is controlled remotely by humans, its AI brain will ultimately learn how to carry out tasks independently. Beomni has already been tested at a hospice in Colorado, where over three days it took temperatures, looked into mouths with a tongue depressor, and even danced with patients to cheer them up.
Beyond Imagination believe Beomni will be able to work in warehouses, pick fruit and carry out dangerous tasks such as electrical repairs. The invention is the brainchild of American scientist Dr Harry Kloor. Having been born with leg defects and told he would have to use braces for the rest of his life, he dreamed as a young boy of inhabiting a robotic body. He later overcame his physical problems to become a martial arts expert and is said to be the only person in the world to have earned two PhDs simultaneously.
Beomni is expected to be on the market in the next couple of years. It currently costs around £110,000 but would drop to roughly £50,000 when it goes into mass production. It is hoped the robot could also prove useful in future space exploration and carry out experiments in microgravity, while researchers remain safely on the ground.
