Is the robot apocalypse among us? Are we doomed to be annihilated or controlled by our own metal creations? Engineers at Arizona State University say that we are very far from such a terrible fate. Why do they say this? Because robots have yet to master the art of holding a cup of coffee and walking at the same time.

To be Human

Picture this, it is 6 o’clock in the morning. Your alarm goes off, and you head to the kitchen to make yourself a nice warm cup of coffee. Simple enough right? Now you take your cup of coffee up the stairs to enjoy one last few sips of heaven until you head to your job to clock in. All this seems easy to humans, but engineers and programmers have had trouble understanding how to translate the mechanics of holding a cup of coffee in one hand, and walking down a simple hallway.

To be Robot

Walking a cup of coffee down your house may sound pretty straightforward, but that is simply because of the millions of years of evolution that it took to make such a mundane task, well mundane. From the joints that need to be synced up with your balance, to the hand-eye coordination needed to make sure a drop doesn’t spill, and to the subtle posture changes that you might not even notice are all working in sync to keep that coffee from becoming ground coffee. 

To be Continued

Engineers are faced with the task of translating millions of years of evolution into a machine that has only existed for a few decades now. Now that’s a job you’d need lots of coffee for.

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By John Toledo

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