Boston Dynamics robots spent a year and a half working their way up to three minutes of dancing to “Do You Love Me (Now that I Can Dance)?”
The iconic song by The Countours told the story of a guy whose girl rejected him because he couldn’t dance. He went away and learned the Mashed Potato and the Twist. He came back to the girl who spurned him and asked her, “Do you love me, now that I can dance?”
This isn’t really a problem that robots have. That’s fortunate, since it takes them a year and a half to learn to dance a three-minute morsel of choreography.
But there is a serious issue hiding here.
Can we make Americans love robots?
The truth is, Americans don’t like robots.
The Brookings Institution found that just 16% of Americans are comfortable with robots. A large majority don’t want help from robots. 20% were interested in robots that could clean their homes, 17% would consider robots for security, and just 9% were even a little bit interested in caregiver robots.
Marc Raibert, founder of Boston Dynamics, said, “You know, our job is to try and stretch the boundaries of what robots can do, both in terms of the outer research boundary, but also in terms of practical applications. And I think when people see the new things that robots can do, it excites them.”
Many people find Spot, the most famous of the Boston Dynamics robots, creepy. Even more found Boston Dynamics creepy after they posted videos of themselves mistreating their robot dogs. But maybe their dancing robots will improve the U.S. attitude toward robots.
Your Rexroth robots
If you have Rexroth drive and control systems running your robots, we c an help you keep them working, if not dancing. We offer factory repair and reman, plus fast supply of emergency replacement units.
Contact us to get your facility back up and running — though probably not dancing –fast.