IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2023 - 5

PR ES I D E N T ' S M E S S AG E
Ruminations on CES, Robotics, and the Future
By Frank Park
For those of you unfamiliar
with CES, it is the largest
consumer electronics trade
show in the world (the organizers
insist that CES is no
longer an initialism for anything
but simply the world's
premier technology showcase)
that this year attracted
over 3,200 exhibitors and 115,000 participants
to Las Vegas. I spent the past
two days roaming its massive halls in an
attempt to grasp the latest technology
trends, and more generally trying to discern
the outlines of what our future may
look like.
Not surprisingly, robots are always a
big draw; the number of robotics startups
choosing CES to display their latest
products has grown steadily in recent
years. More established companies also
showcase their latest robotics demos at
CES, although more so to display their
technological prowess than to launch
a commercially ready product. As a
roboticist, it was impossible to ignore
the fact that many of the core technologies
behind the products on display at
the various pavilions-drones, vehicles,
agritech, digital health, wearable technology,
and so on-were developed by
roboticists (and it was equally frustrating
that many of the people showing off
these products seemed blithely unaware
of this fact).
Not for the first time, the robots
that I saw this year elicited in me two
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MRA.2023.3237459
Date of current version: 22 March 2023
1070-9932/23©2023IEEE
dual reactions. First, it was
hard not to be awed by the
ambition and energy of the
entrepreneurs actually trying
to commercialize selfdriving
strollers, flying cars,
and robots that clean, cook,
deliver goods, inspect water
pipes, treat patients, and so
much more. Yet at the same time, there
was the persistent feeling that the robots
fell just a bit short. The window-cleaning
robots still had trouble
reaching corners and
maneuvering over obtrusions;
the delivery robots
often moved in deliberative,
clumsy sequences;
and the social and
companion robots produced
head-scratching
responses with uncomfortable
frequency.
Perhaps the more fundamental
question is
whether these robots,
even if the technological
challenges are largely
solved, will still appeal to
the broad public (excluding
the early adopters
among us who are just
happy to be the first to
own the latest gadgets). I am reminded
of the sudden collapse of Anki Robotics
in 2019; at the time, Anki Robotics had
200 employees, had raised over US$200
million in funding, and was considered
to be the most successful nonvacuum
cleaning robot company. Many post
facto analyses of Anki's sudden demise
made the point that their robots failed
to address a real, fundamental need: a
task that people face daily and would
be happy to allow a robot to do on
their behalf.
What kind of robot would I want to
"
NOT SURPRISINGLY,
ROBOTS ARE ALWAYS
A BIG DRAW; THE
NUMBER OF
ROBOTICS STARTUPS
CHOOSING CES TO
DISPLAY THEIR
LATEST PRODUCTS
HAS GROWN
STEADILY IN RECENT
YEARS.
„
buy? I would gladly pay for a robot that
could competently perform, in a reasonable
time, complex household chores
like cleaning the bathroom and kitchen
or a robot that not only folds laundry
but also irons shirts and
pants, all for a pr ice
considerably lower than
that of my car. To state
the plainly obvious, the
technological and engineering
challenges to
developing robots that
can perform these mundane
(to human) tasks
are still immense.
Some readers may
remember the 2008 Scientific
American article
by Bill Gates that drew
an analogy between robotics
(circa 2008) and the
computer industry in the
mid-1970s, the implication
being that
the
robotics industry could,
just as the personal computing revolution
had done, soon achieve the dream
of a robot in every home. In retrospect,
we now know that this analogy
with robotics is, for many reasons,
flawed at best. While applications like
spreadsheets and text processing were
MARCH 2023 IEEE ROBOTICS & AUTOMATION MAGAZINE
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IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine - March 2023

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