For more than 100 years, writers, artists and filmmakers have sketched out their visions of the household robot, a supposedly inevitable culmination of human technological advancement. One day, these multitasking machines will, we’re told, perform tedious tasks efficiently and without complaint, respond courteously to requests and remain unobtrusively compliant and meek. In The Automatic Maid-Of-All-Work (1893), author ML Campbell described such a machine as “a queer looking thing, with its long arms [and] a face like one of those twenty-four hour clocks… each number was a sort of electric button. There were a lot of wires… [it] would be handy in lots of ways.” The fact that helpful, mild-mannered, multitasking domestic robots remain conspicuously absent from our homes is indicative of the profound engineering challenges involved in creating them, but that hasn’t stopped robotics firms – the vast majority in east and south-east Asia – making great efforts to hasten their arrival.
一个多世纪以来，作家、艺术家和电影制片人一直在描绘他们对家用机器人的设想，这被视为人类技术进步的必然结晶。据说，总有一天，这些能胜任多项任务的机器将高效且毫无怨言地完成繁琐的家务，礼貌地回应请求，并始终保持低调顺从。在《自动万能女仆》(The Automatic Maid-Of-All-Work)（1893年）中，作者ML•坎贝尔(ML Campbell)这样描述这种机器：“一个模样奇特的东西，长着长长的手臂，[还有]一张像二十四小时钟表一样的脸……每个数字都是一种电钮。有许多电线……[它]在很多方面都很实用。”然而，乐于助人、温和顺从、能胜任多项任务的家用机器人至今仍然在我们的家庭中鲜见，这反映出制造它们所面临的深刻工程挑战，但这并未阻止机器人公司——绝大多数位于东亚和东南亚——为加快它们的到来而付出的巨大努力。