Researchers have developed a really clunky version of Rosey from ‘The Jetsons’

Futurists, rejoice! A Jetsons-style Rosey household assistant robot may finally be a reality—only it probably doesn’t look quite like you would expect. In fact, the contraption in question more closely resembles a custodian’s mop and bucket. 

Though it might not be much of a looker, researchers from the Suzhou Industrial Park Institute of Vocational Technology and Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in China say their robot design can autonomously steer clear of most large furniture and children. It can even pick up loose toys and sort through smelly socks—at least some of the time.

Researchers behind the oversized Roomba are calling it a “game-changer.”

“This robot is designed to be a comprehensive family assistant, capable of performing tasks that make daily life more convenient and enjoyable,” researcher Bingjie Xu said in a statement. “From picking up toys to fetching items, it can handle a wide range of objects with precision and care.”

The researchers detailed their findings this week in the journal Robot Learning. In their view, large assistance robots generally fall into two categories: service and household. Service is a broad term that encompasses a wide range of robots already used in manufacturing and logistics. Household robots, by contrast, are still in their early stages. While there are some examples, most notably in the form of autonomous vacuum cleaners, today’s home robots are typically specialized to perform only one or two tasks. With this project, the researchers say they set out to build “an intelligent household robot designed to serve as a family assistant.” 

To do that, they ultimately designed a machine composed of six parts: a depth camera, a movable chassis, robotic arms, flexible grippers, a lifting platform, and a digital display screen. The robot moves using a three-wheeled system. Two of the wheels—each independently controlled—handle steering, while the third provides balance. The robot’s “eyes” come in the form of a depth perception camera paired with a YOLOv11 object recognition system. A 2D Lidar sensor helps the robot create a digital map of its surroundings. That mapping requirement allows it to avoid obstacles but it also means the robot can only operate effectively in environments that have already been mapped. Grocery store runs, in other words, are out of the question.

The researchers chose to 3D print the robot’s arms, in part to reduce the amount of metal used. This resulted in a lighter overall design. For the grippers, they used soft, flexible materials that could handle objects with a more delicate touch. Each gripper hand features human-like, extendable fingers that can adjust to grasp items of various sizes. In their testing, the researchers say the robot successfully identified and picked up a variety of household objects, including a bowl, a handbag, a book, and a stuffed teddy bear. Importantly, it was able to handle the objects with “precision and care.” After all, there’s really no use having a robot that can grab things only to crush your cherished possessions into dust.

Users at home can interact with the robot either through its digital screen, located near the “head” area, or, more organically, through voice commands. The researchers say they outfitted the machine with a speech recognition algorithm capable of understanding and responding to basic instructions like “turn left” or “follow.” During testing, they created a simulated daily home environment that replicated kitchen sounds and other general audio noise to evaluate its performance. It’s still unclear just how sophisticated the speech recognition system is or the extent to which people can communicate with the robot beyond barking simple commands.

Are robots ready for home use?

Numerous for-profit tech companies, both in China and the U.S., have been busy building up hype in recent years with claims that fully functional at-home robot assistants are just around the corner. Earlier this year, California-based robotics company 1X released a glitzy press video  showing its humanoid robots standing upright, vacuuming a person’s home, and carrying laundry. Other companies have released similar material in the past, but often fail to provide many details on how these devices are actually controlled—or any verifiable information about their reliability.

Published academic research on home assistance robots, on the other hand, tends to be more conservative about the capabilities these machines can deliver. While the household robot presented in this paper is likely still a far cry from the sci-fi assistants many people imagine, it’s almost certainly a more accurate reflection of where the technology currently stands, especially compared to the vague promises made by companies like Tesla and Unitree.

 

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