A good robot can set you back a lot of money. “Legged robots and industrial manipulators cost as much as luxury cars, and even the cheapest robots from Franka Emika or Clearpath [Robotics] cost at least $10K,” say Matthias Müller and Vladlen Koltun at Intel Labs.
The reason is that robots require precision actuators, sensor suites and powerful microprocessors. This stuff needs to communicate internally and with the outside world. Robots also need bespoke software that can make sense of the world and carry out complex tasks. That’s why even the least expensive robots cost hundreds of dollars.
Now Müller and Koltun have come up with a way to make robots both cheaper and more capable. They point out that modern smartphones have high resolution cameras, built-in GPS and inertial sensors along with powerful onboard processing capabilities.
