Robot cleaner falls during SF resident’s post-party cleanup

Anyone worried about robots taking over housework can rest easy, for now.

So says Linda Akkarach, a San Francisco resident who decided to hire a team of cleaning robots to clean up after a house party, paying $50/hour for two humanoid robots from startup Tau Robotics to help her sweep, mop, and spruce up the two-story loft.

Videos shared exclusively with the California Post show the two buff-looking robots charging up the narrow staircase to clean the house.

Equipped with sensors, cameras and motors, the robots are supposed to be able to perform household tasks as varied as making beds, vacuuming or wiping counters.

But the droids were not alone. Instead, a human technician arrived at the apartment with the robots and another human controlled them off-site.

“Overall, they are doing a very poor job,” Akkarach said.

“Imagine if a five-year-old did housework… like that. The child probably does a better job,” she continued.

Just 15 minutes after arriving, one of the robots overturned while trying to clean a half-bath, forcing a human helper to come and carry it.

Akkarach said she and her friends did much of the cleaning after the house party, hoping the robots wouldn’t be able to do heavy-duty tasks.

She acknowledged that the robots were capable of spraying cleaning solution and relatively competent at vacuuming. But when tasked with cleaning a bathroom sink, the machine simply wiped the perimeter without cleaning the sink.

“Surprisingly, he was able to pick up a wooden stick from the ground, open the trash can and place it in. However, he is not doing this autonomously at the moment; there is a human controlling him off-site,” she noted.

However, compared to a regular old human, the robots were remarkably useless.

“In the time it was there, the robot was able to wipe down two tables, vacuum and clean a small dining room, living room and kitchen,” she said.

“We were more curious as to why they thought these crude robots should be sent out when they clearly aren’t capable of doing as good a job as a human.”

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