If you've been on the internet in the last decade, you've likely witnessed a viral video featuring a humanoid robot. If you're anything like me, that video probably left you feeling a mix of impressed, perplexed, and deeply terrified. The bots in question could be performing perfectly innocent tasks, or even doing a fun little dance, and yet there's still an off putting creepiness to watching these human-shaped machines. On the flipside of the uncanny valley, I can watch things like Scrubby, the cutest purpose built whiteboard cleaner you'll ever see and feel relatively at ease.
As it turns out, my hypocritical views towards robots are fairly common. For a huge variety of reasons, most people feel pretty uncomfortable when faced with the idea of these metal men, especially when it comes to inviting them into their homes. Despite this, robotics companies seem intent on pushing ahead with these bots, despite them often not being as efficient at completing tasks as a purpose built boxy bot.
