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.
一個多世紀以來，作家、藝術家和電影製片人一直在描繪他們對家用機器人的設想，這被視爲人類技術進步的必然結晶。據說，總有一天，這些能勝任多項任務的機器將高效且毫無怨言地完成繁瑣的家務，禮貌地回應請求，並始終保持低調順從。在《自動萬能女僕》(The Automatic Maid-Of-All-Work)（1893年）中，作者ML•坎貝兒(ML Campbell)這樣描述這種機器：「一個模樣奇特的東西，長著長長的手臂，[還有]一張像二十四小時鐘表一樣的臉……每個數字都是一種電鈕。有許多電線……[它]在很多方面都很實用。」然而，樂於助人、溫和順從、能勝任多項任務的家用機器人至今仍然在我們的家庭中鮮見，這反映出製造它們所面臨的深刻工程挑戰，但這並未阻止機器人公司——絕大多數位於東亞和東南亞——爲加快它們的到來而付出的巨大努力。