No Dirty Dishes Day

Did you know that today is No Dirty Dishes Day? You probably did not, but there’s no shame in that because No Dirty Dishes Day is a strange and obscure holiday with no clear history and very little significance (that is unless there’s a constant battle over who is going to do the dishes in your household). We don’t normally concern ourselves with dishes, but we do work with automation, so in honor of this weird little holiday, we’re going to take a look at the future of automation and dishes.

Now, you may be thinking that we already have a way to automate washing dirty dishes, and it’s called a dishwasher. Well, you would be correct. But what if you’re really lazy, and you find rinsing dishes, loading the dishwasher, and unloading the dishwasher to be an incredible burden and far beneath someone such as yourself?

Well, there’s good news.

Researchers at MIT published a paper that describes artificially intelligent systems that could be used to create robots capable of washing the dishes.

Building a robot that can wash the dishes might sound easy enough, but it’s actually more difficult than you would imagine. Washing the dishes requires making decisions in a changing environment with different objects of varying shape, different levels of durability, and varying properties. It requires predictions based on what will happen when one decision is made over another. These are things that are easy for humans, but difficult for robots. Soap, water, and stacks of fragile dishes are a recipe for disaster for pre-programmed automata.

The researchers at MIT don’t really envision dishwashing robots as the end goal, although that would certainly be an accomplishment. The goal is to create robots that can thrive in ever-changing and unpredictable environments.

Will this technology finally end the age old battle of who is going to wash the dishes? Maybe. But any contributions to robotics, automation, and motion control will help further advance industrial motion control technology. Even something as seemingly trifling as a dishwashing robot can end up providing invaluable information to industrial automation. Technology builds upon itself, and you never know what will lead to the next big revolutionary breakthrough.

We can’t hep you wash your dishes, but we can help make sure that your motion control system is in good working order. Give us a call today for any assistance with your Indramat system.