Meta Announces PARTNR, a New Program to Study Human-Robot Interaction

Meta Friday has announced PARTNR, a new program designed to study human-robot interaction (HRI) in the home environment. The research focuses on how humans and robots can collaborate on mundane tasks such as cleaning, cooking, and picking up food deliveries.

A Decades-Old Dream: Automated Housework

The concept of automated housework has been a staple of science fiction for decades, with The Jetsons’ Rosie being a prominent example. The robot maid debuted on prime-time television over 60 years ago and continues to be a popular topic of discussion when it comes to the potential for sophisticated machines to alleviate household chores.

The Challenges of Home Robots

Despite the interest in home robots, only the robot vacuum has made significant progress in the market. The main reasons for this include price, reliability, and limited functionality. It’s not a lack of trying or consumer disinterest, but rather that no other robot has hit the mark on both cost and feature set.

Improved Collaboration Required

It’s likely that seeing more robots in the home will require improved collaboration with the people who own them. The first wave of home robots are unlikely to single-handedly manage chores, and even a good robot vacuum needs help from time to time. Meta is positioning PARTNR as both a benchmark and dataset to determine how people and robots can work together to get things done around the home.

The PARTNR Benchmark and Dataset

The PARTNR benchmark consists of 100,000 tasks, including household chores such as cleaning up dishes and toys. Meta is also releasing the PARTNR dataset, which includes human demonstrations of the PARTNR tasks in simulation, that can be used for training embodied AI models.

Simulation and Real-World Deployment

Simulation has become an increasingly useful tool in robot deployment, allowing organizations to test in seconds what might otherwise take hours or days to accomplish in the real world. Meta has had success deploying the PARTNR model outside of simulation, using it in testing with Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot. Meta has also built a mixed reality interface designed to offer a visual representation of the robot’s decision-making processes.

The Potential for Innovation

The potential for innovation and development in the field of human-robot collaboration is vast. With PARTNR, Meta aims to reimagine robots as future partners, rather than just agents, and jumpstart research in this exciting field.

Age-Tech and Humanoids

Age-tech holds a lot of potential for the category, with Labrador Systems’ automated serving cart offering insight into ways technology can assist older people who continue to live independently. However, many advances will be required before such systems gain mainstream acceptance. Humanoids are another intriguing avenue that have presented themselves in recent years, with most companies foreseeing a future in which they will help out in the home. However, pricing needs to come down considerably, and reliability needs to improve by leaps and bounds.

A Future with Humanoid Robots

With the right scaling and advancements in AI, one can imagine a world in which humanoid robots address general-purpose tasks in a way that allows them to help in both the factory and the home. A major stepping stone to that place requires solid advancements in human-robot collaboration. Meta hopes that PARTNR can help them get there.