There’s a split in opinions on humanoids. These are my views on the debate. I’m focusing here on home robotics that save people time by doing chores. Specifically, I’ll be looking at how you’d actually market and sell a home robot.

The first thing when building a consumer product is to think about how you’d market it. The design of the product has to immediately communicate it’s unique value proposition without requiring extensive education. How does this product differentiate from the existing products on the market?

To figure out how to differentiate ourselves, we have to decide what the existing products in the market are. The machines that tackle conviences are: robot vacuums, washing machines, dishwashers, and microwaves.

Our differentiation is that these products all do one thing and only one thing. As a result, we fit our lives into how those machines work, as opposed to those machines fitting into our lives. So the differentiation that’s enabled by advancements in human computer interaction is that the products will bend to our lives. In other words, a washing machine that magically transforms dirtly clothes on the floor to clean clothes in your closet.

So you need a design for your robot that will immediately communicate that this is a flexible product without requiring the customer to be educated that it’s flexible. The simplest approach here is a humanoid form factor. The human form factor build everything around us and does everything that machines can’t yet to do. No-one needs to be convinced that “this robot will be able to open your doors” or “I promise it’s not going to get stuck on your wires like your roomba does”.

To summarize, general purpose home robots should be humanoids because they are the easiest to market.