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TechyDad t1_jcz6a3y wrote

Crocheting. Robots can't crochet. They can definitely knit, but crocheting is far too complicated for them.

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meidkwhoiam t1_jd0ygcz wrote

Far too complicated sounds like it actually means 'research group hasn't decided to tackle it yet'

Like how hard could it be for a bunch of robotics students to get a couple 6axis arms to work together? Sure maybe you wouldn't have a massive industrialized process, but you could exchange human sweatshop workers with 2 robot arms.

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TechyDad t1_jd104qt wrote

Could it be solved in the future? Perhaps. You never know what future technology can bring. If you talked about carrying a portable touchscreen, Internet enabled computer everywhere 40 years ago, you'd likely have been laughed at, but here we are today.

With today's technology, though, we just can't do it. From the video: "the basic crochet stitch involves 28 movements across 9 axes of motion." The most stitches one robot was able to do in row successfully was 4 and they only completed stitches successfully half the time. Obviously, there's a ton more work that would need to get done before you could have a crochet robot cranking out hats or amigurumi.

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meidkwhoiam t1_jd6ih4q wrote

'In the future' meaning whenever a robotics student decides to make it happen for whatever project. We've had robots that are more than capable of that kind of complex motion for a long time now.

Like sure it's not gonna be an industrialized machine making fabrics faster than a human feasibly ever could, but we have robots that allow surgeons to perform from across the country, and to perform operations that human hands are just not precise enough for.

My point is that this isn't a technology issue, it's that no one has been bored enough to figure it out yet.

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TechyDad t1_jd7b2ei wrote

Robotics groups have tried. So far, they can make a robot do one type of stitch - only it can only do 4 stitches in a row and even then only 50% of the time. Is it solvable? Perhaps, but it's going to require some major leaps forward..

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