Researchers are teaching their robot to do some of the most hated household chores.
ATLAS is a humanoid robot that placed second in DARPA's Robotics Challenge, an annual event that tests how robots fare at completing a variety of tasks, from climbing stairs to drilling holes.
But the researchers from the Florida Human Institute for Human and Machine cognition are now teaching the robot to do household work, like vacuuming and sweeping the floor.
Why? Not because the researchers want their own robot butler, but because they need to keep running ATLAS to ensure the new code they are pushing through is working, IEEE Spectrum reports.
The researchers are working to improve ATLAS' control algorithms, and having the robot sweep the floor helps with that very task.
So a robot won't be cleaning your home anytime soon.
