LG’s humanoid CLOiD bot wowed the CES crowd with promises of laundry, dishes, and dinner prep. It impressed me, too—but history suggests robot helpers rarely make it out of the demo stage.
From my spot in the crowd at LG’s CES press conference, I felt the excitement of the audience swell when CLOiD rolled onto the stage. Essentially, CLOiD is a humanoid robot with lots of moving parts. It navigates on big sturdy wheels. Its torso maintains a low center of gravity, helping it stay balanced, and it can raise and lower as needed for a given task. Its head features a display that can create digital eyes with expressions, as well as speakers that emit an AI-generated voice, a camera, and the chipset that forms the brain of the bot.
CLOiD’s arms are the most impressive part. They have mobile shoulders, elbows, and wrists that can bend forward, backward, or laterally. They can rotate as well and have a freedom of mobility designed to replicate the human arm. At the front, the bot’s hands also have five actuated fingers capable of fine motion.
LG hasn’t clarified everything CLOiD will be able to do, but a company rep mentioned loading and switching laundry, as well as folding it when it’s done.
