“Just Don’t Do Their Job Quite Right”: 40 Useless Robots

The creator of ‘Shitty Robots’, u/mr_bag, told Bored Panda that the founding of the subreddit was rather spontaneous. “A few of us were posting crappy robot gifs in a thread on /r/gifs and /u/AlekRivard happened to suggest they were /r/shittyrobots. Shocked to find the sub didn't already exist, I went ahead and made it then and there (narrowly beating AlekRivard). I then modded Alek and the sub went from there.”

They pointed out that you can still actually see the initial conversation that was the beginning of ‘Shitty Robots’ following this link right here. It also allows you to get an idea of how quickly the subreddit grew as a fellow redditor left a comment on the same thread saying: “Close to 1,000 subscribers an hour after the sub was created. Nice.” Soon after, others added “4000 REPORTING IN!!!!” and “Well this has taken off mighty quickly…”

On the thread where the idea behind ‘Shitty Robots’ was born, one redditor said: “Subscribed. You'd better take good care of this baby. I'll be watching.” And take good care is what u/mr_bag and other moderators did; after nearly a decade of its existence, the sub is still very much active and has more than 660k members.

“Honestly, I was mostly in it for the shitty robots themselves, they were always great and very amusing,” u/mr_bag told Bored Panda when asked what they like most about the community. “As the sub built up steam and people like Simone Giertz's following exploded, we also started to become the first place new content was appearing, which was fun.”

The founder of the subreddit revealed that despite enjoying viewing shitty robots, they’ve never created one themselves. “Sadly I've never really found much time to delve into proper robotics myself, I've always ended up more on the software side of things; some of it certainly very shitty.”

“For a while, we were the internet’s home for shitty robots, allowing people to more easily share some of the great gifs and videos floating about, as well as giving creators who make their own shitty robots a decent launch pad,” the user ‘mr_bag’ pointed out.

“I like to think at least few people discovered a proper interest in robotics after seeing stuff here, as it encouraged them to give stuff a go and succeed in creating something fun, even when things go wrong.”

It’s safe to assume that robotics is a field where occasional failure is inevitable. (Well, I guess most of the fields are, to be fair.) But—improved by trial and error—all sorts of technological wonders often eventually become inseparable parts of our lives.

“For me, robots are about embodied intelligence,” Professor Henrik Christensen shared with Bored Panda in a recent interview. “How can we build intelligent machines that empower us in our daily lives, from work or leisure to home support and assist people as they grow old to ensure they have a great quality of life from cradle to grave.”

Prof. Christensen pointed out that there are two major areas of use for robots—service and professional. The former, according to the expert, includes home robots, such as vacuum cleaners, 30 million of which have been sold to people. “We are also starting to see companion robots, such as the robot Moxie, with a few thousand units sold. Slowly we will see more home applications.”

“In the professional robots area, the two big use-cases are automotive manufacturing, which by far is the biggest area. We are also starting to see major utilization in warehousing, especially post COVID,” he added.

“Today the importance of robots to people’s lives varies tremendously depending on their job function,” Henrik Christensen emphasized. “We typically start to see ‘robot’ use in Dirty, Dull and Dangerous jobs. The Dirty might be in welding operations, paint jobs, and mining; the Dull is repetitive jobs where people might suffer from repetitive stress injury, etc; and the dangerous could be searching for things at the bottom of the sea or exploring Mars, just to mention a few.”

“Gradually we are also seeing robots for meal delivery, automated grocery stores, and also in use of autonomous vehicles as you see from Waymo, Cruise, Tesla,” he added.

Even though pictures like the ones on this list are undeniably very amusing, providing a hearty giggle is far from the only thing that social media can do when it comes to robotics. 

“I think it is important to see engagement from the broader public in issues such as ethics and required regulation. To build successful robot systems we need to have users—society at large—engaged in the discussion of use, risks, ethics, safety,” Christensen believes. He added that not all people can be in the room during the design stages, but it’s important to discuss the aforementioned points, which can be done with the help of social media.

If robot-based humor is something you enjoy, you might want to move on to another one of Bored Panda’s robotics-related collections next, featuring posts that ridicule robots and computers, as shared by a dedicated online group. You can find it here.