Robots will read the manual
Household robots learn faster when products explain themselves as data a machine can read. The user manual is getting a new reader, and design changes too.
For most of the history of consumer products, the manual was written for a person who would never read it. It went into a drawer. Then something changed. The manual became part of product safety. If the instructions are wrong, the product is not safe, even when the machine itself is fine.
I spent years on that change. The lesson was simple. Information is part of the product. A dishwasher is the steel, the pump and the software, and also what you need to know to use it without breaking it or hurting yourself.
A new reader
Now the manual is getting a new reader, the robot. A robot that loads a dishwasher, opens an oven or closes a drawer has the same problem a person has on day one. It has to understand the object before it touches it. Where is the handle. How far does the door open. How much force is too much.
Today robots mostly find this out by trying. They explore, fail, try again. That is slow and expensive, and in a home it can break things. Every robot repeats the same discovery for the same object.
Objects that explain themselves
The better way is for objects to explain themselves, as data a machine can use. Dimensions, joints, forces, limits, what happens when you push here. Measured once, checked, and shared.
That is the work I care about now. It sits between design, standards and AI. Designers know how products are meant to be used. Standards bodies know how to make information trustworthy. AI needs both.
What changes for designers
If robots become users, design changes too. A handle is no longer only for a hand. A button needs to be readable by a camera. An appliance that a robot can operate safely will sell better than one it cannot.
We went through this once with people. The manual became part of the product. It is about to happen again, with a different reader.
The pictures in this essay were made with AI.