As of 2020 there is no off-the-shelf software platform for building a domestic robot comparable to a game engine for building video games.
Mostly true True in substance, wrong in a detail.
Factual: Statements about the present or the past, checked against the record: did they hold up?
The second judge would not resolve this claim; the verdict shown is the first judge's.
Said for an organisation they lead or work for; it counts on both records.
What would count as true or false
Judge as of 2020-10-28. True: no widely available, integrated, general-purpose software platform existed for building domestic robots that let developers get started as easily as game engines like Unity or Unreal do, and existing tools (e.g. ROS, simulators) were fragmented or needed a lot of integration. Mostly true: the gist holds, but some partial platforms offered meaningful starting points that the claim understates. Mixed: experts at the time disagreed in substance, e.g. ROS plus Gazebo was widely seen as a reasonable rough equivalent. Mostly false: off-the-shelf platforms existed that substantially served this role, with only minor gaps. False: a mature, integrated, off-the-shelf domestic-robot development platform comparable to a game engine was clearly available.
Set before the research began.
Evidence (8)
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E1 Unity-Robotics-Hub/README.md at main · Unity-Technologies/Unity-Robotics-Hub GitHub (Unity Technologies repository) · 24 September 2020
“We're starting off with a set of tools to make it easier to use Unity with existing ROS-based workflows.”
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E2 Unity-Robotics-Hub/README.md at main · Unity-Technologies/Unity-Robotics-Hub GitHub (Unity Technologies repository) · 24 September 2020
“The contents of this repository are in active development. Its features and API are subject to significant change as development progresses.”
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E3 Robust.AI raises a $15M Series A to improve problem solving for collaborative robots | TechCrunch TechCrunch · 28 October 2020
“We are building something we believe most robotics companies will find irresistible, taking solutions from single-purpose tools that today function in defined environments, to highly useful systems that can work within our world and all its intricacies.”
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E4 Robust.AI Raises $22.5 Million to Build the World's First Industrial-Grade Cognitive Engine for Robotics Business Wire (Robust.AI press release) · 28 October 2020 Own record
“At Robust, we want to grow the entire robotics industry, by overhauling the software stack for robotics, injecting cognition and common sense into the pipeline, allowing robots to operate in complex environments that were previously out of reach.”
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E5 ZeroSimROSUnity/README.md at master · fsstudio-team/ZeroSimROSUnity GitHub (fsstudio-team, FS Studios) · 7 July 2020
“ZeroSim is a robotics simulation engine built on the easy to use Unity 3D development platform and the power of the Robotics Operating System (ROS). ZeroSim is designed for ease of use and rapid development of all sorts of robotics and simulation”
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E6 ZeroSimROSUnity/README.md at master · fsstudio-team/ZeroSimROSUnity GitHub (fsstudio-team, FS Studios) · 7 July 2020
“IMPORTANT the default Unity physics settings do not work well with a lot of simulations. It is very much recommended (required for probably most all simulations) to set the physics settings by opening the Unity menu”
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E7 Unity-Robotics-Hub/ARCHIVE.md at main · Unity-Technologies/Unity-Robotics-Hub GitHub (Unity-Technologies) · 24 September 2020
“We're starting off with a set of tools to make it easier to use Unity with existing ROS-based workflows.”
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E8 Why do we use gazebo instead of unreal or unity Open Robotics Discourse · 3 June 2022
“I know ROS is available for Unity and Unreal Engine too but it’s just not up to the standards of Gazebo as of now and there are still ROS-bridging issues to address.”
Reasoning
In late 2020, Unity's robotics offering was described as "a set of tools" for use with "existing ROS-based workflows." Its README also warned that it was in active development and its API was "subject to significant change" (E1, E2, E7). That fits the claim that no integrated, game-engine-like platform for domestic robots existed. However, ZeroSim (July 2020) described itself as a robotics simulation engine built on Unity and ROS and "designed for ease of use and rapid development" (E5). That partial starting point is something the claim understates, even though ZeroSim still needed manual physics configuration (E6). A 2022 forum post saying the Unity and Unreal ROS integrations were not yet up to Gazebo's standard (E8) also points to a fragmented toolset, so the gist holds with some partial platforms available.
Cite this claim
Gary Marcus, “As of 2020 there is no off-the-shelf software platform for building a domestic robot comparable to a game engine for building video games.” (said 28 October 2020). Verdict: mostly true. Reliability API, claim c_3854ff2a6ae9, method 0.1.0+c876030c, dataset release v1.1.2. https://epistacklabs.com/claims/c_3854ff2a6ae9
This claim is in dataset release v1.1.2, with the same verdict.
Reply to this claim
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Verdicts are made automatically; how verdicts are made.