I'd be impressed by a robot that can clean its own hands
I assume it's a difficult problem because I've not found an example of a humanoid robot that can wash itself. This feels odd, given there are impressive sprinting, back-flipping, dancing robots out there.
Robots do have different constraints. They could use walk-in baths, UV or chemical cleaning, disposable gloves (or even disposable hands?).
But I'd have thought, for the ones that live with us, it would be handy if they could use sinks. Soap and water to scrub away dirt, vomit, and worse.
This thought was triggered by a comment by Pallab Ghosh: "the biggest drain on the time of care home staff was cleaning and recharging the robots".
Or more brutally in a 2023 MIT Review article by James Wright:
In short, the machines failed to save labor. The care robots themselves required care: they had to be moved around, maintained, cleaned, booted up, operated, repeatedly explained to residents, constantly monitored during use, and stored away afterwards. Indeed, a growing body of evidence from other studies is finding that robots tend to end up creating more work for caregivers.
If you see any fully autonomous robots washing their hands, let me know. I'd be impressed.