The prototype of the Optimus robot, a bipedal machine that Musk believes will one day be sold as a general purpose bot that is cheaper than a car and equally capable of working in factories and doing chores at home, was unveiled by Musk.
Musk is known for his intoxicants of hype and misdirection. Roboticists were able to see some of the machine's actual capabilities. What is their opinion? A research robot that will take many years to develop into anything meaningful is still more hype than reality, despite the fact that the engineers ofTesla have done incredible work in such a short time.
Let us recap what we saw on the day.
There were two machines shown. The first, named Bumble C, was a rough development robot that walked across the stage and carried out tasks in pre recorded demos. Musk said that the second robot was close to what will go into production and had an external covering. It was only used as a prop and only shown waving its hands. Musk wants to create a useful humanoid robot as quickly as possible, one that can be made in very high volume, eventually millions of units, and that will cost less than a car. He claimed that the invention of such a machine would allow for a future where there is no poverty and a fundamental transformation of civilization.
It is unclear if the basic specifications for Optimus will be true next time we receive an update. It weighs 73 kilograms, has 28 degrees of freedom in its limbs, and is powered by a 2.3kWh battery. The software used to power itself-driving cars for navigation and control has been changed to make it compatible with the mechanical feature. Musk said in a Q&A at the end of the presentation that customers will be able to order one within three years, but it is not clear if he meant businesses.
That is the bare facts about what was said. The experts had to say what they said. Some of their reactions were shared on social media.
Christian Hubicki, a robotics professor at Florida State University, offered his thoughts in a Twitter thread, noting that like many others, theTesla team came a long way in about a year, but that the capabilities of Optimus actually shown on stage seemed standard.
Hubicki notes in his thread that the robot seems to use a walking method known as zero moment point, or ZMP, which is not confirmed by the company. This is a method of locomotion that has been used for a long time. You can see the resemblance to how its knees are bent in a semi-crouch when you watch the movie. This method of walking is pretty safe, but not mind-blowing, according to Hubicki.
Reliability is one of the big questions not answered by the presentation. Do you know how often it falls down? He says you can't tell from a video or live demo. When it comes to puttingrobots in factories, reliability is a huge factor, as downtime in an assembly line can have a significant effect.
According to Will Jackson, the first two prototypes of the robot were lacking in novelty.
Jackson said that they are very similar to Honda's Asimo robot. The design is heavy built, clumsy and power inefficient and the only redeeming feature is a clutch mechanism. Compare last year's reveal of a man in a robot suit to this year's actual hardware to find out how far out they are.
Jackson questioned the very idea of building a humanoid robot for menial labor in the first place. I'm amazed that Musk can address an audience so enamored with the idea of a humanoid that they don't realize that interacting with a robot is the killer application. He thought they were applauding because the world will have a robot that can lift a pipe.
He concluded that the demo was brave and that hopefully we will see a course correction by the time of next year's event.
The biggest thing is the progress they have made in the time that they have been working on things, according to Jonathan Aitken. There were a lot of unanswered questions about the robot and the demos.
Pre recorded demos and actual work are vastly different.
There was a cord attached to the robot that was shown in the pre recorded videos. The question for me is power and communication. The cord was there for safety. Do you mean for power and instructions? The robot had walked without a tether for the first time.
The range of activities the robot was working on was good to see. They were not very large. The footage of the robot moving components in a factory was impressive, but lacked context that would explain how important the work was. I would like to know more about the manufacturing process and how large a component it is.
Cynthia Yeung, head of product at robot logistics firm Plus One Robotics, questioned the company's focus on copying the human form so closely and its planned future business model.
According to Yeung,elonmusk seems to be enamored of the Boston Dynamics approach to robots, as opposed to what a lot of other people are working on.
The presentation focused a lot on how the team had made the walk, but the real world problems wouldn't necessarily be solved by that. She said that the robot's five-fingered hand was not as good as simpler two or three-fingered pinchers. There is a reason why warehouses don't use hand-like manipulation mechanisms.
Musk was praised for sharing the spotlight with his team of engineers and the company made some "cool" simulators. Her judgement on the technical achievements was not good. This is not cutting-edge. You can hire some PhDs and go to some conferences.
According to a professor at the University of California San Diego, there is little innovation in the approach of the company.
There is no proof that it can do basic navigation.
The five-fingered hand design was probably unnecessary. I did not see a strong argument. There isn't a lot of evidence that it can do basic navigation, grasping, and manipulation
It is a good initial design and it is impressive how far they have come, but the innovation beyond Boston Dynamics and Agility is very limited. They have a nice platform for doing research. Musk is not afraid to think big and invest. Real innovation is something I expect to see in the future.
When simpler systems are more doable, why develop a general-purpose humanoid robot in the first place.
Garg wrote that creating humanoid bots is a zero to one problem with no revenue until the system works to deliver value. Investment is difficult because of that. He points out that if the end goal can be reached, then we save a lot by not having to retool infrastructure to accommodate machines.
The cable-driven hands seem to have a decent loading capacity but a slow response time according to Garg. He thinks that Musk andTesla are getting involved in this space.
Overall, the current design is a very good first step. Interest in building such systems is welcome because Tesla and Elon Musk’s involvement in the problem brings attention, talent, and resources to the problem, setting in motion a flywheel of progress. This effort should be lauded with cautious optimism by the community, for the compass points in the right direction, and Elon brings with him the heft of Tesla engineers as we trek through the AI/Robotics jungle.
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