Exactly one year ago, Tesla unveiled its Optima humanoid robot for the first time. She reportedly made the prototype, which went on stage by itself, in just six months. And that with the help of parts and components that its engineers allegedly had on hand and were not intended for such a purpose. He didn’t even have the cables and motors covered.
You can listen to and view information and footage in the introductory video report.
Even so, it was a respectable sight, as billionaire Elon Musk’s car company only announced the development of the machine on August 19, 2020. And then it promised that a working example would be ready within a year, which it failed to do by just one month. In addition, the first android really walked and danced on its own. However, his imaginary father didn’t want to show off just that.
“That robot can do a lot more than what we just showed you. We just didn’t want him to fall on his face. So now we’re going to show you some videos of the robot doing a few more things, which is a lot less risky,” the Tesla owner and boss joked right after the launch of the machine.
The presentation included a video on which the humanoid prototype performs a number of tasks. From carrying boxes to watering flowers to working in the factory area, which are exactly the areas where Musk would like to apply the robot one day – in industry, ideally first in his car factory or in the home, where such a robust and heavy machine will already have to be , perhaps next to children, absolutely flawless.
Smarter, cheaper
On how many attempts the android managed the given activity, but it was not possible to determine from the prepared shots of the company. Even so, Tesla showed last September that it is moving forward really fast. Its engineers also brought a second android to the stage, this time made from custom-made parts, which should also go into serial production. And compared to the rather robotic puppets from other companies, it should be both smarter and significantly cheaper.
“Our goal is to produce a useful humanoid robot as quickly as possible,” said Elon Musk, showing a sample model of the first series of the Optimus robot for mass production.
“You’ve all seen impressive displays of a humanoid robot before. And that’s good, but what are they missing? They lack brains. They don’t have the intelligence to navigate the world on their own. And they are also very expensive and produced in low quantities,” the head of Tesla began to explain the current issue of robotics development.
“Whereas Optimus is designed to be a very capable robot and to be produced in large quantities – eventually possibly millions. And it is estimated to cost much less than a car. I would say less than 20 thousand dollars (almost half a million crowns, editor’s note),” added Musk.
What Optimus is equipped with
Tesla’s mass-produced humanoid should be about 1.87 meters tall and weigh 73 kilograms. He has 28 structural actuators all over his body that convert the rotations from his electric motors into linear motion, and with these he is able to achieve up to 200 degrees of freedom or actions that he can perform. Only each hand has eleven, so it also has opposable thumbs and moves each finger separately.
Optimus can thus lift objects or walk up stairs. And the detailed drawings of the machine shown at the presentation also revealed other things – for example, there is a battery with a capacity of 2.3 kWh in its torso and it can last for over four hours of operation in brisk walking mode.
It also has wi-fi and its navigation is provided by the same computer that provides self-driving in electric cars from Tesla – only the technicians reprogrammed the artificial intelligence so that it orients itself in a house, office or factory instead of traffic. And while last year this serial piece itself did not go on stage, Musk promised this too in just a few weeks.
“You know, there’s still a lot of work to do to improve the Optima. This is still only the first version. And that is the real reason why we are organizing this event. That is, convincing some of the most talented people in the world – like you – to join Tesla and help make it a reality. To help get to large-scale production so that it can help millions of people,” added the head of the car company last year.
The latest humanoid videos from Tesla
And the recruitment, which last September’s press conference also announced, apparently succeeded. In the first half of this year, Tesla published a video where Optimus walked around the factory by himself and showed how he can grasp various work tools. And now, at the end of September, she showed another recording showing how he has moved on again since then in terms of motor skills and other abilities.
The new video begins with a demonstration of how Musk’s humanoid can detect and distinguish objects – in this case, cubes, which it then sorts by color, despite the fact that an extra moves and tosses them in different ways for him in the footage. You can also see better fluidity than in older clips. And he also boasted a high level of stability, which he demonstrated in the scene where he practices yoga again. Specifically, it shows, for example, the position of a tree, and although it hasn’t shown itself that way in the way it currently walks, we can expect improvement in that as well.
A Tesla robot on sale within a few years?
Elon Musk announced last year that he would like to sell the Optima within three to five years. And even though the videos he has now published show the rapid progress that he owes to his neural network and with which he might already be used in various sorting facilities and warehouses, experts have previously held back his enthusiasm.
“I think that within five years we could see that robot or something like it somewhere in some closed spaces where only these robots will be. For example, if it were a kitchen of some fast food or something like that, where three such robots are moving – that is probably possible. If no one else was going in there. However, to move among the normal population, I think it will take at least eight or ten years,” Tomáš Rouček, who deals with robot control at the Center for Artificial Intelligence at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering (FEL) of the Czech Technical University, told SZ Tech last year.
“I’m also a bit worried about the price. We all know that Tesla is not entirely truthful in these matters, and that over time the prices rise – or that, for example, the Cybertruck has been waiting for several years. So that’s something we have to wait and see how it turns out,” he added.
Further development of humanoids
The American automaker is not the only one in the race for the first android that can be used in practice. Last August, with a presentation in a similarly cautious spirit with the unveiling of its smart machine, it was overtaken by the Chinese competitor CyberOne from Xiaomi, which, however, has not even guessed the date of sale. However, he already knows the price – his machine should range from 2.1 to 2.45 million crowns.
And Digit from Oregon Agility Robotics is also making progress, there is also Atlas from Massachusetts company Boston Dynamics with popular robotic dogs, which from time to time captivates the Internet with its parkour or dance videos – to present possible uses, price or sales dates, but unlike the others he’s not in that much of a hurry.
2023-10-01 11:55:33
#Video #Musks #Optimus #showed #practices #yoga #sorts #cubes #News #List
