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Boston Dynamics robot Atlas goes hands on [video]

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Re: Boston Dynamics robot Atlas goes hands on [video]

#81

Post by jajko »

modeless wrote: post #75
the__alchemist wrote: post #43

I think whenever I see humanoid robots like this: What is the battery life? I imagine this will be a critical limitation on these, until further notice.

Humans recharge for 1/3 of the day. That's achievable with batteries. The rest schedule might be a bit different.

Well yes but we can perform 16 hours straight then. If you look at what elite alpinists can do (or more like are rarely forced to do) it can be easily 72 hours full on brutal effort on physical and mental limits, with 0 margin for mistake, no food or water. Not so much case here now I presume.

Not that that would be a bummer here nor the baseline, but humans can be properly amazing and we keep stretching the possible further and further.

Re: Boston Dynamics robot Atlas goes hands on [video]

#82

Post by y04nn »

krunck wrote: post #5

While humanoid robots are neat, if not uncanny, I would love to see robots with forms optimized for their work. A large octopus with legs would be ideal for this sort of parts handling job.

Bipedalism is great to evolve on uneven terrain. Here it seems to just slow the process. Also, it uses its second hand for balance instead of achieving work, a counter weight would be as effective. In a factory, where the floor is flat, a human sized self moving robot 2 or 3 wheels would be way more effective, longer arms with more joins that are not mimicking humans one could also be better. There is already a lot of automation/robots in industry and it never look like a human. Even in our houses the best approach to automation never look like a human (eg. vacuum cleaner). I think that the only part of our body that would worth copying is the hand.

Re: Boston Dynamics robot Atlas goes hands on [video]

#83

Post by echoangle »

mr_toad wrote: post #80
drooby wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The battery life of a human is 6-8 hours. Those pesky humans also want "rights". Takes a long time to make a new human too. So that's the competition.

> Those pesky humans also want "rights". Yep, you’re not allowed to own them, only rent them. And there’s no right to repair if you have a defective unit.

But the units actively want to repair themselves, that has to be better than right to repair, right?

Re: Boston Dynamics robot Atlas goes hands on [video]

#84

Post by markisus »

readyplayernull wrote: post #72
artninja1988 wrote: post #68

Why does it jump so awkwardly when the part doesn't fit and it has to readjust?

If (armIsStuck) forceZ = normalForceZ * 5; // don't remove this line!!! Bob found that's enough to release the arm when it gets stuck.

This sounds about right, having spent my share of time prepping robot systems for big PR and investor demos.

Re: Boston Dynamics robot Atlas goes hands on [video]

#86

Post by fragmede »

recursive wrote: post #73
criley2 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humans have an uptime of 16 hours, but generally speaking can only operate professionally for an 8 hour span. The other 8 hours are spent mostly doing personal maintenance and refueling their physical and mental capabilities. Oh, and humans have traditionally banded together to punish those who ask for more than 8 hours a day or 5 days a week, and have even historically gotten very murdery over the subject. Buyer bew…

The comparison does get kind of non-sensical. How much PTO does the robot use? Are they a culture fit? Do they have any insights for process improvement? If robots can replace humans for the most monotonous tasks, I'm all for it, as long as it doesn't hurt living conditions for those humans . But all these robots are only shown to us in very carefully controlled conditions. If a human was doing what we saw this robot…

Definitely controlled, but a pole to the "chest" of Atlas shows it's relatively stable on its feet and capable of recovery, though we have no idea how many takes that took.

As far as speed, it depends on what the limitations are. We know electric motors in general are capable of moving faster, so presumably the limits are with computation, to which I'd point out that Moore's law is still hanging on. Compared to Honda's Asimo in 2000 BD's Atlas robot in 2016 was nothing short of phenomenal progress, but that took 16 years.

Hopefully it doesn't take another 16, but we'll see. Once there are useful commercially available humanoid robots on the market, progress is likely to accelerate.

Re: Boston Dynamics robot Atlas goes hands on [video]

#87

Post by arnaudsm »

Retric wrote: post #66
mrshadowgoose wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, it's a real shame that batteries can't be swapped.

Swapping batteries is often suggested, but rarely actually used in practice due to a wide range of logistical issues like thermal management, cost, etc.

It's logistically harder, but it's already common in some industries. Check the Gogoro e-scooter network in Taiwan.

Re: Boston Dynamics robot Atlas goes hands on [video]

#88

Post by SoftTalker »

y04nn wrote: post #82
krunck wrote: post #5

While humanoid robots are neat, if not uncanny, I would love to see robots with forms optimized for their work. A large octopus with legs would be ideal for this sort of parts handling job.

Bipedalism is great to evolve on uneven terrain. Here it seems to just slow the process. Also, it uses its second hand for balance instead of achieving work, a counter weight would be as effective. In a factory, where the floor is flat, a human sized self moving robot 2 or 3 wheels would be way more effective, longer arms with more joins that are not mimicking humans one could also be better. There is already a lot o…

Humans are precariously tall. Good for spotting threats but not for navigating terrain. Four legs are better, with a lower center of gravity. Look at mountain goats for example.

Re: Boston Dynamics robot Atlas goes hands on [video]

#89

Post by novok »

recursive wrote: post #73
criley2 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humans have an uptime of 16 hours, but generally speaking can only operate professionally for an 8 hour span. The other 8 hours are spent mostly doing personal maintenance and refueling their physical and mental capabilities. Oh, and humans have traditionally banded together to punish those who ask for more than 8 hours a day or 5 days a week, and have even historically gotten very murdery over the subject. Buyer bew…

The comparison does get kind of non-sensical. How much PTO does the robot use? Are they a culture fit? Do they have any insights for process improvement? If robots can replace humans for the most monotonous tasks, I'm all for it, as long as it doesn't hurt living conditions for those humans . But all these robots are only shown to us in very carefully controlled conditions. If a human was doing what we saw this robot…

If the compute needed is linear, then 4x means it's not far off. I would foresee it in a decade. This speed is also fast enough for household robots as it is.

Re: Boston Dynamics robot Atlas goes hands on [video]

#90

Post by bamboozled »

slau wrote: post #7
krunck wrote: post #5

While humanoid robots are neat, if not uncanny, I would love to see robots with forms optimized for their work. A large octopus with legs would be ideal for this sort of parts handling job.

I think the exact point they’re trying to make is that a humanoid robot can pick up one shift exactly where a human left off. No custom robotics, no workplace changes, etc. This is huge for the industry. Smarter Every Day visited a frisbee factory and they had automated a bunch of things. However, every automation point was extremely protected (fenced off) so that a bumbling human couldn’t walk somewhere and get a li…

I keep hearing this but I just think it’s silly, for basically any factory, it’s trivial to change the configuration of a space so a better suited robot can operate rather than build robots that can fit into human sized spaces.

Yes there will be use cases but it just seems like a problem looking for a solution most of the time.

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