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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]

#131
It's a nice piece of machinery. Looks like they finally went all-electric and got rid of the hydraulics. The new model is much less bulky.

The task it is doing is undemanding. It's just moving things from one set of large slots to another. No need for precision placement, unstructured bin-picking, or object separation. If it could pick up engine covers from the messy pile seen atop one of the racks and slot them into the storage unit, that would be more impressive. It's cool to see this done with a humanoid, but off the shelf industrial robots could do that job. This is the same place where Rethink Robotics got stuck. They could do simple object movements in mostly-structured situations, but so can lots of other simpler approaches.

Amazon, despite substantial efforts, still doesn't have full robot picking. About two years ago, Amazon announced their "Sparrow" picking robot. But that seems to be experimental. It's not seen in videos of Amazon warehouses in 2024. Amazon is using the Agility humanoid, but only experimentally.[1]

This is how Amazon currently does picking.[2] Racks of product come to the picker on robotic platforms. The picking system projects a light square on the space in the rack from which the picker should take the product. The picker picks the item, waves it under a barcode scanner, and drops it in an outgoing bin. Repeat for 8 hours. The job requires no more than a room-temperature IQ. Machines should think. People should work.

Amazon keeps trying to automate that step.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8IdbodRG14

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsIjagFEv84

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

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> as long as it doesn't hurt living conditions for those humans Literally how would it not? Losing your job hurts your living condition, it's not like the warehouse workers will just be given cushier tasks.

I don't pretend to know all the effects of automation. The industrial revolution seems like it turned out OK.

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

#134
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 liked the Tesla snake robot for charging.[1] But it upset many people.

It looks complicated but is a rather simple mechanical design. There are several motors in the base pulling on cables. The arm itself is just segments, disks, and cables. So all the complexity is in the base, and you can surround that with a metal or concrete box to prevent damage. Arm replacement wouldn't be too expensive.

Tesla is now touting wireless car charging, but that's a lot of power to transmit through air.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMM0lRfX6YI

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

#135
post #24

Chinese Unitree's demos are better by now imo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dFTc4W8wm0

Unitree is catching up to Boston Dynamics in locomotion, but has not surpassed them yet I think. Unitree's real advantage is the much lower cost of their hardware and their ability to mass produce their robots. But IMO manipulation is harder than locomotion, both in hardware and software, and neither company is convincingly ahead there. I think the uncut laundry demo from Physical Intelligence a few days ago is bette…

Why do robot companies insist on beating up their robots?

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

#136
I don't know why people are impressed. Robots are hard and this is a big step forward but it's still useless. This is far from being as functional as automotive manufacturing robots or even vacuum cleaners. This is nothing like the goal we're striving for with these things. There's very a long way to go until this does what we want.

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

#137
post #8

Compare this to the human controlled puppets Tesla demonstrated. Tesla made a big show of something Disney could do years ago. While Boston Dynamics is quietly building the real thing and showing us footage of it actually working.

Tesla has footage of Optimus working autonomously. Not bad progress for something that has been under development for two years. https://x.com/Tesla_Optimus/status/1846797392521167223

Correction: Tesla says* they have footage of Optimus working autonomously

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

#138

Anyone who don't know what manufacturing automation looked like for past decades should go watch those "factory tours" video or two. Then write down what are shared characteristics of manually handled objects in it and what are deltas between those videos and this. There are just way too many fantasies around here. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQeQWGqfFN0 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csifG1AM5d8 3: https:…

IIUC, while this type of mass manufacturing is very efficient, it also limits the materials and what the final product can be.

Especially in food manufacturing, they need to add certain chemicals in the food ingredients so that the machines can process them and that's what separates the cheap mass produced food from artisan food.

A humanoid robot might be able to apply traditional processes and make artisan, additive free products cheap and available.

If we end up having practically unlimited energy(which we actually have, just not harnessed fully yet), we can also have small production centers on every corner that produce bespoke products using humanoid robots and traditional tools instead of having centralized and highly specialized and streamlined mass production.

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

#139
post #138

Anyone who don't know what manufacturing automation looked like for past decades should go watch those "factory tours" video or two. Then write down what are shared characteristics of manually handled objects in it and what are deltas between those videos and this. There are just way too many fantasies around here. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQeQWGqfFN0 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csifG1AM5d8 3: https:…

IIUC, while this type of mass manufacturing is very efficient, it also limits the materials and what the final product can be. Especially in food manufacturing, they need to add certain chemicals in the food ingredients so that the machines can process them and that's what separates the cheap mass produced food from artisan food. A humanoid robot might be able to apply traditional processes and make artisan, additive…

We have re-invented the tamale stand, but with robots.

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

#140
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unitree is catching up to Boston Dynamics in locomotion, but has not surpassed them yet I think. Unitree's real advantage is the much lower cost of their hardware and their ability to mass produce their robots. But IMO manipulation is harder than locomotion, both in hardware and software, and neither company is convincingly ahead there. I think the uncut laundry demo from Physical Intelligence a few days ago is bette…

I don't really want a robot wandering around doing laundry. I think what most people want is a box you dump clothes in and they come out folded, an extra machine next to the dryer. That would be a genuine time saver. I hate scaling Mount Foldmore.

Not at the level of dumping a basket of dryer clothes into a folding machine but getting close:

https://foldimate.website/

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