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Martial arts robots at 2026 Spring Festival Gala [video]

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Re: Martial arts robots at 2026 Spring Festival Gala [video]

#121

Post by michaelt »

flakeoil wrote: post #82
michaelt wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've worked on much less expensive, much smaller humanoid robots. These robots are certainly running through a scripted set of poses which has been extensively tested for the conditions (Humans would also be choreographed and have to hit certain marks at certain times). If you covered the stage in loose gravel or a thick carpet they'd all start falling over. The things the robots hold are almost certainly taped into…

> The things the robots hold are almost certainly taped into their hands. You can clearly see that the robots change their grip of their sword, so it cannot be taped to their hands.

When is that?

With the poles at the 1 minute mark, the robots enter holding them and their left hand never moves on the pole. Also note the stationary hand is matte grey while the moving hand is metallic silver.

Likewise with the wine gourds (?) at 2m30s and the nunchucks at 3m40s.

It’s a completely sensible design decision, much simpler to do cartwheels and vaults if you don’t have super delicate fingers fitted.

Re: Martial arts robots at 2026 Spring Festival Gala [video]

#122

Post by rubzah »

ponector wrote: post #101
k_kelly wrote: post #63

This is AMAZING. We are definitely on an exponential in term of capabilities of humanoid robots. We are probably only years away from having a robot in the house, in construction of robots. Automating anything that a human can do is best done in a human sized robot. But. None of these are actually useful right now. I don't want something with the arm strength of a forklift taking care of my parents or kids. The deman…

>> None of these are actually useful right now. They could be really useful: without hesitation such humanoid could bring pack of explosives to the opposed treeline.

I hate you. This will be real in Also, current tech could be useful as a shopping assistant, to carry the groceries for people who can't, for one reason or another. Though the other post about tipping safety does have a point.

Re: Martial arts robots at 2026 Spring Festival Gala [video]

#123

Post by rixed »

gravifer wrote: post #84
rixed wrote: post #73

Last time I had to implement a typed programming language, it was for short programs only. So for typing I just converted the program into a large set of constraints and throw z4 at it, asking to optimize for smallest possible types. If z4 could find types for every expressions in less than a few seconds then it was well typed. You had to use a few trick for larger programs, but basically it managed to type any real…

probably under a wrong thread, but can you point me to the one you intended? Really curious about that

Haha, I've often wondered how one could answer to the wrong thread on HN, and there I am :)

Was intended for https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47025885

And z4 is, of course z3 (no I don't have special access to next-gen version of z3)

Re: Martial arts robots at 2026 Spring Festival Gala [video]

#124

Post by jhanschoo »

k_kelly wrote: post #63

This is AMAZING. We are definitely on an exponential in term of capabilities of humanoid robots. We are probably only years away from having a robot in the house, in construction of robots. Automating anything that a human can do is best done in a human sized robot. But. None of these are actually useful right now. I don't want something with the arm strength of a forklift taking care of my parents or kids. The deman…

> I don't want something with the arm strength of a forklift taking care of my parents or kids.

Robots in such an environment are designed with the appropriate affordances so that they cannot use too much force... but the concern about weight I suppose is quite salient.

Re: Martial arts robots at 2026 Spring Festival Gala [video]

#125

Post by jhanschoo »

unsnap_biceps wrote: post #57
somenameforme wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ahhh! When he said staffs I assumed he meant people, not staves! Yeah, that's 100% CG. Here [1] you can see where the kids take a stance where it was to be edited in, and if you pause at the exact moment - it looks pretty bad, with something like a lightsaber just popping in the kid's hand. Hmmm. Not sure what to make of this. I wish it was possible to see the raw unedited footage. It makes me question everything els…

If you watch at 0.25 speed, you can see the staff is actually a magician's cane. It's a coiled up bit of plastic that springs open when you release the ends. You can see similar tricks on YouTube, like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-j6G4sPwWU

That's true, and the wobbliness of the cane is indeed characteristic of this device.

Re: Martial arts robots at 2026 Spring Festival Gala [video]

#126

Post by somenameforme »

unsnap_biceps wrote: post #57
somenameforme wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ahhh! When he said staffs I assumed he meant people, not staves! Yeah, that's 100% CG. Here [1] you can see where the kids take a stance where it was to be edited in, and if you pause at the exact moment - it looks pretty bad, with something like a lightsaber just popping in the kid's hand. Hmmm. Not sure what to make of this. I wish it was possible to see the raw unedited footage. It makes me question everything els…

If you watch at 0.25 speed, you can see the staff is actually a magician's cane. It's a coiled up bit of plastic that springs open when you release the ends. You can see similar tricks on YouTube, like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-j6G4sPwWU

That definitely does seem viable. I suppose never say 100%...

Re: Martial arts robots at 2026 Spring Festival Gala [video]

#127

Post by somenameforme »

michaelt wrote: post #71
pixelesque wrote: post #7

Some people on X are saying they're "just" cloning/copying "puppet" human movements. I know very little about robotics, but given these appear totally free-standing, if that was the case (I personally don't think it is), wouldn't that imply they have the same centre of gravity and weight of limbs as humans? Surely they'd have to be able to balance themselves, and copying a human's movements "exactly" wouldn't work fo…

I've worked on much less expensive, much smaller humanoid robots. These robots are certainly running through a scripted set of poses which has been extensively tested for the conditions (Humans would also be choreographed and have to hit certain marks at certain times). If you covered the stage in loose gravel or a thick carpet they'd all start falling over. The things the robots hold are almost certainly taped into…

Why do you think it would be the case about e.g. swapping to thick carpet would throw things off? Intuitively it seems like they must have a tremendous amount of dynamic adjustment going on. For instance think of how much variance, driven by dynamics, that there's going to be in the scene at 2:48 [1] where the robot [intentionally] falls over and then aerobically picks itself back up.

The motion is certainly scripted, but the exact mechanics in play there almost certainly vary radically from take to take. Imagine something simple like a pool/billiards break. Even if you set up a machine to rack the balls and break them in as close to identical as possible, you'd get wildly different results each time. And the dynamics in this motion is going to dwarf that.

[1] - https://youtu.be/mUmlv814aJo?t=168

Re: Martial arts robots at 2026 Spring Festival Gala [video]

#129

Post by spaceman_2020 »

Saline9515 wrote: post #86
spaceman_2020 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s clear to me that the smartest thing China ever did was to limit speculation in the markets. So many human capital in America is wasted pumping up valuations instead of actually building stuff Every Jane Street hire could be building robots, but instead, they’re trading options and crypto and heck, even market making for prediction markets now

The positive aspect is that there is plenty if venture capital for innovators; the negative one is that those innovations are stifled by various extraction techniques that allow VCs and other investors to get a return on investment. Crypto is a good example of how the equilibria is hard to maintain, and if the last cycle saw many interesting new products come to life, they all got crushed by ruthless profit-taking fr…

Agreed about the venture capital for innovators part, but that has a danger of eventually the tail wagging the dog. Speculative investments enable VCs to fund other speculative investments until the entire chain is only focused on funding speculative products because that's where you get the meatiest exits

Again, see crypto as a prime example - because, at one point, you could command a valuation that was simply not tethered (heh) to reality, you had all these now-dead L1 chains raising $200M+ at $3-5B valuations.

This also leads to a situation where you only end up funding digital plays because the metrics there can be anything. You had these crypto companies raise based on "growth" when that growth was simply coins produced out of thin air and wallets created by the millions with a script.

You can't do that if you're building actual physical products

Re: Martial arts robots at 2026 Spring Festival Gala [video]

#130

Post by expedition32 »

jbstack wrote: post #102
energy123 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't want something with the arm strength of a forklift taking care of my parents or kids. A risk I never hear discussed is falling over and injuring children. Even the petite Unitree models are like a 70kg piece of furniture. Each year thousands get injured because of furniture falling over. I'd buy one immediately, but if I had kids or pets, I would wait for safety data on falls.

Humans have a similar weight and can also fall, so would you be satisfied with a fall rate the same or better than an average human?

People here on HN rave about FSD taxis... And we know that cars are potential death machines.

Anyways these robots are cool and I hope we send robots to Mars instead of human astronauts.

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