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Tesla Bot Update – Sort and Stretch [video]

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Re: Tesla Bot Update – Sort and Stretch [video]

#21

Post by somethoughts »

mlindner wrote: post #18
panick21_ wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems a bit strange that Tesla can build multiple electrics cars for 150k$ but the robot that consists of much less material should cost that much. The car has lots of compute power, likely they are sharing things with the car. The car has 5 cameras and a host of other sensors as well. The car also requires the cost of a huge battery and tons of materials plus a lot of manual work for the interiors, plus cooling a…

> It seems a bit strange that Tesla can build multiple electrics cars for 150k$ but the robot that consists of much less material should cost that much. Cars are only cheap because of massive economies of scale. This robot will probably be hand assembled, making it obviously quite expensive. Not to mention the need to recoup a lot the R&D investment money over relatively few units.

Yes the hand alone seems complex/intricate enough such that it'd pretty expensive to assemble/repair - whether using human or humanoid workers.

[1] https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/tesla-robo...

Re: Tesla Bot Update – Sort and Stretch [video]

#22

Post by somethoughts »

migueloller wrote: post #20
somethoughts wrote: post #13

I've been generally curious about the benefits of the humanoid robot form factor. I'll admit I don't know much about the state of the enterprise robotics/automation market but it would seem like the market would be limited by the fact that: 1.) The companies able to afford such robots would have much higher throughput capacity requirements and would want to setup much more customized automation. 2.) The companies in…

I believe their target price is $20k. No idea if it costs that right now, I doubt it.

I did see that.

It'd be interesting if one of the Tesla car teardown YouTubers (i.e. Munro, Engineering Explained) did an Optimus humanoid robot first principles teardown.

Re: Tesla Bot Update – Sort and Stretch [video]

#23

Post by sen »

cantaloupe wrote: post #14
sen wrote: post #4

Conveniently not labeled that the video is all at 4x speed. Using the “playback speed” menu to watch at 0.25x makes the human’s movements much more realistic and the robots movements much less impressive.

I think .25x is a bit slow, as .5x replay also looks reasonable, but you are right there is something like a 2.5–3.5x speed up. Makes the robot’s smooth motion much less impressive.

Yeah I couldn’t decide if it was .25 or .5 because the dropped frames make the movements of the human look janky at any speed, but going off the part where he’s moving the blocks around .25 looked a bit more “natural” to me.

Either way the video is purposely deceptive and the robot is nowhere near even a university-level vision-based robot when seen at normal speeds.

Re: Tesla Bot Update – Sort and Stretch [video]

#24

Post by [deleted] »

refulgentis wrote: post #7
recursv_thnkng wrote: post #6

Is this CGI? The shadows and movements of the block pieces don't seem real at all. Almost like they're from the PS3 tech demo era.

At 0:40 I see the sort task has magnets on the blocks. I'm curious, dropped out of state school economics: for robotics types is "sort blue and green" something you should be able to pull of as an undergrad, given equipment?

[deleted]

Re: Tesla Bot Update – Sort and Stretch [video]

#25

Post by juancampa »

sen wrote: post #4

Conveniently not labeled that the video is all at 4x speed. Using the “playback speed” menu to watch at 0.25x makes the human’s movements much more realistic and the robots movements much less impressive.

At 00:15, label pops up at the top-right that says “1.5X Speed”

Re: Tesla Bot Update – Sort and Stretch [video]

#26

Post by IshKebab »

Juicyy wrote: post #8
refulgentis wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At 0:40 I see the sort task has magnets on the blocks. I'm curious, dropped out of state school economics: for robotics types is "sort blue and green" something you should be able to pull of as an undergrad, given equipment?

very easily. here is the lecture from my robotics course. Amazing professor. Dr. Sodemann was the best I had in my lifetime. https://robogrok.com/1-2-3_Cameras_and_Color.php Its actually easier than you would expect! you can use a process in image processing called "thresholding" where you basically filter the RGB or color values. Its very common and a little "hack" on compute. Computers "look" at images or video by…

You're talking about different things.

Computer vision to detect red and green blocks in a controlled environment is completely trivial.

Driving a robot with human hands to pick up and manipulate blocks is still advanced research.

Re: Tesla Bot Update – Sort and Stretch [video]

#27

Post by IshKebab »

7e wrote: post #2

Tesla can’t solve self driving, but it will produce a bot which can function in an environment which is a hundred times more open and chaotic than a road system? I don’t think so.

Unlike self-driving they aren't charging people in advance for something they haven't done, so I think this is fine. Plenty of companies are researching humanoid robots. I don't see why Tesla can't too.

This one does look quite impressive even if it is sped up a bit (find me a robot hand manipulation video that isn't).

Re: Tesla Bot Update – Sort and Stretch [video]

#28

Post by throw310822 »

sen wrote: post #23
cantaloupe wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think .25x is a bit slow, as .5x replay also looks reasonable, but you are right there is something like a 2.5–3.5x speed up. Makes the robot’s smooth motion much less impressive.

Yeah I couldn’t decide if it was .25 or .5 because the dropped frames make the movements of the human look janky at any speed, but going off the part where he’s moving the blocks around .25 looked a bit more “natural” to me. Either way the video is purposely deceptive and the robot is nowhere near even a university-level vision-based robot when seen at normal speeds.

Uh, really? Are universities routinely developing robots with that level of hand dexterity? I mean the way fingers close around the objects, it looks incredibly human. Not to mention the coordination between the arm movements and the hips and torso to keep balance. I keep finding it very natural, even if slowed down to 0.25.

Re: Tesla Bot Update – Sort and Stretch [video]

#29

Post by panick21_ »

mlindner wrote: post #18
panick21_ wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems a bit strange that Tesla can build multiple electrics cars for 150k$ but the robot that consists of much less material should cost that much. The car has lots of compute power, likely they are sharing things with the car. The car has 5 cameras and a host of other sensors as well. The car also requires the cost of a huge battery and tons of materials plus a lot of manual work for the interiors, plus cooling a…

> It seems a bit strange that Tesla can build multiple electrics cars for 150k$ but the robot that consists of much less material should cost that much. Cars are only cheap because of massive economies of scale. This robot will probably be hand assembled, making it obviously quite expensive. Not to mention the need to recoup a lot the R&D investment money over relatively few units.

But that was the whole premise of Tesla investment in this bot. They don't want to produce 2, the want to produce a lots of them. They already produce the electronics in the millions, and have supply contract for cameras and so on.

Tesla is vertically integrated into producing most of the electronics (including the engine) in the car and in the charging networks. They also design products to be manufactured efficiently.

This suggests that they should be able to mass produce actuators and put those robots together efficiently. Musk looks at mass manufacture as part of the product development. However in the end this relies on enough demand being out-there so that its worth continuing the scale up of manufacturing lines.

It will likely take a many more iteration for this to be more then a tech demo.

Re: Tesla Bot Update – Sort and Stretch [video]

#30

Post by somethoughts »

panick21_ wrote: post #29
mlindner wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It seems a bit strange that Tesla can build multiple electrics cars for 150k$ but the robot that consists of much less material should cost that much. Cars are only cheap because of massive economies of scale. This robot will probably be hand assembled, making it obviously quite expensive. Not to mention the need to recoup a lot the R&D investment money over relatively few units.

But that was the whole premise of Tesla investment in this bot. They don't want to produce 2, the want to produce a lots of them. They already produce the electronics in the millions, and have supply contract for cameras and so on. Tesla is vertically integrated into producing most of the electronics (including the engine) in the car and in the charging networks. They also design products to be manufactured efficient…

Agree - I think it will be interesting to watch to see if it becomes more like the Tesla Model 3/Y or is more like the Tesla Semi/FSD/Cybertruck.
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