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An electric new era for Atlas

bostondynamics.com

351–360 of 443 posts

Re: An electric new era for Atlas

#351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, what evidence do you have of this "wide scale robotic deployment"? More humanoid robots have been announced lately but that is all I know of. Humanoid robots have many, many challenges to deployment. Especially, creating a machine that people can safely operate near is extremely challenging. The amount of intelligence person uses to not bump another person is very under rated.

It's a hypothetical deployment but it's reasonable to expect. These robots will be very valuable, and everyone will want one. It's not going to become a housemaid in a few years. But will they be making car parts? Almost certainly. Moravec's paradox is still in play, but advancement in AI chips will slowly overcome it.

> But will they be making car parts? Almost certainly.

Worth calling out that Hyundai is a major investor in Boston Dynamics.

FTA: This journey will start with Hyundai—in addition to investing in us, the Hyundai team is building the next generation of automotive manufacturing capabilities, and it will serve as a perfect testing ground for new Atlas applications.

Re: An electric new era for Atlas

#352

That first video of the bot standing from the floor and turning towards the camera one joint at a time does something strange to the uncanny valley horror movie part of my brain.

It seems like a bad decision from the business side of things too. Having your employees freaked out about the new robots seems like a nonzero ding towards a company purchasing one.

Re: An electric new era for Atlas

#353
post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Right to repair will be even more important for this technology than autos or general computing. It's going to be kneecapped far worse than phones or tractors. A general purpose humanoid robot is orders of magnitude more complex than a simple gps farming tractor or a cheap android phone. Companies will absolutely NOT want to give up that moat after developing such tech for 10-20 years.

I agree with this totally but it's a losing game. The second someone releases a general purpose humanoid robot that is capable of self replication but is locked out from doing so with DRM the race will be on to break that DRM. The self replicating humanoid robot will be a supreme game changer. It's a genie in the bottle that lets you wish for more wishes.

Self replicating humanoid robots sound like I should start researching the building of electromagnetic weaponary for the coming war.

Re: An electric new era for Atlas

#354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a hypothetical deployment but it's reasonable to expect. These robots will be very valuable, and everyone will want one. It's not going to become a housemaid in a few years. But will they be making car parts? Almost certainly. Moravec's paradox is still in play, but advancement in AI chips will slowly overcome it.

> But will they be making car parts? Almost certainly. Worth calling out that Hyundai is a major investor in Boston Dynamics. FTA: This journey will start with Hyundai—in addition to investing in us, the Hyundai team is building the next generation of automotive manufacturing capabilities, and it will serve as a perfect testing ground for new Atlas applications.

They own 80% of BD. Softbank owns the remaining 20%

Re: An electric new era for Atlas

#355

As we enter an era of wide scale robotic deployment, we need to think long and hard about what the maintenance bottleneck will look like. We need to advocate now for reliable and open upgrades, replacement parts, service documentation, and diagnostics. Right to repair will be even more important for this technology than autos or general computing.

Literally standing in front of a proprietary Fanuc industrial 6-axis arm waiting for Roboguide at the moment... this is already a wide scale industry and shows low probability to trend towards open and repairable technology. There have been some efforts for vendor-agnostic robot software like RoboDK and other warehouse execution systems, but the default is proprietary vendor software. It would be nice for society if…

Personal experience.

Fanuc robots are straight forward to service, they make the parts very available to do it yourself if you want. We order them here and there no problem.

But they are beasts and it can take an entire day just to replace a part. Then you have to reassemble it in the right order. None of it is made difficult on purpose. It has tight tolerances, and fancy shit like harmonic drives for zero backlash and more.

Re: An electric new era for Atlas

#356

That first video of the bot standing from the floor and turning towards the camera one joint at a time does something strange to the uncanny valley horror movie part of my brain.

I didn't get any horror movie vibes. I just thought "wow, that's neat!" and went back to watch it again.

Re: An electric new era for Atlas

#357
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

From someone with two family members suffering from schizophrenia, fuck you.

That's misplaced empathy, and I don't think you'd speak that way if you actually experienced it, and the way they terrorize everyone.

Re: An electric new era for Atlas

#358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

That was a rather insensitive comment. People are not disposable and people with schizophrenia need help.

Misplaced empathy. It isn't some disabled people like on a wheelchair, but people suffering from brain damage that makes them terrorize their surroundings. You can hardly find a better solution than to make places unbearable to them by intentionally triggering their hallucinatons.

Re: An electric new era for Atlas

#359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am really confused by their intentions with this video. Are they trying to freak us out? If so, succeeded! But I would have thought they’d rather not have us experience atlas as some kind of freakish terminator mixed with the girl from the ring.

[flagged]

Yup, in a decade or so it'll be impossible overthrow a tyrannical government and between stuff like this and surveillance there can be oppression without consequences

Re: An electric new era for Atlas

#360
post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with this totally but it's a losing game. The second someone releases a general purpose humanoid robot that is capable of self replication but is locked out from doing so with DRM the race will be on to break that DRM. The self replicating humanoid robot will be a supreme game changer. It's a genie in the bottle that lets you wish for more wishes.

Self replicating humanoid robots sound like I should start researching the building of electromagnetic weaponary for the coming war.

In theory, what's the best way to take out a robot like Atlas (or next year's more advanced military model)? It seems like they could be made electromagnetically shielded, waterproof, bulletproof, etc.

Maybe just armor piercing rounds fired in the right spot? A net? A special taser? A paintball to it's main cameras? Cover it in some gluey substance?

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