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An electric new era for Atlas

bostondynamics.com

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Re: An electric new era for Atlas

#81

Post by rmbyrro »

neom wrote: post #16
blackhawkC17 wrote: post #3

Figure, a new startup, is working on a similar humanoid robot. They just raised $675 million from Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and Microsoft [1]. Not sure about their chances of succeeding. On the other hand, as a non-American, I admire that the USA is seemingly the only place where people get funding for wonky ideas that sometimes become very successful. 1- https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/29/robot-startup-figure-valued-...

imho, Nobody does capitalism better than the Americans the South Koreans, and the Japanese(I guess because of the lack of natural resource in their geographies for KR/JP?). I've been privileged enough to build in those countries for an extended period of time, and work with builders in many other countries. I strongly believe nobody bruit forces ideas into existence better than them, they make the resources happen in…

> Nobody does capitalism better than the Americans the South Koreans, and the Japanese(I guess because of the lack of natural resource in their geographies for KR/JP?)

China is not far behind, despite an authoritarian govt.

KR & JP, as well as CH, clearly learned well from Americans.

Re: An electric new era for Atlas

#82

Post by smusamashah »

jack_riminton wrote: post #34

A hill I'm willing to die on: bipedal robots are an evolutionary path that machines don't need to go down, we have lovely bearings and wheels that work perfectly with electric motors. Yes obviously there are limitations i.e. stairs and uneven terrain but there are wheeled/tracked solutions for those too Most of these robots will be used in factories that have very nice flat concrete floors

Once they get walking wit legs perfected, they can install wheels on those or do whatever wheel thing they want. That will probably be an easier addon.

Re: An electric new era for Atlas

#83

Post by dghlsakjg »

EcommerceFlow wrote: post #18
fforflo wrote: post #5

What's the best way/resource to get an honest/pragmatic view of where things stand with the "robots market" in general and how much and fast things are really progressing? I remember seeing prototypes from Toshiba when I was 10 (20 years ago), and every few months, there is a company releasing an "amazing video." its mother company then spins it off like there's no adequate progress, and so on.

I'd say Tesla is the leader or could quickly become the leader given their intense investment in FSD. If a car software can "understand the physical world" using vision Ai / neural nets, it shouldn't be out of the question to reoptimize that software for the rest of the "physical world". Especially when you need a whole lot less safety standards compared to a 3,000lb 70MPH vehicle. Hell, the Optimus engineers said th…

Tesla can't even figure out how to make FSD work with their latest model...

Re: An electric new era for Atlas

#84

Post by Anotheroneagain »

unsupp0rted wrote: post #27
prime09 wrote: post #25

They found the bottom of the uncanny valley and started digging.

That was my first thought. Shock value PR stunt? Moving the Overton window for the general public’s aversion to what comes next?

They worked on it long enough to not notice it.

Re: An electric new era for Atlas

#85

Post by adriancooney »

fforflo wrote: post #5

What's the best way/resource to get an honest/pragmatic view of where things stand with the "robots market" in general and how much and fast things are really progressing? I remember seeing prototypes from Toshiba when I was 10 (20 years ago), and every few months, there is a company releasing an "amazing video." its mother company then spins it off like there's no adequate progress, and so on.

Lex Fridman has a long interview [1] with Marc Raibert, CEO of Boston Dynamics, which is really excellent. It might partially or wholly answer your question.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VnbBCm_ZyQ

Re: An electric new era for Atlas

#86

Post by Workaccount2 »

dale_glass wrote: post #58
jack_riminton wrote: post #34

A hill I'm willing to die on: bipedal robots are an evolutionary path that machines don't need to go down, we have lovely bearings and wheels that work perfectly with electric motors. Yes obviously there are limitations i.e. stairs and uneven terrain but there are wheeled/tracked solutions for those too Most of these robots will be used in factories that have very nice flat concrete floors

I think we very much do. Robots are currently very expensive, so where do you want to send a robot that you can't use a worker? Probably somewhere at least potentially dangerous. You want to use the robot to inspect a tunnel in danger of collapse, or a factory that may be leaking a poisonous chemical out of a pipe. And in such cases you very much want something that can navigate obstacles about as well as a human. Yo…

I would invest in the spider-legged robot to crawl around spaces.

I think human physiology is amazingly multi-purpose, but we don't need to compromise on balanced skills with robots. Every action can have a physiologically tailored robot to do it. Sure, I can see that I would want my personal butler bot to be humanoid, but I think for the vast majority of cases, humanoid is not the optimal solution.

But I also suppose that if I was going for wooing the general public, I would go humanoid for sure. People compare technology against science fiction, not actual practical considerations.

Re: An electric new era for Atlas

#88

Post by jack_riminton »

dale_glass wrote: post #77
jack_riminton wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

drones, my friend

Drones are cool, but would have a hard time getting through a closed door, or turning a valve.

A combination of a tracked vehicles and drones then. There's something quite short-sighted and uncreative about assuming bipedal 1-for-1 replacements are the only solution

Re: An electric new era for Atlas

#90

Post by polygamous_bat »

atonse wrote: post #49
jack_riminton wrote: post #34

A hill I'm willing to die on: bipedal robots are an evolutionary path that machines don't need to go down, we have lovely bearings and wheels that work perfectly with electric motors. Yes obviously there are limitations i.e. stairs and uneven terrain but there are wheeled/tracked solutions for those too Most of these robots will be used in factories that have very nice flat concrete floors

I strongly disagree. One of my pet peeves is the idea of asking the world to accommodate a situation rather than build solutions that adapt to the world. Big example: the best we have for mobility nowadays is a wheelchair of some sort. That requires building special ramps and elevators everywhere. If we had a four legged chair that could climb stairs, etc, like what BD is doing, it could transport people ANYWHERE. yo…

> One of my pet peeves is the idea of asking the world to accommodate a situation rather than build solutions that adapt to the world.

While I understand and respect the sentiment, in my opinion human history has been a trend in molding our environment to our advantage. I can drive to a remote hill in Bangladesh from the capital because there are roads that we humans built and maintain. If we kept molding to the environment, such an accomplishment would never be possible.

So yeah, maybe mold to the environment a little bit, but also mold the environment a bit, is the ideal solution.

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