why do they have to be humanoid? Seems a bit unnecessary. The boston dynamics dog with an arm on it’s back could do the same job, no?
The dog robot was objectively better than the humanoid robot back when the humanoid robot couldn’t walk unless the floor was completely smooth. The humanoid robots can walk now, and they can do an increasing number of tasks in a work space designed for humans without needing hardware additions.
The dogs still win out in terms of speed and agility for the moment, but working in a power plant I think if the situation calls for speed and agility it’s time for the human supervisors to step in.
The vast majority of infrastructure is made for humanoids, so having humanoid robots using what we have is much simpler. And then, when building new things with and for robot workers then they can be co-developed with non humanoid robots for maximum efficiency.
That’s my thinking as well, also humanoid robots are very versatile and that allows a single robot to handle many different jobs. If you make purpose built robots, then you have to design one for each specific task.
The assumption that we need to strive for human-like design isn’t really accurate. Maybe in the future, but right now the amount of energy and effort required for bipedal balance and movement is not worth it for the very minor advantages of such machines. Being upright and bipedal is a huge engineering headache that we’re barely managing to cope with in robots today, which simply isn’t needed for most tasks. Neverminded having 5 fully operable digits, which even humans really only need when playing musical instruments. I’m not doubting the potential, I’m just skeptical about this particular implementation when there are way cheaper and more convenient/logical options around. Seems a little PR stunt-y.
Neverminded having 5 fully operable digits, which even humans really only need when playing musical instruments
I’m sorry but wtf are you smoking? Lol. Almost all use of human tools needs 5 digits to work effectively. That why the most advanced prosthetic hands and arms are designed to mimic 5 digit hands. Sure there are disabled people that make due but the vast majority of tasks are so drastically easier with 5 functioning digits. Primarily because those tasks, tools, etc, were created with the use of 5 digits in mind. I’m sorry but this statement is absolutely ludicrous at its base foundation. It literally breaks my brain that someone would think this in any way. As someone who does woodworking, painting, cooking, and a bunch of other hobbies that involve manual use of your hands… I just can’t even. Lol. I can’t imagine doing 1/10th of what I do without thumbs and I don’t even play a musical instrument.
Okay now you’re being a bit ridiculous, the precise reason I say 5 fingers isn’t strictly necessary is because I have experience working at workshops with people with missing digits. Hell, if you’ve ever had broken fingers for a any long periods of time, you would also be able to get used to making do with two of them stuck together (effectively giving you just 4 fingers, I would know). Even the discomfort you’re alleging to is completely pointless, because while yes our tools are made to feel comfortable with 5 fingers, with some slight adjustment, we can use them just as efficiently with less. This has nothing to do with robotics, because unlike humans, they aren’t “used to” having any number of fingers, so it makes no difference to them whether they have 5, 4, or 3, Boston dynamics knows this well enough that their robot arms have just 3 claws, and that’s still capable of practically any basic manual task. I am not saying humans don’t need 5 fingers (It certainly helps), I’m saying robots do not need them, and especially for the kind of job shown in the video.
Looking forward to the rest of the Chinese century 🫡
Honestly, looks and feels like how I do after half a day so I give it a pass. Looks like it’s getting ready to go out for a cigarette at any moment.
Anyone know if this is autonomous or teleoperated?
looks like it’s autonomous according to this article https://english.news.cn/20241230/baf0adafa56949fd9ab15c57f57a2694/c.html
That strikes me as weird. Wouldn’t it be easier to replace the manual switches with an automated system instead?
I imagine the goal here was to find a simple tasks to test how well the robots can handle it. The main purpose for humanoid robots is for use in the environments designed for humans. That’s really the only place you need them after all. Pressing buttons and taking measurements might not be exciting, but if it is a job that a human did before then it’s saving somebody from doing something really boring that’s still necessary.
I think the idea of using robots as a drop in replacement for human workers is pretty sensible in general. Unitree is already making them for only $16k a pop, this makes it very cheap to automate a lot of manual labor. Another nice aspect of such robots is that they’re versatile, so you can have them do many different jobs as the need arises. The cost of making a single robot to do a bunch of work humans are doing is far lower than to redesign entire systems to be automated.
I wouldn’t mind losing my job to something this cute
It would be really amazing if China starts doing mass automation of jobs and that results in reduced work hours and improved quality of remaining jobs.
And then the CPC expanding healthcare, retirement benefits and stipends, while encouraging further education and bonuses encouraging more births
Exactly, one obvious way to encourage people to have kids is by providing them with free time and social support to do so.
