Re:Figure 01 has learned to make coffee
by electrondood on Sunday January 07, 2024 @12:30PM
(#38903132)
Boston Dynamics basically just makes proof-of-concept robots, and then they pre-code demos for videos.
If you have a non-humanoid robot, like a Kuka arm, it's a "sharp tool" which is overfit to one specific range of tasks. It's never going to be able to do anything else, and if you wanted to add other tasks, you'd have to overhaul it or create some adapter.
A humanoid robot basically needs no adapter for any common task, in that every common task is already performed by humans, who all have the same components. The benefit is that the range of tasks available to the form factor is massive, versus a Boston Dynamics robot that just picks up and moves packages and can only do that. If the humanoid robot is not only far cheaper, but it can do that tasks, and thousands of others, then that's the better form factor..
If you have a non-humanoid robot, like a Kuka arm, it's a "sharp tool" which is overfit to one specific range of tasks. It's never going to be able to do anything else, and if you wanted to add other tasks, you'd have to overhaul it or create some adapter.
A humanoid robot basically needs no adapter for any common task, in that every common task is already performed by humans, who all have the same components. The benefit is that the range of tasks available to the form factor is massive, versus a Boston Dynamics robot that just picks up and moves packages and can only do that. If the humanoid robot is not only far cheaper, but it can do that tasks, and thousands of others, then that's the better form factor..