By Charles Carter, 01/10/22
Tesla revealed two working prototypes of its humanoid bot Optimus during a live AI event on Friday.
To begin with, the company will use the bot in their factories to automate dangerous, repetitive and boring task, before widening out the applications.
They are aiming to have Optimus on general sale to the mass-market by 2027, with a price tag of under $20k each.
Putting robots like Optimus to work can help bring about a “future of abundance, a future where there is no poverty, a future where you can have whatever you want in terms of products and services,” said CEO Elon Musk.
How does it work?
The first prototype shown at the event was able to walk slowly around untethered, wave at the audience, and do an Elon-style geek dance on stage.
It was built using commercially available actuators and was shown on video picking up boxes, watering plants and lifting metal bars, this time with a tether.
The second prototype, featuring actuators designed and engineer by Tesla, isn’t able to walk yet but was shown moving its arms and legs on stage.
It weighs 73 kg and uses the same hardware behind Tesla’s autonomous vehicle technology. Its battery pack has a capacity of 2.3 kilowatt hours, which will keep it going for a day’s work according to the company.
It consumes about 100 watts of power sitting and 500 watts when walking briskly, which is similar to a gaming computer.
What are the potential benefits?
On the face of it, Boston Dynamic’s untethered humanoid Atlas is far more impressive than what we’ve seen from Optimus so far.
But, Elon explains that existing humanoids are very expensive to make and not designed with mass-market production scale in mind.
Tesla are using their expertise in mass production of electric vehicles to attempt to design a humanoid from the ground up that will be able to scale with a viable item cost. And so bring about mass adoption.
With labour shortages predicted globally over the coming decades due to declining birth rates, Optimus could help plug some of that gap. And perhaps even open up a path to the age of abundance.
Questions for you. Comment below
- First thought that comes into your head?
- Pros and cons according to you?
- Other applications of this approach?
- What could this be combined with?
