Hyundai owns Boston dynamics... Still interesting, but it's like buying lemonade from your kid's lemonade stand to support them. Others will see you buying the juice and get thirsty, hopefully.
I'm always confused by the need for humanoid robots in heavy industry.<p>isn't it always easier to build factories machine first ?<p>same as the idea of building self driving cars enabled tracks with sensors and all instead of trying to resolve self driving cars in the wild.
Normal industrial machines have to operate in special cages - both so humans can keep out, and to restrain the incredibly powerful machines in case they malfunction.<p>Can humans work alongside such humanoids safely? I mean, even with no spectacular failures, imagine the humanoid carrying heavy items and dropping them on a real human.
So lets say Hyundai sets up a factory with such robots.<p>I am sure that Boston Dynamic robots have AI ,so we don't need humans but lets assume so for this moment.
And they can be controlled (let's say with VR?) with Humans.<p>and those humans can be from different countries. So a US factory with workers from China?
I'm always thinking: actuators are close to their peak efficiency for some time now, i.e. electric motors can barely get any better. Same with with mechanical construction, materials and all the newtonian bits. These things are probably close to a theoretical optimum. Now these things weigh a certain amount for a set amount of power needed. It's all a bit like the rocket equation: the more power you need, the heavier the power supply, the bigger and heavier the motors have to be, and so on. So there's a hard limit of what an autonomous robot can do for how long. Now, the Boston Dynamics machines certainly are impressive in their promotional videos. But I've not found any reliable public information on how long their humanoid robots can operate autonomously without recharging. Minutes? Hours? Not that charging is that big of an issue, especially in a factory. But still, I'd be interested how long the machine can actually operate on its own. Maybe someone has information on that?
Quite dystopian thinking how a full factory and beyond could be run completely in the dark, just robots running around doing their thing. Faster, stronger, more accurate, never tired, never sleeping. Add in a small nuclear battery like the one from Betavolt coming up and mass produce it. And you have an autonomous "thinking" thing in the physical world capable of almost anything that humans are capable. Endless possibilities...<p>Never has the future been brighter and darker at the same time.. lets see.