First humanoid robot by the end of the year: Billionaire Elon Musk said that work on his humanoid robot Optimus from Tesla is in the final stages of development and will be completed by the end of the year.
Several companies are already working on the development of humanoid robots, with the goals being to meet potential labor shortages, perform dangerous or tedious tasks, and also to help with various chores at home or alleviate loneliness in the elderly.
One of the advanced robots is the "Optimus", as mentioned, made by Tesla owned by Musk. In a conference call with investors, he said that by the end of this year, Optimus is expected to perform tasks at the plant.
"I think Tesla is more advanced than all the manufacturers of humanoid robots," said Musk, adding that "Optimus" will be based on artificial intelligence in performing its pseudo-human tasks. In a video published by the company last February, the robot is seen to have continuous and flexible movement capabilities, holding eggs and moving them from facility to facility, walking between Tesla cars in an almost human way, and even performing squats in a gym.
Musk has a history of failing to meet deadlines on his bold promises to Wall Street. For example, in 2019 he already told investors that Tesla would operate a network of automatic "Robotaxis" cars by 2020.
Tesla developed the first generation of its Optimus robot known as "Bambily" in September 2022. This year the company released a video of the second generation of the robot folding a T-shirt at the company's facility.
A few weeks ago, the FIGURE company published the capabilities of its humanoid robot, FIGURE01. Intel, Jeff Bezos, Microsoft, Nvidia invested in the company and the open AI company currently employs 60 technicians, developers, engineers and testers who promise to produce the most sophisticated robot in the world in less than 12 months.
In the video published by the company, it was possible to watch the Figure01 robot with shiny metallic armor, with its back composed of joints that give the fingers, shoulders, arms, head and legs varied angles of movement. Each hand has four fingers and a thumb, while the feet lack toes.
released the first generation of its Optimus robot, dubbed Bumblebee, in September 2022. This year, the company released a video of the second generation of the bipedal robot folding a T-shirt at the company's facility.
The advanced capabilities of the humanoid robots peaked with the release of the latest video of the Figure01 robot released in February of this year. In the video we see the robot made of armor and made of joints. When he replies in a human intonation to the operator while handing him an apple and emptying a trash can.
Figure01's robot weighs 60 kilograms and is able to carry about 20 kilograms and move at a speed of 1.2 meters per second (about 4.5 km/h). The robot is able to hold full conversations with humans and even understand subtitles and analyze pictures it takes around it, using a network-like system The human nervous system that transmits data and analyzes it quickly.
It will take many more years until the "human" robots based on artificial intelligence succeed in replacing us humans. They are still heavy, cumbersome, slow and limited in their capabilities. However, the capital raisings of the companies developing the robots indicate their enormous potential in a wide variety of employment professions, including service providers, factory workers, assistance to medical teams and disabled patients and elderly.