Tesla published an update on Optimus, the humanoid robot announced in 2021: now it can do many more things, but it still seems to be behind the competition.
In a video posted on YouTube, Tesla, Elon Musk’s company that manufactures electric cars, shows the latest Progress of Optimus, his humanoid robot that the general public has long since renamed “Optimus was first announced in August 2021, during Tesla AI Day, but at the time, Elon Musk had a dancer take the stage instead of a robot.
Then Optimus returned to AI Day 2022; this time, he was really there. But he was still a rough prototype, far from the levels reached by Atlas, the humanoid robot from Boston Dynamics, which, at the moment, is the company most advanced in developing this technology.
Now Optimus shows up again, albeit on video, to show the world the Progress made and where Tesla is in this sector, which many consider at least as important as that of artificial intelligence.
What Can Optimus Do Now?
First of all, Optimus now walks autonomously and at a quite brisk pace. He also manages to dose the strength precisely, so much so that he can touch an egg without breaking it.
Then Optimist sees us and understands the environment that surrounds him: thanks to artificial intelligence, the same used in the Autopilot autonomous driving systems of Tesla cars, Optimus recognizes objects and roads while walking, can choose to follow one or the other, and manages to create a map of the route and remember it.
Furthermore, Optimus can learn from a demonstration by a human wearing sensors and accelerators: the human makes gestures, and the robot memorizes and repeats them. He also manages to take objects and put them in containers.
Tesla Optimus: How It’s Done
Tesla Optimus is a humanoid robot weighing 73 kilos, 1.73 meters tall, equipped with a 2.3 kWh battery, WiFi, and LTE connection, with 28 actuators and 11 degrees of movement.
Tesla’s goal is to make him able to move independently in all the ways a man normally moves, to pick up and move heavy objects. All, however, without having sufficient strength and ability to endanger human beings and, above all, with a production cost of 20,000 dollars.
Better Optimus Or Atlas?
Looking at the advertising videos, which, like all advertisements, always lie, today the Boston Dynamics Atlas robot is ahead of Tesla Optimus: it moves much faster, it can run as well as walk, jump, somersault, and carry loads with ease.
The Boston Dynamics robot is so ahead of the competition that many doubt that the videos in which we see specimens of Atlas jumping, dancing, and parkour are 100% real.
Boston Dynamics, in fairness, sometimes also publishes ” behind the scenes ” videos in which its robots are seen making mistakes in an attempt to do something.
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