Optimus humanoid robots appeared before the public last fall in the form of two prototypes. The first was assembled on the basis of third-party actuators, and the second used Tesla development actuators, but at the same time moved around the stage only on a trolley.
This week, the company has already demonstrated a couple of robots that could not only walk, but also perform quite complex manipulations.
Two fully functioning humanoid robots appeared before the eyes of the public in a video demonstrated by Tesla at an event for investors. One of them went to the table and took the hand of another robot, which was then helped to fasten to the body of the third robot Optimus, armed with a screwdriver. Then both assembled and functioning robots walked around the room. Outwardly, they resembled the second Optimus prototype, which was demonstrated last fall and used actuators developed by Tesla itself. As Elon Musk explained, none of the existing components satisfied the company’s requests, so we had to develop our own.
Musk described the progress in the development of humanoid robots as moderately fast, urging not to compare it with parkour in pace. Tesla considers the main advantage of its robots to be the use of “the most advanced artificial intelligence that can be used in the real world.” The Optimus robots will use the same software framework as the Tesla electric vehicle control systems. They will have the ability to learn.
The head of Tesla has high hopes for robots. According to his estimates, a fairly large fleet of humanoid robots will be able to increase the GDP of individual countries and the whole world. As he believes, one day there will be at least one robot for every inhabitant of the Earth. The design of Optimus obviously implies protection from the actively discussed by science fiction writers probability of a “machine uprising”. These robots can move at a maximum speed of 8 km/ h, and in the case of attempts to force an adult will be able to either overcome and drop the robot, or run away from it.