this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2024
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Why do people keep thinking robots in factories should imitate our physique? Especially legs as opposed to wheels?
because the modern world is built around people shaped like people. all the tools and workspaces and interfaces already optimized for it. and that keeps it safe for prople to co-exist. if we start building the world around some otherness, then humans are locked out and obsolete.
It's 1000x easier to redesign the factory around robots than building and operating humanoid robots.
right, but not every place we're going to use them is a factory. And it's possible we're going to use them in places we'd still like to be human-first because of their critical role, such as i.e. dams
Dont make me laugh we can hardly design a workplace that’s efficient for people. Its just that humans can adapt easily to solve all kinds of problems.
Redesign it from scratch including non humanoid robots from scratch is a huge complex endeavor and a big risk. Its much simpler to build a factory like usual, buy off the shelf humanoid robots that can in case of issues easily be replaced by human workers. Profits are more guaranteed.
We can definitely create novel narrow use robots with maximum efficiency but capitalism prefers mass produced one size fits all solutions.
You also dont need to operate humanoid robots. At least thats not the ideal use. The goal is full automation of what is now human labor
That's just not true, you'd have to completely rebuild your entire production facilities which would cost more in the long run than taking say... Boston Dynamics Atlas and hooking it up to an LLM trained on a specific task set.
Newer facilities could be built for the future where humans aren't involved at all, but in the interim making robots that move and manipulate objects like we do is still the better solution.
That's already the case. Just look at a car factory assembly line, they're full of robots already but none of them look like humans.
Easier, maybe, but definitely not cheaper.
It is very difficult to make a robotic hand that can operate a screwdriver. If the robot only ever needs to perform one task on an assembly line, just build it with the tools as part of it. Of course, some modularity helps to retool the plant for another product but there are very few cases where a robot needs the versatility of the human hand (maybe bomb defusal?) or body.
yes we have millions of tethered robotic arms in use today with tools as hands. but once an untethered humanoid robot is available on the market with robotic hands, the use cases are infinite.
I don't think it's productive to try replicating the human hand accurately enough to do most manual tasks, especially with very different technology like servos, actuators and pneumatics. If we ever get there, the resulting product will be very expensive and still less capable than purpose-built robots. Why buy a $1M humanoid robot that can split logs with your existing $20 axe when fully automated splitters cost tens of thousands?
the estimates are $40k per robot plus ai cloud subcription
Because it brings attention and therefore money
It's the same reason everyone seems to think extraterrestrial life is going to resemble humans in any way whatsoever. To the point where people are quick to believe in obvious hoaxes. As if the concept of a bipedal creature using a second device as a vehicle isn't a completely human-centric concept.
Because humans are incredibly self-absorbed and self-involved.
"God created man in his own image"
Yeah sure buddy, not at all the other way around.
"People. What a bunch of bastards" Yes.
Stairs
But that was what kept Daleks from conquering the universe. Did we learn nothing from Dr. Who?
Ever been to a factory?
Depends on the job tbh, most robots would be better as tank treaded or quadrupeds, but to truly take over manual labor jobs they will have to have a functioning bipedal robot for at least a handful of use cases.