Unitree is just one of dozens of companies around the world developing robots that have a human form.
The potential is huge – for business it promises a workforce that doesn’t need holidays or pay rises.
It could also be the ultimate domestic appliance. After all, who wouldn’t want a machine that could do the laundry and stack the dishwasher.
But the technology is still some way off. While robotic arms and mobile robots have been common in factories and warehouses for decades, conditions in those workplaces can be controlled and workers can be kept safe.
Introducing a humanoid robot to a less predictable environment, like a restaurant or a home, is a much more difficult problem.
To be useful humanoid robots would have to be strong, but that also makes them potentially dangerous – simply falling over at the wrong time could be hazardous.
So much work needs to be done on the artificial intelligence that would control such a machine.
“The AI simply has not yet reached a breakthrough moment,” a Unitree spokesperson tells the BBC.
“Today’s robot AI finds basic logic and reasoning – such as for understanding and completing complex tasks in a logical way – a challenge,” they said.
At the moment their G1 is marketed at research institutions and tech companies, who can use Unitree’s open source software for development.
Sam_Cobra_Forever on
Not Tesla
Tesla’s robot “demo” is already being used as a case study in fraud.
AemAer on
The billionaire class
I’m not trying to sound alarmist, but if I haven’t said it enough: this is a grave threat to everyone who depends on work being available, in the same degree today, to afford survival.
sciolisticism on
> It could also be the ultimate domestic appliance. After all, who wouldn’t want a machine that could do the laundry and stack the dishwasher.
This is funny because the laundry and dishwasher _were_ the ultimate domestic appliance, and promised a life of living in luxury via technology.
r2k-in-the-vortex on
It’ll go the way of the roomba, at the end of the day you will have thousand companies making their own bot for bottom dollar once the general trick of how to make and use them has been figured out. It’s not the sort of product you could maintain monopoly or duopoly in.
mindofstephen on
Whoever comes out with a kid/family friendly robot that is soft and cuddly and can be interacted with without hurting your kids if they knock it over. Right now they are all loud heavy metal beasts.
Dystopics_IT on
Semi-serious answer: Definitely Japan!…they cant miss the thing, considering their manga tradition!
On a more serious note, Japan developed a huge expertise in the field, they experience a demographic decrease and it makes sense to try to replace efficiently humans
n1vek215 on
Weyland Industries will. It will be great at playing the piano and the flute.
doggedgage on
I’ve seen these movies, whoever wins we all lose lol
TheConsutant on
We should start with surrigate robots. We could sit at home, controlling them through virtual reality goggles and senses. Then we could all keep our jobs a little bit longer while teaching the robots to be human.
revolution2018 on
They all need to pool resources and collaborate, on both the hardware and AI. Both are developing *so* damn slowly and duplication of efforts is one of the big problems.
OvenCrate on
Race? What race? There already are multiple existing humanoid robot designs, it’s a solved problem at this point. They just aren’t mass produced because basically any application we can come up with turns out to be way more efficient to do with an application-specific robot design, that doesn’t look like a human.
Joseph20102011 on
Countries with STEM-centered basic education curricula and don’t depend too much on mass cheap labor mmigration like China, Japan, and South Korea.
Kilharae on
Whoever wins, the one thing I’m 100% sure of is, it won’t be Tesla. 90% sure it will be a company in China though.
Borinar on
You do realize we will be so broke we can’t buy the crap they make we don’t need.
You may think I still have my land, not if you can’t pay property tax. You can’t farm on asphalt.
15 Comments
From the article
Unitree is just one of dozens of companies around the world developing robots that have a human form.
The potential is huge – for business it promises a workforce that doesn’t need holidays or pay rises.
It could also be the ultimate domestic appliance. After all, who wouldn’t want a machine that could do the laundry and stack the dishwasher.
But the technology is still some way off. While robotic arms and mobile robots have been common in factories and warehouses for decades, conditions in those workplaces can be controlled and workers can be kept safe.
Introducing a humanoid robot to a less predictable environment, like a restaurant or a home, is a much more difficult problem.
To be useful humanoid robots would have to be strong, but that also makes them potentially dangerous – simply falling over at the wrong time could be hazardous.
So much work needs to be done on the artificial intelligence that would control such a machine.
“The AI simply has not yet reached a breakthrough moment,” a Unitree spokesperson tells the BBC.
“Today’s robot AI finds basic logic and reasoning – such as for understanding and completing complex tasks in a logical way – a challenge,” they said.
At the moment their G1 is marketed at research institutions and tech companies, who can use Unitree’s open source software for development.
Not Tesla
Tesla’s robot “demo” is already being used as a case study in fraud.
The billionaire class
I’m not trying to sound alarmist, but if I haven’t said it enough: this is a grave threat to everyone who depends on work being available, in the same degree today, to afford survival.
> It could also be the ultimate domestic appliance. After all, who wouldn’t want a machine that could do the laundry and stack the dishwasher.
This is funny because the laundry and dishwasher _were_ the ultimate domestic appliance, and promised a life of living in luxury via technology.
It’ll go the way of the roomba, at the end of the day you will have thousand companies making their own bot for bottom dollar once the general trick of how to make and use them has been figured out. It’s not the sort of product you could maintain monopoly or duopoly in.
Whoever comes out with a kid/family friendly robot that is soft and cuddly and can be interacted with without hurting your kids if they knock it over. Right now they are all loud heavy metal beasts.
Semi-serious answer: Definitely Japan!…they cant miss the thing, considering their manga tradition!
On a more serious note, Japan developed a huge expertise in the field, they experience a demographic decrease and it makes sense to try to replace efficiently humans
Weyland Industries will. It will be great at playing the piano and the flute.
I’ve seen these movies, whoever wins we all lose lol
We should start with surrigate robots. We could sit at home, controlling them through virtual reality goggles and senses. Then we could all keep our jobs a little bit longer while teaching the robots to be human.
They all need to pool resources and collaborate, on both the hardware and AI. Both are developing *so* damn slowly and duplication of efforts is one of the big problems.
Race? What race? There already are multiple existing humanoid robot designs, it’s a solved problem at this point. They just aren’t mass produced because basically any application we can come up with turns out to be way more efficient to do with an application-specific robot design, that doesn’t look like a human.
Countries with STEM-centered basic education curricula and don’t depend too much on mass cheap labor mmigration like China, Japan, and South Korea.
Whoever wins, the one thing I’m 100% sure of is, it won’t be Tesla. 90% sure it will be a company in China though.
You do realize we will be so broke we can’t buy the crap they make we don’t need.
You may think I still have my land, not if you can’t pay property tax. You can’t farm on asphalt.