Be afraid, very afraid !

Coming to a building site near you and throwing blocks around. Just remember, belonging to Google, it probably knows where you live . . . :)
 
Buzby said:
Now Atlas can do gymnastics !.
Click to expand...
And better than I can - Citius, Altius, Fortius

It is all quite impressive. Not least that it doesn't break a leg or fall apart on landing. And it presumably is quite some weight.
 
hippy said:
... Not least that it doesn't break a leg or fall apart on landing. ...
Click to expand...

Admittedly BD are not showing us the times Atlas comes a cropper, like Spot did, but there is no doubt that the technology is progressing faster than biological evolution.

Combined with the advances in AI, it won't be long before there is a workforce of human-shaped machines capable of doing physical work that only humans can do today, like bricklaying or decorating a room.

I see them first as assistants, like hod-carriers or doing the measuring and estimating, but soon their bosses will be able to send the machines to work autonomously. While the current concern is losing factory/warehouse jobs to 'robots', I think the biggest threat/opportunity is in services, like hotel housekeeping or bin men.

When I was a kid the future was full of robots. As I grew older I thought it would never happen, but now I'm sure it will !.
 
Buzby said:
Combined with the advances in AI, it won't be long before there is a workforce of human-shaped machines capable of doing physical work that only humans can do today, like bricklaying or decorating a room.
Click to expand...

Oh, good: at last! I'm happy to host some prototype testing in my front loungeroom. Mrs IP has been nagging me to paint it for the last two years. :rolleyes:
 
Yeah, and the euphoria produced by the first robot to arrive will be like my thoughts when my first grandson became self-propelled. He soon discovered my evil thoughts on putting him to work sweeping could also be called work from his point of view. The intelligent programming in his brain took complete control of his actions and forced him to lay about. How smart will these robots be? :D
 
hippy said:
And better than I can - Citius, Altius, Fortius

It is all quite impressive. Not least that it doesn't break a leg or fall apart on landing. And it presumably is quite some weight.
Click to expand...
Don't forget the non-lethal crowd dispersing robot: Fartius
 
The useful robots are nearly here.

In this video, Atlas has been told to move the items from the racks to the dolly cart.
It is doing the work autonomously, no human control involved.

bostondynamics.com

Atlas Goes Hands On | Boston Dynamics

Atlas is autonomously moving engine covers between supplier containers and a mobile sequencing dolly. The robot receives as input a list of bin locations to move parts between. Atlas uses a machine learning (ML) vision model to detect and localize the environment fixtures and individual bins...
bostondynamics.com bostondynamics.com
 
I need one of those on the days when my Rx pain meds still don't allow me to move solar panels. Can it climb a ladder and install 250 watt solar panels on a roof? ;-)

How much of the image recognition and other computer power is on-board and how much is external and done by high speed digital communications?

I see that it doesn't always remember what it has learned. What it did for the first few things it moved was not remembered later and the "engine cover" was jammed against a shelf separator. Then it did the "How do I hold this?" moves and finally figured it out (or the operator watching for "OOPS!" events helped it figure things out with a command of 'Use sequence 2658A'). To be truly useful, the "autonomous" machine should RELIABLY be able to continue doing what it did two or more times previously. Or am I just too picky?
 
The robot acted just like a human, with no input from an operator. It might be using the Cloud, but that doesn't matter.

Any human doing the same job would make the occasional mistake, so would re-align the item and try again. This is exactly what the robot did.

Although the job looks repetitive, when you look in detail it's not !. Every 'pick' and 'place' is from a different position, and in this case the 'place' position is a bit wobbly because of the flexible canvas pockets. Trying to program a 'dumb' machine to do this would take longer than doing the job, and would need a re-program for every new job.

This video might not look like much at first view, but when you think about what the robot is doing in detail it's quite impressive.

Boston Dynamics have had great commercial success with dog-like Spot, and I'm sure that BD are expecting even more when they can release a humanoid robot into the workplace.
 
I wonder how OSHA in the US and the similar "workplace safety" organizations will respond to autonomous robots in the workplace...

Robots only in secure space and people only enter when all robots are disabled?
All people working near robots wear color X and robots not allowed within Y feet of anything of color X?

Just wondering how the safety overlords will address autonomous human-like machines...
 
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