Optimus, Elon Musk’s humanoid robot that will take care of your children and clean your house for less than the price of a Tesla

The idea of ​​a machine serving humans that keeps them company and frees them from heavy tasks has been in the collective imagination for decades thanks to science fiction. Whether it’s novels like Asimov’s I, Robot or animated series like Hanna-Barbera’s The Jetsons, which featured Robotina, a mechanical servant, the world has been waiting for domestic robots for a long time.

They are already here, at least, taking their first steps and leaving many people speechless. Experts predict that they will be one more in the family, as they described on Amazon, Astro, a small robot with a screen, speaker and wheels that assists you, monitors you and keeps you company. “Our prediction is that in 5 or 10 years these robots will be completely common in homes,” they told EL ESPAÑOL – Amazon’s Omicrono a year ago. This first concept will be left aside when humanoids like the Tesla Optimus or its rivals arrivefrom the Boston Dynamics Atlas in Figure 02 which operates in BMW factories.

Musk reaffirmed that his robot would cost less than $20,000, or a little over 18,000 euros.probably costs less than a car,” he said.. Its sale to the first customers has been planned for two years, it may take more time to reach homes, but even if the company surprised with the capabilities of its second version, Tesla Optimus Gen 2.

An Optimus at home

Optimus (or Tesla Bot, the name by which it was previously known) is Tesla’s star humanoid robot, designed to perform all kinds of actions thanks to the fact that it works with artificial intelligence: cleaning, playing, serving drinks or doing yoga. This is not the first time a robot has been seen performing these feats, but forBehind them are Tesla’s first live demonstrations which caused much mockery: in 2021, Tesla presented on stage a man in a robot costume who started dancing; A year later, a rudimentary prototype was seen walking cautiously on stage for fear of falling in front of half the world.

In the show presented by Tesla this week, we could see a group of robots walking and dancing with more ease, even interacting with guests. They served drinks, gave gifts and played rock, paper and scissors.. Simple activities for any personnel, but very complex for machines.

Some participants claim that the robots were controlled by a person during these live tests. We must not forget that these are prototypes and not products ready to be marketed. Demonstrations like those of Boston Dynamics are carried out with the operators’ remote control or the recordings are choreographed in advance so It is difficult to confirm the degree of autonomy of these machines.

Nevertheless, The key to these robots (still in development) will be multitaskingfar from the household robots that have for years been responsible for carrying out a single process in homes, such as vacuuming dust from the floor or preparing food to order from their owners.

Managers aspire for him to be a full-time helper in the home, the helper who cares for and waters the plants while the rest of the family spends time together. They can also take care of shopping and cleaning the house so you can relax or focus on something more important.

Humanoid or assistive robots will not only perform tedious tasks for people, They will also provide companionship, talk and care for family members.even while playing and teaching the little ones. To do this, artificial intelligence must understand and analyze the world around it.

Achieving all of this and more will take time and development of the technology for these robots, a combination of hardware and software. The software based on artificial intelligence is able to analyze the images and sounds that the robot receives, thus deciding the next step for itself. Tesla has not yet indicated that it has reached this level. The hardware, meanwhile, incorporates better cameras and Pressure sensors to grip hard or delicate objects with the appropriate force.

Thus, Optimus learn to place a series of drums in a repetitive motion that involves coordination of their entire body, including the swing of their hips and legs. A notable advance, compared to the robotic arms to which the world has already become accustomed, is the ability to troubleshootfor example, when an object is not correctly placed where it should.

Sorting through a bunch of piles might not be surprising, but folding a t-shirt might be. “Industrial robots normally handle rigid parts (…), but clothes have infinite deformations, so we always take the clothes in a different position and it’s much more complicated to automate it“, explained Carme Torras, professor-researcher at the Institute of Robotics and Industrial Informatics (IRI, CSIC-UPC) in Barcelona, ​​​​who has been leading the CLOTHILDE project for four years, explained to EL ESPAÑOL-Porfolio, who presented developing machines that clothe people with reduced mobility.

Development and training

In December last year, Tesla announced the second generation of this robot. The machine has improved in appearance and capabilities. He can now move his neck in two directions, like humans, and ride 30% faster. Its weight has also been reduced by 10 kilos, the first generation weighed 57 kilos.

Without going into much detail, the company celebrated having improved the mobility and sensitivity of its joints like those of the feet and hands. The hands now have up to 11-DoF, i.e. degrees of freedom of movement and they are able to handle delicate objects like an egg.

Thanks to these physical improvements, the robots train in different exercises accompanied by humans. It is the robot that manipulates the objects or performs the task, but It is the person who controls these slow and repetitive movementsequipped with augmented reality technology. This practice, as rudimentary as it may seem, is common in robotics projects, especially if they are human-shaped machines that aspire to behave and move in the same way as humans.

A few months ago, Tesla showed a row of workers and robots that simultaneously performed tasks as simple as placing objects in small compartments. One of the conditions to apply for this position, with a salary of 44 euros per hour, is to have a height between 1.70 meters and 1.80 meters, since Optimus is 1.72 meters tall.

Progress is seen in these small demonstrations, but the times are long. As usual with Elon Musk, projects are taking longer than the mogul initially announced. Although its production was initially planned for 2023, the schedule has been adjusted over time, ensuring that production will begin in 2025 to sell Optimus to other companies in 2026.