Robotics - Optimus comes of age: Tesla shows amazing progress in building humanoid all-purpose robots
Tesla has unveiled the second generation of its human-like robot Optimus. In a short video on X, formerly Twitter, you can see the progress the company has made in developing the machine. The new models move more fluidly, run faster and have a fine "feel" in their fingers so as not to crush an egg, for example.
The development of the robot is progressing surprisingly quickly. It was only announced for the first time in August 2021, by September 2022 spiky prototypes were ready and now the company is launching the second generation of all-purpose robots, which CEO Elon Musk hopes will have even greater potential than the company's vehicles.
Tesla AI, the department responsible for the project, describes the Tesla bot as follows: "A general-purpose, bipedal, autonomous humanoid robot that can perform unsafe, repetitive or boring tasks." Musk described it as "a helper for everything humans don't want to do."
Tesla has significantly improved many parts of the robot
In the second generation, Tesla has improved the actuators, i.e. drive units, to enable Optimus to move more smoothly. According to the company, new sensors are also on board.
Thanks to the new hardware, the robot is able to move around 30 percent faster, while its weight is said to have been reduced by ten percent. Thanks to the new parts, Optimus can also perform exercises such as squats without losing its balance.
There’s a new bot in town 🤖
Check this out (until the very end)!https://t.co/duFdhwNe3K pic.twitter.com/8pbhwW0WNc
— Tesla Optimus (@Tesla_Optimus) December 13, 2023
As Optimus will also need to be able to grip well later on, the hands have been redesigned. New sensors enable the robot to lift delicate objects without crushing them.
Tests planned in the company's own production facility
According to "Electrek", Tesla wants to use the robot in its own production facilities soon and improve it further there. If it is good enough, sales should start at some point. In an earlier statement on the project, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that "Optimus is extremely underestimated". He estimates that demand could be as high as 10 to 20 billion units. From this rather generous estimate, he deduced that the robot will "make up a large part of Tesla's long-term value".
In October 2022, Musk stated that the final version of the robot should cost no more than 20,000 US dollars. He expected sales to start in three to five years at the latest, i.e. by 2027.
Criticism and disbelief even then
After the presentation of the first prototype, the project was criticized. The scientist Filip Piekniewski expressed negative opinions about the project then and now and considers the robot to be a hoax. Robotics expert Cynthia Yeung also found nothing earth-shattering about Optimus at the time. She wrote about the presentation: "None of it is groundbreaking".
Sources: Tesla
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Source: www.stern.de
