[HN Gopher] Tesla Bot Update - Sort and Stretch [video]
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       Tesla Bot Update - Sort and Stretch [video]
        
       Author : migueloller
       Score  : 10 points
       Date   : 2023-09-25 19:50 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
        
       | recursv_thnkng wrote:
       | Is this CGI? The shadows and movements of the block pieces don't
       | seem real at all. Almost like they're from the PS3 tech demo era.
        
         | refulgentis wrote:
         | At 0:40 I see the sort task has magnets on the blocks.
         | 
         | I'm curious, dropped out of state school economics: for
         | robotics types is "sort blue and green" something you should be
         | able to pull of as an undergrad, given equipment?
        
           | Juicyy wrote:
           | very easily. here is the lecture from my robotics course.
           | Amazing professor. Dr. Sodemann was the best I had in my
           | lifetime. https://robogrok.com/1-2-3_Cameras_and_Color.php
           | 
           | Its actually easier than you would expect! you can use a
           | process in image processing called "thresholding" where you
           | basically filter the RGB or color values. Its very common and
           | a little "hack" on compute. Computers "look" at images or
           | video by converting the camera data into large matrices. Red
           | would be 1 matrix, blue another, green another. Instead of
           | this, you typically convert it to black and white but you can
           | do any color you want, depending what youre looking for. This
           | reduces your compute from 3 matrixes to 1 and makes your
           | functions exponentially faster. Someone can help me on O(n)
           | notation lol.
        
             | refulgentis wrote:
             | Fascinating...my most recent deep work was around color so
             | this really tickled me, ty!
        
           | kobalsky wrote:
           | that's ridiculous. sorting is easy, building a neural net
           | that controls every servo/motor in a humanoid robot so that
           | it can complete a given task while maintaining balance and
           | posture is not. this isn't a simple control loop keeping the
           | robot balanced while doing a hardcoded task.
        
             | refulgentis wrote:
             | Ok. Took a couple reads but I think I understand.
             | 
             | I'll put you down as a yes on sorting, no on self balancing
             | humanoid robot
        
       | sen wrote:
       | Conveniently not labeled that the video is all at 4x speed. Using
       | the "playback speed" menu to watch at 0.25x makes the human's
       | movements much more realistic and the robots movements much less
       | impressive.
        
         | cantaloupe wrote:
         | I think .25x is a bit slow, as .5x replay also looks
         | reasonable, but you are right there is something like a
         | 2.5-3.5x speed up. Makes the robot's smooth motion much less
         | impressive.
        
       | somethoughts wrote:
       | I've been generally curious about the benefits of the humanoid
       | robot form factor.
       | 
       | I'll admit I don't know much about the state of the enterprise
       | robotics/automation market but it would seem like the market
       | would be limited by the fact that: 1.) The companies able to
       | afford such robots would have much higher throughput capacity
       | requirements and would want to setup much more customized
       | automation. 2.) The companies in the sweet spot in terms of lower
       | throughput capacity requirements would not be able to afford the
       | upfront cost of such robots.
       | 
       | I think the primary use case would be perhaps if these could
       | actually get in the sub $100K-$150K range end cost wise which
       | seems a bit far off given the complexity I'm seeing here. Perhaps
       | the idea is to go for the long game?
       | 
       | It feels like a version with just the top half of the humanoid
       | would be more interesting if it could cut costs particularly
       | since this thing likely needs to be tethered for reliable power
       | and communications in a factory automation setting.
        
       | 7e wrote:
       | Tesla can't solve self driving, but it will produce a bot which
       | can function in an environment which is a hundred times more open
       | and chaotic than a road system? I don't think so.
        
         | elfbargpt wrote:
         | Honestly the stakes are a lot lower for a humanoid robot IMO.
         | There's a lot of risk around releasing FSD cars on public roads
         | as opposed to testing out robots in a factory / controlled
         | environment.
         | 
         | I'm actually really excited about the current state of
         | robotics, and wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being the
         | most impactful outcome of the most recent AI developments over
         | the next 10-15 years.
         | 
         | I know there's a lot of hate for Elon Musk / Tesla, but at the
         | end of the day he's just the money guy for some really great
         | researchers out there.
        
           | thejazzman wrote:
           | > risk around releasing FSD cars
           | 
           | This reads like they haven't already taken that risk with
           | fatal consequences.
           | 
           | Not seeing how a robot, literally marketed as being powered
           | by the FSD computer, could actually work unless the
           | underlying FSD system actually works. Which it doesn't.
        
             | elfbargpt wrote:
             | I'm not sure about their marketing claims, but the robot in
             | this video doesn't have wheels and isn't going 80mph on an
             | interstate. Maybe the cars and this robot are using similar
             | sensors, but I doubt there's a ton of overlap between the
             | underlying system and the directions it gives. AGI doesn't
             | exist yet
        
         | rayuela wrote:
         | Psshhh they're only a few GPUs short of training this bot to
         | drive the car for you. Checkmate!
        
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       (page generated 2023-09-25 23:02 UTC)