Humanoid robotics has ceased to be a field reserved for clumsy videos and laboratory experiments. Five years ago, Boston Dynamics marked a before and after with his robots dancing to the rhythm of ‘do you love me?’. Since then, other companies have wanted to demonstrate that their automatons too They can move with ease. Now it is Tesla who claims that prominence with Optimus, his bípedo robot, in a series of videos that, according to the company, show real advances without special effects.
In the first of the recordings shared this week, Optimus executes a brief sequence of rhythmic movements, trained entirely by simulation. Milan Kovac, director of Project Engineering, explained in X that the robot was trained with reinforcement learning and that the visible cable in the back did not support the automaton. I was only there for security, in case of fall. “It is an initial result that will become more stable very soon,” he added.
Shortly after a second demonstration arrived, this time without cables. Optimus appears moving more fluently, with steps that refer to contemporary dance. Kovac said that everything is in real speed, without CGI, learned in simulation and transferred to the physical robot. He also explained that to achieve this it was necessary Improve the simulation modelapply techniques like domain randomization and refine the hardware energy profile. “This is not just fun, it is applicable to practical situations such as the agile control of the full body,” he concluded.
Real movements, nothing of CGI
Tesla states that these advances are not simply an aesthetic exhibition. According to Kovac, all this simulation work aims to improve the ability of the robot to walk more solidly and adapt to demanding tasks in the physical world. Choreography, in that sense, is a way to try and show progress.
Although videos have generated enthusiasm, Tesla is not alone in this race. Unitree Robotics, for example, has been showing their robots on social networks for months, from synchronized choreographies to boxing fights against humans. In that context, Optimus adds to a tendency in which the expressive movement becomes In a presentation letter For advanced motor capabilities.
All this happens while Tesla continues to work on its ambitious goal of creating an autonomous robot of general purpose. Optimus is designed to execute repetitive, boring or dangerous tasks. To make it possible, the company develops dedicated technology, but also relies on the advances related to its cars. For now, what we have seen are short demonstrations without complex interaction with the environment, but if the promises are fulfilled, the dance will only be the beginning.
Images | Elon Musk
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