“I recognize that crouch and twist”

How do you train a humanoid robot to behave like a human?

Show it!

Here is your opportunity to have Tesla’s Optimus robot behave just like you. Can you imagine millions of humanoids mimicking the way you move?

Tesla posted a job in Palo Alto for Data Collections Operator, Tesla Bot. It pays up to $48 an hour, but comes with some unusual requirements:

• Must be able to walk 7+ hours a day while carrying up to 30 lb

• Ability to wear and operate a motion capture suit and VR headset for extended periods of time

• Must have the ability to stand, sit, walk, stoop, bend, reach, crouch, and twist throughout the day

Good thing they weren’t training it back in the 1950’s…

Surely there’s more to training than just ‘Show it’

The data holds the key.

With Machine Learning, you no longer need to program exactly how to do something. You give it data and let it “learn” how to achieve the result through trial and error. Each attempt gets a little closer to the example.

Data can be gathered in many ways.

Some factory robots, you enter “training mode” and move the arm where you want it to go. This Tesla job uses a motion capture suit. Or even just providing a video to analyze.

So if you have a particular way you like doing laundry, you’ll just need to show your humanoid, not crack open the C++ code.

What if China’s the first to mass market?

The Unitree G1 robot video features my two favorite aspects you’ll find in humanoid demos. See if you can spot them:

1. Dancing. That makes the robot so human, likeable, and trustworthy!

2. Getting beat up. Just in case your cousin Chuck comes over.

So if there are 1 billion humanoid robots, how do you feel about them being created by China vs USA?

In your house. Trusting it with care of your aging parents.

Well the Unitree G1 might be the first one commercially available, we’ll keep tracking it and let you know.

Outsource your push-ups

In the future, you won’t even have to do exercise yourself.

Boston Dynamics has been great at demos over the years. Does anyone doubt that a robot can be strong? But can they produce something that is actually useful?

First of Many

That completes the first issue of the Humanoid Vibe. I hope you learned something interesting and were entertained.

If you like it, in order to keep this going long-term, it needs to grow. Just forward this email to whoever might be interested (sign up at https://humanoidvibe.com/)

See you next week!