"After all, plenty of industrial robots use wheels to roll around a warehouse, or feature one large, strong, and multi-pivoting arm instead of relying onseveral weaker ones. Besides, the existing crop of humanoid robots is capable of a lot more than walking around and waving their hands. Look no further than a video shared by robot tinkerer and researcher Logan Olson last month, which shows how a humanoid robot can turn itself into a surprisingly creepy crawling machine while using the full extent of its four limbs' freedom of movement."
"Agility Robotics AI research scientist Chris Paxton, who recently reshared the video, used the footage as a reminder that a "lot of these robots are 'faking' the humanlike motions." "It's a property of how they're trained, not an inherent property of the hardware," he wrote. "They're actually capable of way weirder stuff and way faster motions." "Human motion is most efficient for humans; robots are not humans," he added in a follow-up."
"It's a particularly pertinent topic as companies like Tesla, Figure, and China's Unitree race to commercialize humanoid robots for the mass market. While companies have made major strides - in a separate tweet, Paxton argued that "running is now basically commoditized" - experts have questioned if it's really the best form factor for every job."
The tech industry focuses on humanoid robots, but two-legged, two-armed designs are not always the most efficient solution. Industrial robots often use wheels or a single powerful multi-pivoting arm for specific tasks. Humanoid robots can exploit all limb degrees of freedom to adopt nonhuman gaits, such as dropping to all fours and crawling quickly. Training and software often shape humanlike motions rather than hardware limitations, enabling robots to perform faster, stranger behaviors. Companies are racing to commercialize humanoids, yet experts question whether humanlike form factors are optimal for most jobs.
Read at Futurism
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