San Francisco:
Tesla CEO Elon Musk is set to unveil his prototype humanoid robot at an event on September 30, hoping to expand beyond self-driving cars that haven’t become a reality despite his repeated promises. have found.
While robots are widely used for specialist tasks in factories, other companies have struggled to create commercially viable human-like robots, despite decades-long development efforts.
“It’s a very challenging market because you buy a robot this big, expensive, but it can’t really do much,” said Hennie Ben Amor, a robotics professor at Arizona State University.
Tesla
Tesla’s humanoid robot, Optimus, will initially be used in manufacturing and logistics for boring and repetitive work, thus eliminating labor shortages.
For the long term, Musk said the robot could be used in homes, even becoming a “friend” or “catgirl” sex partner.
Honda
Japanese automaker Honda Motor Company’s Asimo bipedal robot served as a face for the company, but was not commercialized after more than two decades of development. Honda is now focusing on disaster relief robots and “Avatar” robots for tasks such as remote surgery.
Honda aims to demonstrate the Avatar robot before the beginning of 2024 and deploy the machines in the 2030s.
GM-NASA
From 2007 to 2012, General Motors and NASA joined hands to develop the humanoid robot, R2, for assembly and space exploration.
NASA said they are no longer under development. NASA said its current focus is the development of the next generation of humanoid robots that could be used on the lunar surface and eventually on Mars.
Hyundai Motor-Boston Dynamics
Boston Dynamics stirred the internet with videos of its humanoid robot running, jumping, backflipping and dancing. But the loss-making American company changed hands several times, with Alphabet Inc’s Google, SoftBank and then Hyundai Motor Company becoming the owners of the company.
Hyundai and Boston Dynamics said in August that they would initially invest more than $400 million in a “research-first organization” on AI and robotics.
Ford-Agility Robotics
In 2020, Ford purchased two humanoid robots, Digit, from Agility Robotics to test the delivery of packages from a delivery vehicle to the door.
Oregon-based startup Agility Robotics is also working to deploy human-like robots that can pick up and move items in warehouses.
SoftBank, Other
SoftBank’s wide-eyed paper robot, which helped tarnish chief executive Masayoshi Son’s image as a forward-looking tech entrepreneur, halted production.
Several robot startups, such as Rethink Robotics, also went out of business because they failed to commercialize their products.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)