The news of the emergence of robots has begun to obscure more on several occasions during the past week, from Elon Musk's announcement of the capabilities of the "Optimus" robot from "Tesla", to the statement of the startup "Figer" (Figure) that promises a friendly "human" robot, Through the participation of Boston Dynamics robots in a fashion show in France.
Will 2023 be the year of robots?
New humanoid robot from "Figger"
Human robot or robot (humanoid robot);
It is a robot with a structure similar to the human body.
It is often designed for functional purposes, such as interaction with human tools and environments, experimental purposes such as studying motion, or other purposes.
In general, robots have a torso, a head, two arms, and two legs.
Developing a robot with a humanoid structure and human-like specifications is very difficult work, but a new startup called "Figer" says that it has come up with a plan to make a humanoid robot that is suitable for general uses.
At least that's what the company says in its press release this week, announcing its goals to the public for the first time.
The primary goal is to build a commercially manufacturable, general-purpose humanoid robot, meaning it is not designed for a specific task such as sorting products on a factory assembly line or delivering delivery procedures along a predetermined route like delivery bots.
"We believe that general-purpose robots have much greater potential than single-purpose robots, which are currently ubiquitous in the field," said Brett Adcock, founder and CEO of Figure.
A group of "Spots" robotic dogs on the catwalk in Paris (Getty Images)
"In the early development phase, the tasks that the robot completes will be regular, sequential and repetitive, but over time, as we advance in the process of learning the robot and developing the software, we will expand the capabilities of the robot and eventually see it perform tasks better than humans."
The startup has a fairly strong team developing these efforts, including 40 industry experts from notable robotics companies such as Boston Dynamics and Tesla.
However, the company is young, it was founded in 2022 and so far it has not produced a robot that actually works, so it still has a long way to go to fulfill its promises.
The appearance of the "Figger" robot is similar to the Optimus robot from Tesla. The human appearance is important when it comes to selling companies the concept of "friendly robot" to the public, as other humanoid robots, such as "Atlas" from Boston Dynamics, tend to be more massive, and it remains to be seen. Whether the "Figger" robot or the "Tesla" robot will actually be able to shrink the size of the robot to approach the human form.
But these days it's still early days in the robotics race, so it's too early to tell who will end up with the winning idea if there is a winner in the end.
Robotic dogs steal the spotlight in Paris
Paris-based fashion designer Coperni has partnered with robotics firm Boston Dynamics to take part in the company's first fashion show featuring the company's robot dogs as the stars.
On the runway of the world's most romantic city, a group of Boston Dynamics' Spots robotic dogs took to the catwalk.
The models were assisted by robotic dogs, with one helping a model take off her coat, while another carried another model's handbag.
The robots fascinated and amazed the public, but many wondered who was controlling them.
At the end of the show, robot movers joined the machines as audience members rushed to take selfies with the robots.
Arnaud Vaillant, the head of fashion house Coperni, sponsor of the show, told the Guardian that Boston Dynamics was "the first robot company to sign a pact that it will not provide weapons to robots, and the first to send robots to Ukraine to clear dangerous bomb sites".
"Our message is a positive message that humans and technology can live together in harmony," he added.
But he added that he initially had reservations about the powerful little machines.
"But now, he thinks they're just pretty robots."
Optimus robot is more valuable than her car
Tesla showed off more information about its humanoid robot, Optimus, with a video showing two robots slowly mounting the parts of another robot, a big step after the prototype Tesla showed off last October on Artificial Intelligence Day.
Musk stated that the value of Optimus will be much greater than the value of the car to humans.
Optimus was trained using the same artificial intelligence that trained the self-driving software in Tesla cars, and Musk spoke in detail about the hardware that goes into making Optimus and taken from Tesla cars.