Another day, another video showing a humanoid robot in combat. It’s enough to make you think that these advanced bipedal contraptions are being developed for hand-to-hand clashes on the battlefield, but we keep being told that, really, the robots are heading to the workplace and even the home.
In Tesla’s recently released video, we can see its Optimus humanoid robot performing an array of kung fu moves with impressive speed, accuracy, and balance.
The adult-sized humanoid robot doesn’t take any blows, nor does it land any kicks or punches itself, but its movement is smooth and realistic, and demonstrates the bot’s ability to perform dynamic movements with little apparent difficulty. It also manages to stay upright after taking a pretty aggressive shove from its human opponent.
It’s certainly an improvement on the rather awkward demonstration given to the CEO of Salesforce just over a month ago.
Training like this enables Tesla’s robotics engineers to evaluate and refine Optimus’s ability to react and adapt in real-time, a skill that’s crucial if it’s ever to be utilized for tasks in factories, homes, and also any public environments that the robot is eventually placed in.
In the comments attached to the video, someone asks if the robot is tele-operated or AI-powered. “AI, not tele-operated,” Tesla chief Elon Musk replies.
Tesla’s goal is to mass produce the Optimus robot, aiming for an annual output of around one million units by 2030. The automaker better known for electric vehicles than robots believes that Optimus will one day be its biggest product, with the robot deployed across various industries, automating everyday tasks and addressing labor shortages.
But in the rush to mass production, it faces tough competition from robotics firms in the U.S., China, and beyond, some of which are receiving huge amounts of investment in a bid to dominate the market.
