Robots are making waves in various sectors. Recently, some robots have become a trending topic on social media. This article will introduce you to 7 incredibly amazing robots that are getting a lot of social attention.
Due to digitalization and industrial automation, robots are becoming an inseparable part of our lives. The robot industry is going to get much bigger in the next few years.
Estimates suggest that it could be worth more than $260 billion by 2030. Most of this growth will be because of robots doing useful jobs like security, assistance, cleaning, delivering things, and transportation.
The mentioned robots are not only super advanced but also gaining popularity because of the remarkable things they can do.
Let’s take a closer look at these awesome robots and how they’re changing different industries.
Tesla’s Optimus Robot
Recently, the official Tesla Optimus handle shared the progress of their robot, and within a few hours, it went viral worldwide and even became a trending topic among geeks. Optimus is a humanoid robot which is created by Tesla.
It now uses the same smart technology as Tesla cars to see and move around. In the video, the robot starts by getting itself ready and then shows how it can use its eyes and sensors to find its body parts without any help.
Tesla Optimus handles each block skillfully and finishes the task as fast as a human can. Moreover, it can adapt to dynamic changes in its surroundings, effortlessly adjusting when a human steps in by rearranging the blocks. TeslaBot can even fix its mistakes, like moving a block that falls on its side.
The video further highlights Tesla Bot’s impressive balance and flexibility, as it elegantly performs yoga poses that require one-legged stances and limb extensions. Even though these poses might not be directly useful for them, they show how well TeslaBot can control its body and maintain stability.
Another company in Texas called Apptronik is also working on a robot like this. Their robot is intended to assist people with boring and repetitive jobs, and it is designed to work well alongside humans. Their initial target is warehouse jobs. It might become competition for Tesla’s robot, which is still being developed.
Disney’s Rollerblading Robot Prototype
Disney, famous for its amazing movies, is now making robots too. They’re getting better at it. They recently introduced a charming prototype of a rollerblading robot, and it captured everyone’s attention.
The goal of their project is to create robots that can match the dynamic nature of Disney characters and films. Robotics, in this context, is about precision, repeatability, and achieving a level of human-like perfection. These robots aim to not only perform physical tasks but also convey emotions and personality, making an emotional connection with the audience.
To achieve this emotional connection, Disney is using high-performance materials, mechanical scaling effects, and motion capture data. They want these robots to have inner emotions in their performances. This phase of development is like “playtime” for Disney, where they explore the flaws and insecurities in the characters to make audiences genuinely care about them and connect with them.
Disney is trying new things. They want to make robots that act a lot like humans, doing cool stuff and making us feel emotions like excitement or happiness. Disney is going in an exciting direction with these robots in their stories and entertainment.
Mini Robot by DeepMind
Google’s subsidiary, DeepMind, is using the power of artificial intelligence to teach robots how to play a one-on-one football game. These mini-robots are not your typical players; they have more than 20 joints each, making their movements complex.
As they showed their robot’s progress and how it learns through repetition, they shared a video where an instructor kept pushing the robot, and it kept standing up. The video went viral, and people on social media started calling the instructor stone-hearted and a bully. Maybe humans are starting to care about machines now.
So, DeepMind‘s mission is to explore whether Deep Reinforcement Learning can efficiently and affordably develop advanced and safe motor skills in these robots and if they can combine these skills to create complex strategies for dynamic environments.
The training process begins with individual skills being refined in a simulated environment. These skills include recovering from falls, walking, turning, kicking, and more. The robots are also trained to smoothly transition between different actions.
Once these skills are mastered in the simulation, the robots are allowed onto the real ground, where they showcase their abilities in entertaining, sometimes comical, one-on-one football matches.
These trained robots not only show impressive physical movements but also display complex behaviors. They possess a basic strategic understanding and can even anticipate the ball’s movements, allowing them to block their opponent’s shots. This behavioral training also occurs in a simulated environment before being implemented in the real robots.
The results are remarkable. Thanks to AI training and some minor hardware adjustments, the robots move with greater safety and efficiency. They can stand up 63% faster, run 156% faster, and kick the ball 24% faster. It showcases the power of AI in enhancing robot performance.
DeepMind is highly encouraged by these initial outcomes, seeing promising potential in using Deep Reinforcement Learning for robot training. The team’s plans include exploring how robots can learn from camera images. This information can be used to predict various aspects of the game more effectively.
Humanoid Robots
A rather unusual event was observed at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles during an NFL game featuring the Miami Dolphins and the Los Angeles Chargers. In the game’s Intense atmosphere, eagle-eyed fans began to notice something strange: a few Humanoid robots had taken their seats among the crowds, a sight that left many spectators confused.
What truly caught everyone off guard was how seamlessly these robots blended in with the human spectators. They looked so much like humans that they fit right in with other video game fans. Videos of the robots enjoying the game and even engaging with fans began to circulate online, adding to the curiosity about the situation.
Yet, despite their remarkable lifelike appearance and actions, a peculiar detail did not go unnoticed. None of these robots ever wore a smile throughout the game. Instead, they appeared confused.
Reports later revealed that these robots were present to promote an upcoming movie titled ‘The Creator,’ a fact that surprised and puzzled the spectators even more. This occurrence marked a unique moment in NFL history.
Characterized as artificial agents operating in the real world, AI robots are designed to manipulate objects, perceive their surroundings, move autonomously, and perform various tasks.
Among the handful of functioning humanoid robots globally, Sophia stands as the most renowned due to her remarkable human-like attributes, including kindness and the ability to effortlessly interact with human beings. Her purpose ranges from working in nursing homes to crowd management.
Junco Chihira, an android robot created by Toshiba, operates at a Tokyo tourist information center and has been equipped with speech recognition capabilities since 2017, enabling her to directly interact with and assist tourists.
Nadine, whose face and hands were crafted by the Japanese company Kokoro, possesses a personality and emotions akin to humans. She can maintain eye contact and recall past conversations, using a 3D camera, microphone, and webcam to gather visual and audio information.
Geminoid DK, a lifelike creation resembling a human, resulted from the collaboration between a private Japanese firm and Osaka University under the guidance of Hiroshi Ishiguro, director of the university’s Intelligent Robotics Laboratory. Modeled after Henry Scharfe, this robot was designed to closely imitate the human appearance.
Lastly, Jia Jia, China’s inaugural humanoid robot, is celebrated for her strikingly realistic features. Although she struggles with fluid and precise conversation, her exceptional beauty and lifelike appearance have earned her recognition. Created by the University of Science and Technology, China, Jia Jia is a testament to the ongoing advancement of robotics technology.
These are a few humanoid robots that became viral and trending after they showed up.
Ascento Guard
Ascento Guard robot’s unique and friendly appearance made it a social media sensation. We are aware that robots are taking over roles once performed by humans, and one of those areas is in the field of security.
The Ascento Guard, built for patrolling expansive private outdoor properties, has already found its job in various industries, including manufacturing, data centers, pharmaceutical production centers, and warehouses.
The robot comes with advanced features for thorough security monitoring. It can detect potential threats and intruders, promptly notifying human security personnel through its app.
Setting up the Ascento Guard is easy. It takes only a few hours to make it nearly autonomous by creating patrol schedules that you can program. It patrols boundaries at a walking speed of approximately 2.8 mph (4.5 kph), utilizing thermal and infrared cameras to monitor for fires or security breaches.
With onboard speakers and microphones, the robot enables secure two-way communication while its video cameras oversee parking lots. Designed to withstand all weather conditions, the Ascento Guard offers versatility and reliability.
The security industry worldwide faces a problem like a high staff turnover rate, which can be as much as 43% every year, as mentioned by Chris Smith. That post was shared on the official LinkedIn account of Ascento.
This is because of a shortage of workers and the challenges of long shifts, odd hours, and bad weather. So, there’s a need for creative solutions.
The Ascent Guard covers this gap, combining the benefits of human personnel and fixed-installed cameras, offering economic efficiency and thoroughness. Since unveiling the robot in September 2023, Ascento has received numerous requests across various industries, highlighting the potential of automation to address security challenges.
Ascento has bigger plans beyond the Ascento Guard, including exploring opportunities in indoor, aerial, and application integration. The company understands that the real potential lies in using AI to analyze the data it captures. This opens the door for creative solutions to tackle workforce shortages and improve security across various industries.
ANYmal
ANYmal is a groundbreaking quadrupedal (with four legs) robot designed to excel in some of the most demanding and ever-changing environments. This robot has become a social media sensation due to its impressive parkour skills, with numerous videos showcasing its abilities gaining popularity.
Because of its unique movable parts that can control torque power very precisely, this robot can run quickly and climb steep places with ease.
Its advanced sensor suite, comprising laser sensors and cameras, equips ANYmal with the remarkable ability to continuously perceive and map its surroundings, ensuring precise localization. This wealth of sensory data enables the robot to autonomously chart its navigation path. Also, make calculated decisions while traveling in its environment.
Specifically developed for industrial inspections in challenging locations like oil and gas sites. ANYmal comes with a robust battery, providing more than two hours of autonomy. It also comes equipped with an array of sensory equipment, including optical and thermal cameras, microphones, gas detection sensors, and active lighting.
Remarkably, despite its impressive capabilities, ANYmal maintains a highly portable design, weighing less than 30kg. A single individual can efficiently transport and operate it.
Furthermore, what sets ANYmal apart is its exceptional ability to perform parkour-like movements. This adds another dimension to its versatility, allowing it to navigate complex terrain and overcome obstacles with agility and grace.
Whether it’s leaping over barriers, running with precision, or climbing with ease. ANYmal’s parkour skills make it a formidable contender in scenarios that demand mobility, adaptability, and robust sensory perception.
E-SEED: Self-burying Seed Carrier
A video of a small robot recently went viral. This E-SEED: Self-burying Seed Carrier robot could be helpful in agriculture, the environment, and forestry.
This small robot could be our best chance to save nature. It might sound a bit surprising, but it can plant trees all over the world, saving endangered plants and renewing our environment.
You simply place it on the ground, and it slowly starts to bury itself. When you fix a seed to it, the robot buries the seed deep into the ground. It behaves a lot like a hydromorph, a natural structure that changes shape in response to environmental conditions like humidity.
The brilliant minds at the Morphing Matter Lab, a team of researchers behind this innovation, came up with a simple yet intelligent design. It has three anchor points that keep the structure from flipping over or falling. It always ensures that it faces downward at a specific angle to dig into the ground and plant the seed.
Now, here’s the important thing, the number of coils. More coils make the structure softer, but too few won’t provide enough force needed to make it move or operate. By burying the seed to a sufficient depth, the structure protects it from natural threats such as fires, rain, or wildlife.
When the robot encounters moisture, the wood expands. But here’s the amazing part – the inner layer cells expand faster than the outer layer, causing it to coil. When it dries, it changes speed again, with the inner layer cells pushing the seed even deeper into the soil.
The unique thing about this robot is that it doesn’t require any synthetic materials or plastics, which are already damaging our planet. Wood is biodegradable so it won’t add to our environmental problems.
One of the most critical tests they conducted was air-dropping multiple seeds from drones. Surprisingly, these robot-aided seed drops had a success rate of 90 percent.
Even more conveniently, you can implant these robots with symbiotic species like fungi and nematodes, which help increase the survival rate of a plant in a natural environment.
While the erodium plant was an inspiration to the team, it had its downside, with a low success rate, especially in challenging landscapes. That’s why these clever engineers decided to improve the design, making it work effectively all the time. What’s even more fascinating is that the robot can accommodate various seeds and plant different wood types, opening up the possibility of reforesting all terrains on our planet.
Final Words
In this article, we explored some remarkable robots, from Erodium Copy Robot to Tesla’s Optimus Robot, DeepMind’s Mini Robot, and even humanoid robots in an NFL match. We also looked at Ascento Guard Robot, ANYbotics’ ANYmal Robot, and Disney’s cute robot.
These robots showcase the incredible advancements in robotics technology. They have diverse applications, from security to entertainment, and illustrate the ongoing progress in this field. In summary, the future of robotics looks promising, and these robots are just a trailer of what’s to come.
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