Robots of 2024, the next ChatGPT
Written by: Wang Wang
Editor: Manman Zhou
2024 is the first year of robots. It seems to be said every year.
In December 2023, at the end of the year, as the world’s first humanoid robot companyBest choiceAfter being launched on the market, "robots" seem to be the next hot topic after large models, giving an encouraging start to 2024.
In addition to the first IPO, there has been a lot of news in the field of robotics recently. For exampleMuskReleased without warning on own X accountTeslaVideo of the second-generation humanoid robot Optimus, which is proficient in walking, squatting, and holding eggs; the Stanford team's Mobile ALOHA has even evolved to the point where it can cook vegetables, clean tables, and press elevators on its own, with a success rate as high as 90%.
Why not take this opportunity to look at some of the most popular stories in the field of robotics that you may have missed in 2023.
01 Humanoid robots can finally work
In 2015, at the DARPA Robot Challenge, known as the "Robot Olympics", South Korea's KAIThe ST team's humanoid robot DRC Hubo completed the simulated disaster rescue mission in 44 minutes and 28 seconds, taking first place.
However, this intense and exciting competition was a bit "stupid" in the eyes of the spectators: the robot was busy completing the task for nearly an hour, and humans only needed 5 minutes, not to mention various falls on flat ground, walking, opening doors, and wind. Competitors who are waiting for all kinds of tricks to withdraw from the competition.
At that time, people couldn’t help but ask: When will humanoid robots really hit the market? Perhaps we will see the answer in 2024.
Humanoid Robot DRC Hubo | IEEE Spectrum
Today, we have seen that many robots can complete a variety of complex movements, even catching dropped objects, which requires both speed and precision. More and more robot manufacturers are no longer satisfied with moving boxes and delivering express delivery, but are developing towards the goal of "universal robots".
Sanctuary AI The control system imitates the memory, vision, sound and tactile systems of the human brain, and combines the two technologies of symbolic reasoning and neural networks to make the robot have human-like intelligence. The Norwegian robotics company 1X has reached a cooperation with OpenAI to let the wind of large models blow to the robots, and use the universal large models to enable the robots to have deeper "thinking". These companies all plan to launch commercialization in 2024.
Musk predicts that within the next 20 years, there will be 1 billion humanoid robots on the earth. However, at the beginning of 2024, we still need to pour cold water on it.
Although a large amount of money and talent have poured into the field of commercial humanoid robots in the past two years, there have been no recent technological changes that can produce substantial breakthroughs. For example, brakes are still complex and expensive, and battery life is also a challenge; at the software level,SafetyStability also requires continuous investment in optimization. From a manufacturing perspective, large-scale commercial deployment requires flexible supply chain and infrastructure construction, which also requires investment of time and resources.
02 Sweeping robots dominate the world
Amundsen–Scott Antarctic Research Station has an average temperature of -28°C throughout the year, and can reach -80°C in extreme cases. Due to the harsh climate, the scientific research station will be in a state of self-destruction with zero supplies for 8 months every year. No matter whether the scientific expedition team members come or go, there are always four permanent residents in the station: Bert, Ernie, Sam and Frodo, and four sweeping robots.
In addition to sweeping the floor, the daily life of the four robots also has many ups and downs.
As one of the first members to move in, Bert has been the loneliest sweeping robot in the world for more than a year. Later, Ernie joined and occupied the first and second floors with Bert. The two became the closest and most distant soul mates because of an insurmountable staircase. It wasn't until good friends Sam and Frodo joined that Bert and Ernie could finally stay together on the same floor. Ernie was even kidnapped, and the kidnappers threatened to ask for cookies; Ernie simply returned safely and continued sweeping the floor.
The X account South Pole Telescope recorded the exciting daily lives of these four sweeping robots, as well as the (cold) jokes of the scientific expedition team members in the bitter cold land.
"It's too cold," Ernie said
A little bit of trivia: sweeping robots are actually the product of military research.
In 1990, MIT researchers founded iXiaobai NavigationRobot (the brand of the sweeping robot pictured above) is developing a mine-clearing robot for the US military. To this end, the team developed an algorithm that enables the robot to travel everywhere in a designated space. During research and development, the team discovered that the same technology could also be used to control vacuum cleaners. As a result, in 2002, the first sweeping robot was launched into the U.S. market, and sales exceeded one million units within 2 years. Today, you can buy a mine-sweeping artifact for as little as RMB 1,000.
03 Year 13 of Henry Evans and Robot Symbiosis
Henry Evans He lost the ability to move due to a stroke, leaving only slight movement of his eyes, head, neck and left thumb. Until 2010, Henry accidentally saw the robot company Willow Garage The PR2 robot, he had a hunch that this might be an opportunity to change his life, so he found a research and development team to launch the "Robots for Humanity" project together to help disabled people take care of themselves as much as possible, while also allowing their families and caregivers to have more Time for independence and freedom.
Henry Evans and PR2, source | Stanford Magazine
However, PR2 weighs 181 kilograms and costs US$400,000. It can only be a "scientific research result" and cannot be marketed. In 2017, the PR2 team established a new company after working with Henry's family for many yearsHello Robot, to develop a simpler, lighter and lower-cost robot. As a result, Stretch has lost its human shape, leaving only a single arm, and its price has been reduced to US$20,000. It can help Henry shave, play cards, and even wash dishes for others.
2023 is the 13th year that Henry's family and robots have lived under the same roof. Although he still relies on his wife and caregivers for most things in his life, Henry is often able to operate the robot to complete some small tasks independently. When he picks a rose to give to his wife, Henry can always feel that he is not useless.
04 The 70th flight of the Mars helicopter Ingenuity
On December 22, 2023, Ingenuity completed its 70th takeoff and landing on the surface of Mars. This is more than two years after its first takeoff from the surface of Mars in 2021. In the original plan of the launch team, Ingenuity could only fly a maximum of 5 times and "survive" on Mars for 30 days.
Mars is extremely cold, dry, and has a thin atmosphere. Although gravity is weak, it is still difficult to generate lift, which imposes severe restrictions on Mars helicopters. In addition, communication delays between Mars and Earth complicate each mission. Ingenuity’s flight record revolutionized Mars exploration. As a pioneering aircraft on Mars, it provided valuable lessons for its successors. Based on these experiences, scientific research experts are planning to incorporate the rotorcraft into the Mars sample return mission, design a Mars scientific helicopter for future Mars rover missions, and increase the payload to explore areas that the Mars rover cannot reach.
Source | Space.com
05 Play with robots at Disneyland
Now, you can interact with real-person Mickey Mouse and Lina Belle in Disneyland. In the future, a group of robots may become your Disney partners.
At its research center in Zurich, Disney is developing new robotic entertainment. These robots are not only walking and talking machines, but also use specialized walking methods to imitate Disney characters and express emotions through cute and exaggerated movements. Animators and robotics experts work together to ensure the stability of the robot's walking while making its every move expressive, and it can even make cute movements such as tilting its head to kill.
Image source | Youtube
In terms of production, because this new robot platform does not rely on hardware, prototypes can be quickly applied to different characters. With 3D printed parts, Disney can produce new characters in just a few months. robot.
I believe that this type of robot will soon meet tourists.
06 Drone racing: fully automatic robots surpass humans
A racing competition between autonomous drones and human world champion pilots. The two drones need to pass through 7 door frames at different directions and heights at once. This process requires a lot of precise micro-control. The fully autonomous drone completed the complex flight of 7.5 meters in just 5.3 seconds.
To defeat humans, drones must be faster and more stable. To do this, the team had to solve several problems. The first step is to calculate the best trajectory for the flight. In the 3D simulation environment during the pre-match training phase, in addition to calculating the mathematically optimal flight trajectory, the drone team also continuously collected and added real-world noise data, such as airflow in the venue, the jitter of the drone itself, etc. With the flight route, the drone also needs to calculate its position and flight direction in real time. Because the drone is too fast, the camera on the fuselage will be motion blurred, causing the drone to become "blind". The robot team must find a balance between the shortest path and not crashing.
Source | Nature
Finally, the drone is equipped with a 36-camera infrared tracking system that can position the drone within millimeters 400 times per second. By combining location data with route maps, an off-board computer can guide the drone along an optimal trajectory — something even the best human pilots would struggle to do.
Despite the ruthless crushing of machines by humans, the robotics team still believes that autonomous drones will not be able to replace humans in the next few decades. Humans still surpass machines in their ability to process bad data, adapt to circumstances, and adjust in a timely manner.
Will 2024 usher in a robot explosion?
existNvidiaSenior Research Scientist and Head of AI AgentsJim FanIt seems that robots are the most important technology in 2024. In an X tweet, he said: "We are still about 3 years away from the ChatGPT moment of physical AI Agents."
In the past, robotics research has been faced with a "Moravec's Paradox."
As early as the 1980s, researchersHans MoravecIt was found that feeling and perception require a lot of computing resources, while logical reasoning does not require so many resources. This creates a counter-intuitive phenomenon in robot development: many things that seem commonplace to humans are extremely difficult for robots, such as catching a flying baseball; and vice versa, some things that humans find difficult Not so difficult for robots.
Today, with the advancement of technologies such as multi-modal large models, simulation data sets, and hardware, robots are evolving and growing at an exponential rate. Not only do they have superior language understanding and interaction capabilities, but their perception capabilities also have the opportunity to make great strides. leap forward.
Perhaps the singularity will not arrive immediately, but we can believe that the prospects of the robot track cannot be underestimated, and we are on the road to the singularity.
The article comes from the Internet:Robots of 2024, the next ChatGPT
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