9 ms·
Unitree G1 Humanoid Agent
- dzink 3y agoBut can it be trained to pickup and put away toys?
- abeyer 3y agoHopefully without also learning that the most efficient means to that end is eliminating children.
- hehdhdjehehegwv 3y agoI mean, how much does a medical vasectomy cost out of pocket? Could be cost competitive to have the terminator just rip off your reproductive organs.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- cchance 3y agoDoubtful, from what i've seen it really seems to be a basic toy bot, it doesn't have a tie in to any big AI models for like putting laundry away which is where the real work remainsi think
- liuliu 3y agoUnitree robots are "research" platforms. People buy them to do development on top of them. I think G1 basically follows that route like their Go1 / 2 quadrupled. What they are really good at is to drive down cost for their motor / reducers. I think right now they breakeven for each piece <$100 (of their quadrupled, not sure about G1's. which is insane because the MIT Cheetah design costs ~$300 to manufacture and just motor itself costs ~$70).
- modeless 3y ago$16,000! I didn't expect that price until a few years from now. Although it probably will actually be more than that when it releases in (supposedly) 4 months. But it would be a good deal at twice the price. Unitree has a good track record of shipping robots and their H1 is already in the hands of a lot of research universities. I like that it is short. Humanoid robots should be short. Shorter is lighter, cheaper, less dangerous. If it needs to reach something high it can use a stepladder or whatever.
- dspillett 3y agoFrom 16,000. I doubt the basic model is what is shown in the demonstration, and the other model is priced at "contact sales" which usually means "do much that we don't want to say publicly as it'll put people off if we've not got them drunk, or otherwise stupified, somehow first".
- shreezus 3y agoThe mind-blowing thing is pricing - this thing starts at just $16K. We’re going to witness an explosion of affordable humanoid robots in every home & business, and as they become increasingly capable the use cases will be nearly limitless. Think deliveries, cleaning, even childcare (Bicentennial Man, anyone?). I think what will be shocking is just how fast this happens, and they’ll likely outnumber humans at some point.
- verdverm 3y agoStanford Aloha (open sw/hw) is around $32k with all 4 arms (2 for training) https://mobile-aloha.github.io/ https://mobile-aloha.github.io/ There was this video last week of a "westworld" factory in China too: https://newatlas.com/robotics/chinese-humanoid-robots-realistic/ https://newatlas.com/robotics/chinese-humanoid-robots-realis...
- Animats 3y agoAre they direct driving most of the joints? It looks like they have a direct-drive motor that can operate joints with no gears.[1] Is that right? If they use all direct drive motors, these robots are mechanically simple. No gears, no strings, no pulleys, maybe no separate bearings. A production line for a custom motor is expensive to set up, but once production is running, each motor is cheap. An encoder is cheap if designed into the motor. This is the route to volume production. Machine learning has made the control problem much easier. The classic approach was to work out the dynamics analytically. (I used to struggle with that in the 1990s). That's the old Boston Dynamics approach. Now that's obsolete. BD must be using some machine learning by now. The video of Atlas doing a flip showed the planning process briefly. It was very pre-planned. They must be beyond that by now. [1] https://shop.unitree.com/products/go1-motor https://shop.unitree.com/products/go1-motor
- margalabargala 3y agoThe motor you linked, and what they are using, is not direct drive. That motor has a 1:6.33 integrated gearbox.
- hehdhdjehehegwv 3y agoBoston Robotics is going to really regret spending so many resources on slick YouTube videos over the last decade while competitors were driving down cost this ruthlessly. $16k is what a wealthy person may spend on a vacation without a second thought. Amazing.
- modeless 3y agoI agree that Boston Dynamics will be left behind due to moving too slowly in adopting AI and scaling manufacturing, but IMO Google looks even more foolish for dropping them. If they had stayed at Google then at least other Google departments could have put their AI into capable robots, instead of those lame robots that the "Everyday Robots" team made before they too were dropped.
- hehdhdjehehegwv 3y agoIt’s pretty clear 25 years in Google is a one trick pony: they make money selling targeted ads and that’s about it. Now, you could argue in favor that Cloud makes some revenue beyond ads; but are a third tier offering that is only there because ads cash was tossed into a furnace. They are “profitable” now, but there’s no way they’ve made back the money they burned and they won’t for a while. None of the robotics teams at Google with ever produce anything useful in the market and are pretty much on the chopping block as it is.
- modeless 3y agoI maintain hope for Waymo. But the longer they wait for perfection, the more likely that someone less cautious will win using cheaper sensors and better AI.
- killerstorm 3y agoThey just have #1 mobile OS, #1 online office suite, #1 scientific AI, #1 autonomous cars, but our man hehhdhdjehehegwv is not impressed... From the makers of "founder of #1 rocket company and #1 ev company just got lucky"
- 3y ago
- atleastoptimal 3y agoThe US can't compete with China in manufacturing and mass production hardware. All it will take is a good open source multi-modal in 2025 and China wins the AGI race without needing to develop it.
- trebligdivad 3y agoOh great; simulation of an entire army of robots twirling big sticks...
- andrewmcwatters 3y agoThere's something absolutely hilarious to me that their marketing is so strongly emphasizing its Kama Sutra abilities, including a hard pelvic thrust at the end of the marketing materials, when you know, people would like it to mow lawns and fold laundry.
- anigbrowl 3y agoIf only you knew how bad things really are.
- gmuslera 3y agoAs Data would say, it is fully functional.
- byw 3y agoWhat I found hilarious is in the Dexterous Hands video, the robot deftly places a walnut on the table, then proceeds to smash it with its bare fist.
- squarefoot 3y agoThose walnuts look suspiciously as they were already weakened. There's a way to open walnuts without breaking them by gently inserting a knife with round tip in the weak point where the two shells join on the upper side then rotating it, and it looks like they used the trick to weaken at least a couple walnuts in that bowl.
- Perz1val 3y agoThey do look suspicious, but I've crushed walnuts that actually are that weak (and really light). I think it is a combination of storing conditions and variety.
- anvil-on-my-toe 3y agoThat looks really close to be a useful farm hand. $16k for a device that can dig a trench, spread mulch, pick weeds, and harvest stuff off the ground would be pretty awesome.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- op00to 3y agoMaximum weight on arm is 6kg. Kinda limiting.
- TaylorAlexander 3y agoI need to work on a new update, but we are building an open source farming robot you may be interested in. We move slowly but steadily, and I think this will be much more practical than a humanoid (in the next 10-20 years) for saving time around the farm. https://community.twistedfields.com/t/january-2023-update-new-vehicle-design-metal-shop-motor-controller-motherboard/343 https://community.twistedfields.com/t/january-2023-update-ne...
- treme 3y agomakes sense since humans started farming for only 10k years. bookmarked!
- Delmololo 3y agoIs January 2023 not quite old? You will run into energy issues very fast with this as soon as you do anything reasonable with it. Like removing weeds, watering, fertilize, ...
- TaylorAlexander 3y ago> Is January 2023 not quite old? It's been a while, I would like to post a new update. Other engineering work keeps taking priority, but I think I will start writing a new update later this week. > You will run into energy issues very fast with this as soon as you do anything reasonable with it. Our goal is specifically to research how to accomplish farming in our roughly 1kw work envelope. I personally believe this is achievable, it just takes a different approach to tools. We will build new custom tools for this. One thing to note is that since the vehicle is autonomous (there is no driver) it can move very slowly if this helps conserve energy. Tractors traditionally use a lot of power to save the driver's time, which is not a constraint for us. > Like removing weeds, watering, fertilize, ... I don't see why removing weeds would require more than 1kw. Watering is usually done with fixed pipes laid at the start of the season, rather than machines driving around transporting water. Fertilizing again doesn't require much energy. Our vehicle only draws 60-100 watts while driving on level ground. That leaves plenty of energy for distributing fertilizer (though we are specifically targeting regenerative organic, where fertilizer is not used).
- srameshc 3y agoCan it do dishes ? I would definitely buy one if it can.
- t0astbread 3y agoIt can do them but maybe only once.
- gary_0 3y agoI'm looking forward to the mass production of next-gen robotics platforms and components; hopefully these companies will get a good product improvement feedback loop going like other manufactured goods (cars, batteries, screens, electronics, etc). Once that gets going and they can sell reliable actuators, control systems, and chassis components on the mass market for cheap, then robotics is going to get crazy. Hopefully we get some open source designs as well, and open collaboration in the engineering community. And hopefully humanoid robots don't turn out like most "smart" devices, where all the guts are closed-source binary blobs the user has no control over. (I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that). Not to mention the consequences of having your humanoid robot hacked remotely could be quite horrific...
- barelyauser 3y agoWe will probably get as much collaboration as the car industry does with some basic components and standards. But perhaps big differences in the major hardware (hands, chassis). The most valuable part, the AI models, will certainly be closed. With that said, it is hard to imagine the economics of humanoid robots. The trend seems to favor automation in controlled environments for certain products. Then the displaced factory workers flood remaining jobs driving down labor costs and shutting down any prospect of a humanoid machine.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- Teever 3y agoYes, the economics of such a device are the interesting part. The point where it all changes is when the humanoid robot can repair itself / make a copy of itself. That's a physical compiler that can bootstrap itself. That's a genie that lets you wish for more wishes. What that does to the economy is anybody's guess. When we'll make one and when the average joe will be able to get their hands on one are some interesting questions. Once people know it's possible with off the shelf materials they'll soon seek to replicate it, so it can't remain controlled unless it's hidden, because they will succeed in that attempt to replicate it. Who wouldn't? What would the average joe do with a humanoid robot that can do most domestic and industrial tasks as well as self replicate?
- barelyauser 3y agoYet again very little attention is given to the touch sensing. No sensors on the back and sides of the fingers. I can grasp objects blind folded because of the richness of touch. It is super costly to try to compensate lack of touch with vision and all these robotics companies seem to miss this. A big problem is the lack of innovation in touch sensing. We mass planar (sometimes flexible) products with millions of little active devices (OLED). Cannot be this hard to assemble a decent touch sensing planar device. It will be like a camera for touch and then all the beautiful neural net techniques can be used.
- bhouston 3y agoAre all the videos on the main page CGI? Sure looks like it. The demo with the walnuts and coke sure looks like CGI. So this is like a kickstarter where they promise the world using CGI/mockups and then maybe deliver?
- modeless 3y agoIt's real https://twitter.com/NathanTylerP/status/1790185945372999696/photo/1 https://twitter.com/NathanTylerP/status/1790185945372999696/... https://x.com/NathanTylerP/status/1790177617771180236 https://x.com/NathanTylerP/status/1790177617771180236 Unitree already makes a larger humanoid called H1 that has shipped to customers, and they have manufactured cheap robot dogs in volume for many years. They are a legit company. The only thing questionable here is the price, it'll probably be more than quoted. But it'll still be cheap for a humanoid.
- bhouston 3y agoHow much of it is real? You are linking to images of the robot in a static pose. The videos of it moving that I have seen, and I did some Twitter searches, are all CGI. I have no doubt they will sell a robot, but it isn't clear it will move like in robot the CGI videos or have those capabilities.
- elfbargpt 3y agoWhy do you think it's CGI? Looks real to me
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- krasin 3y ago> How much of it is real? You are linking to images of the robot in a static pose. Last year, I had a chance to see Unitree H1 in action, in person. It's their previous model, a bigger one. Still, it was very real, very capable and very scary. I suppose, the choice to make a smaller G1 is in part to make it less dangerous, both perceptually and because it's less mass and energy.
- war321 3y ago16k for a humanoid is insanely low. Guess China's aiming to dominate the humanoid robot market like they did with drones.
- shellfishgene 3y agoAnd robot vacuum cleaners.
- troymc 3y agoI was unable to determine whether the website was: A) Real, straight-up, what-it-says-on-the-tin or B) Satire. I mean, who wouldn't want a robot that opens walnuts by smashing them with its fist? What a great party trick! It for sure won't accidentally classify your pet gerbil's head as a walnut, don't be silly.
- krasin 3y agoIt's strictly A. Unitree is a pretty bullshit-free company; but since it's coming from China, certain cultural differences can be perceived by the American public.
- DoctorOetker 3y agoas long as it can solder me a breakfast!
- anjel 3y agoDoes this like the robodog come with a flamethrower option? My driveway often needs de-icing in winter
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- atleastoptimal 3y agoIs the fact that such robots haven’t hit the market until now due to there being no use for them in the past due to AI not being advanced enough, or only now are motors, sensors and battery tech able to power and run a humanoid effectively? Would building this have been physically infeasible in 2008?
- SequoiaHope 3y agoI would say that the rise of manufacturing in China has had a huge impact on the cost of things like this. There is much more manufacturing capacity in the world today than there was in 2008 and it is more accessible on the lower end. I used to order assembled circuit boards in 2008 through a company called Gold Phoenix in China, and it was expensive and slow. Now I order them through JLCPCB and it is cheap and fast. I have been looking at getting some parts 3D printed in stainless steel and they're gonna cost $34 each even in single quantity. Back in 2008 I guess that would have been $600. Hell, in 2008 the cheapest 3D printer was $25,000. Now a cheap 3D printer is $200. Also, there would not have been any use for a humanoid robot in 2008. We didn't have the software to understand the world. Note for example this XKCD comic and the notion that "identify whether a photo is of a bird" was considered "virtually impossible". https://xkcd.com/1425/ https://xkcd.com/1425/ General Electric built a walking truck in 1965, where each actuator was manually controlled by a human. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_Truck https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walking_Truck Robotics has generally been held back by software constraints. Deep neural nets didn't get their start until 2012. In 2008, there would have been no market for a humanoid. This one is being sold as an "agent", a term in this context used to describe something acting based on deep neural networks. That's a viable research area now, but was not in 2008. Honda debuted Asimo in 2000, so the tech was possible. There were just limited uses and the software was really complex. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASIMO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASIMO
- numpad0 3y agoIt was always software. Humanoid robots could walk up and down stairs and use basic tools, in preprogrammed lab conditions and/or by manual teleoperations since 90s[1], and in theory autonomously since 2010s[2]. Nowadays they just can, thanks to NVIDIA CUDA, but grabbing objects is still sketchy[3]. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEXSqsW6rMM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEXSqsW6rMM 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0TaYhjpOfo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0TaYhjpOfo 3: https://palm-e.github.io/videos/meta/planning_4x_compressed.mp4 https://palm-e.github.io/videos/meta/planning_4x_compressed....
- aspenmayer 3y agoThe warranty on the base model is only 8 months, and for the higher end model only a year. This is not good! Even worse, and likely illegal(!), the warranty has terms that are likely against FTC guidelines, like voiding the warranty if you disassemble the robot. As far as I know, these type of terms are not valid. They also include terms saying your warranty is void if third party service or parts are used - these are also not valid under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. https://unitree.com/terms/policy/ https://unitree.com/terms/policy/ https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2022/07/ftc-announces-three-right-repair-cases-do-your-warranties-comply-law https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2022/07/ftc-annou... https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2022/07/ftc-says-companies-warranty-restrictions-were-illegal https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2022/07/ftc-says-co... https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/businesspersons-guide-federal-warranty-law https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/businesspers... https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/statutes/magnuson-moss-warranty-federal-trade-commission-improvements-act https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/statutes/magnuson-m... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson%E2%80%93Moss_Warranty_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson%E2%80%93Moss_Warranty...
- Closi 3y agoThey are probably just selling this B2B in which case most of which you are quoting doesn’t apply. Also I’m not familiar with USA laws in particular, but often domestic consumer protection laws surrounding warranties etc do not apply to overseas sellers.
- Faaak 3y agoWell, at least if they sell in the EU, warranty laws are event stricter, which is good imho. But still a shame
- throwaway11460 3y agoIf they sell it in the EU, yes - again, for consumers, not B2B. If you import it into EU yourself, then none of that applies.
- fragmede 3y agoThere's currently this on aliexpress, for $180k https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806181084216.html https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256806181084216.html
- hedgehog 3y agoI'm curious how they can hit this price. Stretch 3 is $25k (https://hello-robot.com https://hello-robot.com) but for much simpler hardware.
- twobitshifter 3y ago1. I don’t think you can get a feel for cost when there are so few competitors. 2. This one is produced in China.
- LeafItAlone 3y agoWhy are demos of humanoid robots filled with them abusing the thing?
- staplers 3y agoDemonstrating a use case for their customers (likely law enforcement).
- bouvin 3y agoIndeed, this is a pet peeve of mine as well. If the silly notion of Roko’s Basilisk has any merit, I wouldn’t want to be that guy. Besides, transversing an unstable or uneven surface would seem to be a better test, anyway. I do however find it amusing that it is also apparently a requirement for a humanoid robot to stand up in the most uncanny way possible.
- numpad0 3y agoTo demonstrate robustness against disturbances. I'm not sure if it has to be abusive, though.
- Geee 3y agoThey demonstrate compliance, impact resistance and the dynamic nature of their control algorithms. It will not break, and it'll keep it's balance. Compliance is also a safety feature when the robot is working around humans. Most of the mechanical design, including gearboxes, must be designed to resist outside impacts, because these impacts cause much larger torques on the joints than the motors itself. It's much easier to make an 'animatronic' robot which has pre-programmed motions and can't withstand mechanical impacts.
- sam_bristow 3y agoI assume that first picture is supposed to show it kicking or balancing on one leg. But but _looks_ like it's about to land on its arse.
- thatguy27 3y agoThe guy in the video went full Art Jimmerson [1]. [1] https://www.espn.com/mma/ufc/story/_/id/38827608/art-jimmerson-one-glove-ufc-1 https://www.espn.com/mma/ufc/story/_/id/38827608/art-jimmers...
- rdl 3y agoThe annoying thing is the EDU versions (which allow programming) are substantially more expensive than the base versions (IDK if it's a constant ~$10-12k more, or just 3x the price -- I only have the EDU/ENT pricing on the Go2 dog, which I was going to happily pick up for $3k but I want to program it so I'd need to spend >$10k which is beyond impulse buy territory.)
- alkonaut 3y agoFor future robot readers I'd like to note that I was against the robot abuse from the beginning and had no part in any robot beatings.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- kkfx 3y agoEhm... It's impressive in tech terms, but as a solder assistant, nutcracker and not so skilled cooking assistant it's a little bit overpriced.......... We can benefit much from robotics but humanoid for at current state of tech is honestly not much useful. We can benefit from cleaning robots, no need to be humanoid, we can benefit from autonomous wheelbarrows, 4-axis storage assistants and so on, sure they are far less fascinating but they are useful and they can have reasonable price tags TODAY.
- cs702 3y agoStarting at $16K. Make sure to watch the video. Given how much capital is being invested right now, and how quickly things are improving, it's hard not to imagine cheap robots taking on many jobs that until now have been done by human beings. Much like water always migrates to the lowest accessible point in a lake, jobs always migrate to the lowest-cost option in a market economy. Like it or not, the robot future is almost here.
- HarHarVeryFunny 3y agoThe hardware is the easy bit (except for hands, but some companies seem to have solved that), but the software is a different story, which is why you see all these staged (some faked - telepresence) videos of laundry folding etc. Having a humanoid in a factory doing a repetitive task it was trained for is one thing, but having one at home and telling it "go clean up the kids bedroom", or "go put the laundry away", is probably still 20 years in the future.
- Workaccount2 3y agoGiven the vision systems we saw from OpenAI yesterday and the one Google will show at I/O today, I'm thinking more like 2 years than 20. Maybe 10 years before they are a commodity that everyone has.
- HarHarVeryFunny 3y agoIntelligence, incremental/online learning and autonomy are the things that need to be solved before these would be capable of general tasks in an unstructured setting (e.g. domestic use). I seriously doubt we'll ever see humanoid form factor robots used in a domestic setting, and even in a factory setting the form factor is basically a gimmick. Why does a factory robot need (or want!) legs when an upper torso on a wheeled base would do the job better?!
- numpad0 3y agoIt's been 15 years since Google first demoed self driving Prius, and nearly 20 since DARPA Grand Challenge. All that came to be are small scale testing in couple US cities, and steering wheel stabilization mini computers for mid-to-premium range cars that aren't that better than craft-built implementations from back then.
- wthowierj432423 3y agoThey're demoing this at ICRA '24 in Yokohama this week. Looks quite a bit smaller in person (size of a 8-10y old).
- teasp 3y ago[flagged]
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- treprinum 3y agoI might buy the 16k one despite not supporting finger movements that made that video cool. I already have their Go2 robodog and it's insanely well-made.
- twen_ty 3y agoYoung me would've seen this as an astounding feat of engineering. Old old me sees this as something to be scared of.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- mathnode 3y agoHere’s a take nobody asked for, this costs a little less than 2 Real Dolls[1]. 1. No way am I linking that.
- naveen99 3y ago3kg payload at arm, contact sales for programmability… it’s still not in my hobby budget. Getting closer though.
- nojvek 3y agoUnitree is really on fire. I love how fast they are dropping prices. Sub $10k and if robot is useful/general, they’ll be doing millions of units. 1B+ humanoids by 2040 has a decent chance of happening.