Leading American automaker Tesla has proudly revealed the recent advancements on its Optimus project through an informative, promotional video on the X platform.
Some notable developments include Optimus’ new capability to autonomously sort objects, self-calibrate, and take corrective actions.
Tesla Chief Elon Musk even stated that Optimus “will do the ballet one day” in response to Teslaconomics’ X post.
History
Tesla initially disclosed plans to develop a humanoid robot at the company’s AI Day in 2021. At that time, Optimus was only a concept, with one Tesla staff wearing a form-fitting robotic suit on the stage and performing some dance moves.
At the company’s 2022 AI Day, Tesla managed to upgrade the robot’s abilities with enhanced hand movements. Teslarati reported.
Tesla’s Investor Day in March showed the robots’ new ability to move autonomously and collaborate to perform some tasks.
A few months later, Optimus learned to walk, detect and memorize new environments, and pick up, lift, and put down objects, among others. Tesla demonstrated these new abilities at the Annual Shareholders Meeting on May 16, 2023.
Now, the company has just released a new update regarding the Optimus’ development.
Development updates
In a significant development, Tesla’s official Optimus X account demonstrated that humanoid robots are now capable of sorting objects autonomously through an end-to-end trained neural network.
In addition, the Optimus robots can also now self-calibrate and sort colored blocks into their proper trays.
Optimus self-calibrates its arms and legs via joint position encoders coupled with its vision, allowing the robot to precisely navigate its own limbs.
After that, the video showed Optimus’ new capability to autonomously sort green and blue blocks into their respective trays.
Impressively, a Tesla staff tries to distract Optimus by moving the blocks before the robot does. However, Optimus managed to proceed with sorting the blocks despite the dynamic changes presented by the Tesla staff. It effectively demonstrated the robot’s capability to adapt to different environments and settings while finishing the tasks correctly.
Moreover, Optimus also showed that it can now perform corrective actions by returning the block right-side-up when it placed one on the wrong setup.
Tesla ended the video with Optimus performing yoga-like poses and a “namaste” signature. It shows that the robot also now has versatility characteristics aside from sorting.
“Tesla Optimus is now capable of self-calibrating its arms and legs. Using only vision and joint position encoders, it can precisely locate its limbs in space. Accurately calibrated, Optimus learns various tasks more efficiently. Its neural net runs entirely on-board, using only vision. for example, it can sort these blocks by color fully autonomously. and it does so while dealing with the dynamic reality of our world. Optimus also demonstrates autonomous, corrective action capabilities. It can be trained to conduct new tasks, such as un-sorting. And, after a long day of work, time to stretch. Namaste!”
Tesla
Refer to the video attached to the X post below:
Tesla looks for applicants for the project
As you can see on the Tesla Optimus’ X post, it indicated a link for people interested in joining the team for Optimus’ development.
Tesla also indicated on the page that Optimus “create a general purpose, bi-pedal, autonomous humanoid robot capable of performing unsafe, repetitive or boring tasks.”
It further noted the complex processes the team needs to fulfill to achieve the said purpose:
“Achieving that end goal requires building the software stacks that enable balance, navigation, perception and interaction with the physical world. We’re hiring deep learning, computer vision, motion planning, controls, mechanical and general software engineers to solve some of our hardest engineering challenges.”
Tesla
- See Also:
- Tesla announces lower than expected Optimus Bot production figure
- Tesla launches its Optimus Bot in North American stores, one is already in NYC
- Tesla releases new Optimus video, showing progress since AI Day 2022
- Tesla’s Optimus Bot project is on a hiring spree for different positions
- Tesla Chief gets a spot in Time100 AI list
Notably, the Optimus development update occurred just a few months following Tesla’s Q2 earnings call. At that time, Chief Elon Musk warned that Optimus production lags behind its initial guidance due to a lack of actuators supply. The shortage prompted the automaker to produce its own actuators.
Optimus’ self-calibration and autonomous sorting demonstrate a huge advancement in its robotic abilities. Tesla has yet to decide and disclose the official launch of the Optimus. Nonetheless, it aims to first deploy the humanoid robots at its own factory operations to perform simple and monotonous tasks.
