Comment by corysama
1 day ago
Their thesis is that you cannot get the training data for a robot in the home from a lab or a simulation. You have to actually put a robot in real homes with all their messy details.
But, how to do that safely? First they build a robot with low gear ratios, low weight, pinch points covered. So, if it literally falls on you it’s low risk.
Then they have humans teleoperating it in first-person VR with 1:1 hand control.
The more times humans do any particular task through the robot, the more the robot learns to do that task in real world situations.
It’s the most thoughtful plan for robotics I’ve seen yet by far.
Considering the slew of warehouse automation robotics companies I've watched fail, trying to do much simpler tasks in highly controlled environments where they can be surrounded only by trained individuals, "ambitious" would be an understatement.
I get what they're trying to do. I'm pointing out that it's probably an order of magnitude harder to do than many other things that have consistently failed. This is like Elmo coming along and saying The Boring Machine will replace cars and trains. It's a fundamental misunderstanding of the space and how to disrupt it while selling ambitious ideas under the guise of being clever.